Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images
ZDNET's key takeaways
QuickBooks hides reconciliation undo features from normal users.
Reversing old reconciliations requires undoing them in sequence.
Switching into Accountant mode unlocks the secret "Undo" option.
Get more in-depth ZDNET tech coverage: Add us as a preferred Google source on Chrome and Chromium browsers.
Regardless of the size of your company, one of the most important accounting tasks you can do is a regular reconciliation. This is essentially company-speak for balancing your checkbook.
When you reconcile, you compare the records in your own bookkeeping system with the records from a bank or credit card. Essentially, you're going down a list item by item, and making sure there are no missing, duplicate, or extraneous items. This helps you keep your records on track, identify any incorrect charges, and make sure that you know exactly where you stand.
Using QuickBooks Online, the process of reconciliation is fairly simple, if a bit tedious. The process of reversing a reconciliation to correct an error is not quite as easy.
Also: The best budgeting apps of 2025
In this article, I'm going to walk you through a time-saving hack that's kind of a cheat code for this situation.
My wife and I have been using QuickBooks Online pretty much daily for just about 20 years to manage our small business. We are not accountants, however. I'll show you some of the tricks we've picked up over the years, but if you're in any doubt at all, check with your accountant.
What not to do
This is a typical bank register page in QuickBooks Online. Everything is redacted because I'm actually using my company's real QBO account to show you this process.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Note the two green arrows: one points to a C and one points to an R. The C items are considered "cleared," meaning they've been checked into QuickBooks, usually when we update the account via a network connection to a banking institution.
The R items are those that have been reconciled in a monthly reconciliation pass. Usually, when there's an error in a reconciliation, one or more of those Rs are in the wrong place or a wrong state.
Do not -- do not, do not, DO NOT -- be tempted to fiddle directly with the Cs and Rs to correct a reconciliation. The only result will be chaos and madness.
Also: 5 ways AI can help you do your taxes - and 10 tax tasks you shouldn't trust it with
Don't ask me how I know(!), but keep in mind I've been using this tool for a very long time.
Know your reconciliation history
To get started cleaning up an old reconciliation, go up to the gear menu and choose Reconcile from under the Tools category.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
QuickBooks may present some information screens before you get to the reconcile page. Once you're there, click on History by Account.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Keep in mind that reconciliation takes place on an account-by-account basis, so choose the account where your error lives.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Here you can see our reconciliation history for 2025. As you can see, the statement dates track with the end of each month, but some of our reconciliations take a little longer to get done.
What I want you to notice is that there are individual reconciliations going back to 2024 in this screenshot, and far further back in reality. Your QBO account reconciliation history will likely be similar.
Now, this is important. If you just want to fix the 6/30 statement, which was reconciled on 7/31, you would just reverse that one reconciliation. But if you need to fix the 1/31 statement, which was reconciled on 3/2, you would first have to reverse the reconciliations for the 6/30, 5/31, 4/30, 3/31, and 2/28 statements. Only then could you reverse the 1/31 statement reconciliation.
Then, once all of those have been reversed, then (and only then) can you go back and re-reconcile all those accounts.
Also: Have stock questions? Google Finance tests new AI chatbo
And yes, I know I haven't yet told you how to reverse a reconciliation. It's important to get an idea of the scope of the project before you hack away at your bookkeeping records without pre-planning your course of action.
You can't get there from here (but you will)
The obvious place from which to reverse a reconciliation would be from this reconciliation History by Account page. You might imagine that you could go to that drop-down menu under Action and select something to make everything all better.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
But you can't. The only option under Action is Print Report. If you choose Print Report, there's nothing inside there that will allow you to undo a reconciliation either.
The fact is, if you're a business owner using QuickBooks Online, you cannot undo a reconciliation. That doesn't mean it can't be done, just that Intuit would prefer that those of us who are untrained in the arcane dark arts of accounting should not dabble in forces we may not understand.
But you and I didn't get to the point where we're business owners without having the motivation and ability to get our own way. I'll show you how. But first, let's talk about doing it the best practices way.
Ask your accountant
Technically, the right way to do this is to turn to your accountant. QuickBooks has a way of allowing properly trained accounting professionals into your QuickBooks account (with your approval, of course), and letting them undo the reconciliation.
That way, they can manage all the possible ramifications of taking such an action. After all, if you got yourself into this trouble, who's to say you can be trusted to get yourself out of it?
You want to know a secret? In all my years in business, I've learned that just about the only one who will help me get out of trouble I've caused myself is me. If you're reading this and didn't just go running to your accountant the minute you screwed up your reconcile, I know you identify.
Also: These CFOs are devoting 25% of their AI budgets to agentic AI
So let's fix things. Congratulations! You're about to become an accountant.
Setting up an accountant account
We're going to do this in a two-step process. First, I'll show you how to set yourself up as your own accountant. Then I'll show you the superpower you get once you log in as an accountant.
Go back up to the gear icon and this time select Manage Users.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
You'll be brought into your company's user management page. We have two users. The thing you want to do, though, is click on Accounting Firms. Do that now.
Also: Anthropic's Claude dives into financial analysis. Here's what's new
We have already created our own fictitious accounting firm. Your page will probably be empty, unless you previously invited an accounting firm into your QuickBooks Online account. Go ahead and click Invite.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
You'll need a unique name, email address, and company name. Make sure that email address is one that actually gets email, since you'll need to use it to confirm the invitation.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Once you get the email, follow the directions and set up your account. Make sure you set up all the security protections QBO offers. Remember that this is an account that will have full access to your business records, but one that you'll be using fairly rarely. You want it to be secure.
You'll need to log out of QuickBooks Online using your business owner identity so you can set up your accountant account.
Also: Google's new Search tool turns financial info into interactive charts - how to try it
Once that's done, you'll be able to log in as either the business owner or the accountant. Go ahead and log in as the accountant. You'll see something like this display.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
This is an interface for an accountant who might have multiple clients. Since we're our own only accounting client, there's just one. The big thing to notice is that instead of saying QuickBooks Online in the upper left corner, it now says Accountant.
Make sure you see this before moving on to undo the reconciliation. Now, it's time to use your new accountant superpowers to remove that reconciliation.
What not to do (part 2)
If you're like me, you'll go back up to the gear menu, select Reconcile from under Tools, and then click on History by Account. You've done all this before.
You'll dutifully click on the drop-down and see none of your accounts. There are no reconciliations or anything else of much use.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
I'm showing you this because once you get here, it's a bit baffling. What happened to those reconciliations? Now that you've seen this problem, you'll know you're not lost. You're just not in the right place.
How to undo that reconciliation
Go to the very top of your screen. Make sure you're in Accountant mode (by seeing Accountant in the corner). Now, see where it says "Go to QuickBooks"?
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Click it. You'll see a list of all clients. Remember that we're in Accountant mode, where QuickBooks thinks you're probably servicing a bunch of accounting clients. So you need to tell QBO which client's records you're working on. Click the name of your company in the All Clients list.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Let me be clear. This is not intuitively obvious. Instead of saying "Go to QuickBooks," that menu should say "Choose Client". But it doesn't. It's a secret path reserved solely for accountants to know. It's taught in the fourth week of ACC 534 Accounting Information Systems, right after you learn the secret bean counter handshake. Feh.
Also: How AI can help you manage your finances (and what to watch out for)
In any case, now you know. Once you select the company, QuickBooks will tell you "Switching Companies" and then put you into what appears to be your company's accounting ledger, except this time you really will have those accountant superpowers.
Now go back up to the gear menu, select Reconcile from under Tools, and then click on History by Account. You've done this before, but this time you'll see your accounts. Choose the account you want to unreconcile.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Notice (at 1) that Accountant is no longer shown in the upper left corner. You're still in Accountant mode, but QuickBooks inexplicably doesn't want to tell you that anymore.
But here's the reason you've been reading this whole article. Now, under View Report, there's an Undo option (at 2). This is what you want. Choose it.
QuickBooks Online will show you the following warning. It's well worth reading.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Specifically, the warning message tells you what's going to happen to your records. It will:
Delete the reconciliation report
Delete any service or finance charges, interest, and balance adjustments that were entered during reconciliation
Revert all the statement's transactions from reconciled to cleared or uncleared status
Revert the beginning balance back to the previous beginning balance
In other words, you're about to climb into a one-way-only time machine. Anything you did as part of the reconciliation, including fixing accounting data, will be undone.
But this is what you want. Go ahead and click Yes. As I recall, there's another warning after this one that double-checks if you want to undo the reconcile. Since I'm seizing screenshots using my live company account, I'm not going to click on Yes.
Also: The best tax software of 2025
You should just follow the prompts and confirm any "are you sure?" questions. Once you do so, you'll be done. Your reconciliation will be undone.
And there you go. Make sure you log out of Accountant mode and log back in using your regular QuickBooks Online user ID. Go ahead and redo that reconciliation, but get it right this time, okay?
Have you ever had to undo a reconciliation in QuickBooks Online? Did you try to fix it yourself, or did you turn to an accountant? What challenges did you run into when reversing reconciliations, and do you think Intuit should make the process more straightforward for business owners? Let us know in the comments below.
You can follow my day-to-day project updates on social media. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly update newsletter, and follow me on Twitter/X at @DavidGewirtz, on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz, on Instagram at Instagram.com/DavidGewirtz, on Bluesky at @DavidGewirtz.com, and on YouTube at YouTube.com/DavidGewirtzTV.