This usually happens because something changed on one of those transactions after you reconciled it, and that reset its status so it’s showing up again. It's not something you did wrong, and it's fixable.
The most common causes are:
- A reconciled transaction was edited, deleted, voided, or moved
- A transaction was manually marked as unreconciled
- A downloaded bank transaction was categorized, then sent back to pending
- A transaction dated before your last reconciliation was reconciled manually, outside the normal reconcile process
How to find and fix it
- Go to Settings, then Audit log. Filter by the account and the period since your last completed reconciliation. This shows you exactly which transactions were changed, when, and by whom.
- If you spot a change made in error, correct it. For a deleted or voided transaction, you'll usually need to re-enter it. For one that got unreconciled, you can re-check its status in the account register.
- To check or update a transaction's status directly, go to Accounting, then Chart of accounts, and select View register for the account. Look at the checkmark column: an R means it's reconciled. If it's blank, that transaction isn't currently marked as reconciled.
- Once everything lines up, reconcile the account again using the same ending date and ending balance as your last completed reconciliation. This confirms the fix and keeps your reconciliation history accurate.
To help keep this from happening again, avoid editing, deleting, or unreconciling transactions that fall inside a period you've already reconciled. If a correction is needed there, it's worth double-checking with your accountant first, since it can shift your beginning balance for the next reconciliation.
For the full walkthrough, see Fix beginning balance issues when reconciling in QuickBooks Online.
How matching works in the Banking section
When your bank account is connected, new transactions land in the Pending tab (sometimes called For review) before they're added to your books. From there, you'll do one of two things with each one:
- Categorize and add it if it's a new transaction. QuickBooks suggests a category, and you can accept it or change it, then select Add or Post.
- Match it if QuickBooks finds a transaction already in your books, like a bill payment or an invoice you already entered, that corresponds to the downloaded one. Review the match, then confirm it. This links the two instead of creating a duplicate.
Once you add or match a transaction, it's marked as cleared and moves off the Pending tab. Getting into the habit of reviewing this tab regularly is what keeps duplicate transactions from building up, which sounds like exactly what you ran into before switching to manual entry.
For the full steps, see Categorize online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.
Have more questions about reconciling or your bank feed? Just ask, we're happy to walk through it with you.
