I need to uncategorize items in order to start over. How do I do this

Hi there, @drstewart512.

Thank you for reaching out to the Community. I'd be glad to help you fix your books in QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

To begin, I recommend undoing the categorization of your direct deposit payments and matching the payments in QBO to prevent duplicates instead of categorizing the transactions.

In addition, I suggest reaching out to your accountant for additional guidance in uncategorizing items and before doing these steps.

Here are the steps on how to undo the categorized transactions and match them to avoid duplicates:

1. At the left navigation panel, select Transactions.
2. Go to Categorized and click Undo the direct deposit payments.
3. Go back to For review.
4. Look for the existing payments to match them and click Confirm.

You may also refer to this article to guide you in matching downloaded bank and credit transactions and to avoid duplicates: Match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

For future reference, here's an article that could help you understand reconciliation better: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know if you have further concerns about uncategorizing items or other QBO-related concerns. I’ll be right here with you