How do I export the Trial Balance from QuickBooks Online?
- Go to Reports, then Standard reports, then search for Trial Balance and select it.
- Pick the date you want to check, such as the last day of last month, and run the report.
- Select Export/Print, then Export to Excel.
- Open the file. If Excel shows protected view, select Enable Editing.
- Save it as a CSV file and drop that file into the checker.
A Balance Sheet export works too. It leaves out income and expense accounts, so Uncategorized Income and Uncategorized Expense won’t show.
What does each red flag mean?
- Undeposited Funds: customer payments recorded but not yet added to a bank deposit.
- Opening Balance Equity: the default account for opening balance adjustments. Intuit’s opening balance guide says a leftover balance should go to other equity accounts or retained earnings, with your accountant.
- Uncategorized Income and Expense: money earned or spent that still needs a category.
- Uncategorized Asset: an asset that couldn’t be matched to an account.
- Ask My Accountant: a holding account for items to ask your accountant about.
- Reconciliation Discrepancies: created when a reconciliation finished with transactions that didn’t match.
A CPA quoted in an Intuit tax-time article says holding accounts should carry no balance. Any balance should be researched and moved to a real account.
How does it read the file?
It skips the company name and date rows above the table, reads quoted amounts with dollar signs, commas or parentheses, and ignores blank rows, the TOTAL row and the footer.
Account numbers in front of names are ignored, so “1499 Undeposited Funds” still matches. On a Trial Balance, each account’s balance is its debit minus its credit.
If a Balance Sheet compares periods, pick which column to check.
What should I check before clearing a balance?
- Is the deposit already in the bank register? Match old payments to deposits already recorded before adding anything. A second deposit for the same money counts it twice.
- Is the year closed? Changing transactions in a year you already filed taxes for changes the numbers on that return. Ask your accountant first.
- Who signs off on equity? Moving Opening Balance Equity is an entry for your accountant.
Clear Undeposited Funds with + Create > Bank Deposit: pick the bank account, check the box for each payment in one deposit on your statement, and make sure the total matches. For long lists of uncategorized expenses, the batch reclassify checker for QuickBooks Online helps, and the duplicate transaction finder catches payments entered twice. More cleanup work is on our cleanups and bulk changes page.
Questions
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. Your browser reads the file and the checks run on your computer. Close the tab and it is gone.
What does “Not in this file” mean?
No account with that name is in the export. Check Settings > Chart of accounts in case it was renamed.
Does it change anything in QuickBooks?
No. It gives you a cleanup list. You or your bookkeeper make each change in QuickBooks Online.
Why do Undeposited Funds and Payments to Deposit show as one line?
The account can be renamed, so the checker reads both names. If your file has both, it adds them and lists each one.
Sources
- Manage default and special accounts in your QuickBooks Online chart of accounts, Intuit QuickBooks,
- Deposit payments into the Undeposited Funds account in QuickBooks Online, Intuit QuickBooks,
- Record and make bank deposits in QuickBooks Online, Intuit QuickBooks,
- Export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online, Intuit QuickBooks,
- Enter opening balances for accounts in QuickBooks Desktop, Intuit QuickBooks,
- Accounting experts: 5 signs your books aren’t ready for taxes, Intuit QuickBooks,
