Why does QuickBooks Online show duplicate transactions, and how do I remove them?
Duplicate transactions in QuickBooks Online usually come down to a few common causes, like a double bank connection, a connected app such as Venmo or Square recording the same sale your bank feed also downloaded, or a transaction that got added instead of matched. Where you fix it depends on where it's showing up, so here's how to find it and remove it.
Step 1: Confirm the duplicate is in QuickBooks, not the bank
Log in to your bank's website and check your statement for the transaction. If it shows up once on your statement but twice in QuickBooks, it's a duplicate inside QuickBooks. If it's doubled on the statement too, the charge was actually processed twice, so check with your bank directly.
Step 2: Check for a double bank connection
- Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions.
- Confirm the affected account appears only once.
- If it's connected twice, disconnect the extra connection and make that account inactive in the chart of accounts.
Note: avoid disconnecting and reconnecting an account to try to fix duplicates. Reconnecting makes QuickBooks download past transactions again, which creates even more duplicates.
Step 3: Find and identify the duplicates
- Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Chart of accounts.
- Select View register next to the affected account.
- Use the Filter to set the date range, then sort by the Amount column so matching amounts line up.
Keep the version that's reconciled (marked with a C or R in the checkmark column), or the one that's matched to other records or has attachments. You can then safely remove the extra copy.
Step 4: Remove the duplicate
- If it's in the For review tab: go to Bank transactions, select For review, check the box for the extra copy, and select Exclude. Excluded the wrong one? Go to the Excluded tab and select Undo.
- If it was added from the bank feed: go to the Categorized tab, select the link in the Added or Matched column, select Undo, then match or exclude the transaction.
- If it was entered manually: go to Chart of accounts, select View register, find the duplicate, select More, then Delete.
Common causes to avoid going forward
- Match downloaded transactions to your existing records instead of adding them as new.
- If you take payments through Venmo, PayPal, Square, or another app, match the bank deposit to the app's entry instead of letting QuickBooks add it separately.
- When importing a CSV file, start the import date after the newest transaction already in QuickBooks.
- Connect each bank account only once.
- If you use recurring templates, run a Recurring Template List report to check for templates with the same payee and amount.