Merging bank accounts is always a tricky in QuickBooks.  Especially if one is reconciled.  If you have accidentally entered a bank account twice, the video below will demonstrate the steps.  Be careful as the account you merge will become deleted.  The transactions in that bank account will flow to the other account.   If they are duplicates, you may have to delete them.  In the video I also demonstrate a quick way of deleting transactions.   It may be smarter (especially if you have a handful of transactions) to just delete them and then delete the account.

Merging Bank Accounts:  First locate the duplicate account

• Click accounting>chart of accounts to go to your account listing.
• Review your assets — bank accounts.  Do you see the duplication?
• Open each account.  Which one is reconciled? Determine that first.
• The bank account (and really any duplicate account in QuickBooks) that you should merge is the one that you no longer want.
• But very important, make sure it is NOT the reconciled one.  Rename the extra one to the reconciled name.

Merging Bank Accounts:  The steps…

When you have two similar bank accounts and want to combine them into a single account, you can follow the steps below. Please keep in mind that the merging process is not reversible and cannot be undone.

1. Click the Gear icon located in the upper-right hand corner, and click Chart of Accounts.
2. In the Action column, select Edit for the account you are keeping.
3. Copy the Name EXACTLY (I used copy/paste of the one to merge to) make note of the Detail Type and if the sub-account is marked, make note of the parent account it is associated with.
4. Click Cancel to return to the Chart of Accounts.
5. Go to the account whose name you don’t want to use and click Edit in the Action column.
6. Paste in the Name and make sure the Detail Type matches the account with which you’re merging.
7. If these are sub-accounts, make sure they are associated with the same parent. If only one is a sub-account, make it a parent account by deselecting the Is Sub-account option.
8. Click Save.
9. Click Yes to confirm that you want to merge the two accounts.

Quickest way to delete unwanted transactions….

From your register screen.  Less clicks, just one to grab the transactions, then click delete.  If you decide to just delete them from the unwanted bank account, you can do it simply with just two clicks.  This is the easiest way to remove the unneeded bank account. The final step is to just delete the bank account once the transactions have been removed.  To delete the account, click the account from the register, click the words “use register”.  Then click delete.  Remember when you delete, its the internet, it is there, just hidden from the list.

Protect yourself….

Again, just like I mentioned in this post, back up your data before proceeding.  I recommend Chronobooks.  Great, inexpensive, easy program.  Here is a quick link to their site to sign up.  Backing up your QBO file BEFORE you merge.  Then if it doesn’t come out the way you thought it would, you can restore back to a time prior to the merge.

If you have any questions or would like to see a future video on another topic, please reach out to me on Facebook.