Downloaded Transactions Missing

by Ken Bowerman
(Calistoga, Calif)

After filing my 2007 Federal Income Tax return, I became aware of a possible problem with my downloaded transactions.

Sure enough, the bank that I use (B of A Master Card) has been having troubles with transaction downloads. I have just started to find the transactions which were not downloaded. This is a BAD problem.

Somehow I have to find which (of thousands) of transactions were and were not downloaded. Also, finding a QuickBooks expert from that bank is very difficult. Help!

Jennifer replies:

Hi Ken,

The best way to find out if downloaded transactions are missing or duplicated is to reconcile your credit card accounts in QuickBooks exactly as you would for a checking account. Go back to the beginning of when you started using this account. Have all of your credit card statements in front of you, and reconcile them month by month.

Here are some instructions I wrote for reconciling accounts in QuickBooks:

http://www.jenniferthieme.com/reconcile-statements.html

Based on your post, it sounds like you will need to enter transactions manually during this process in order to reconcile. You might also find some duplicate transactions; these should get deleted.

Two Important Warnings:

1. Doing this will alter your 2007 QuickBooks data, and you will need to amend your 2007 tax returns.

2. Be careful about making any changes into 2006.... if you do, you may need to amend that year too.

Let me know if you want some help with this.