Reclassify Transactions in QuickBooks

As an advocate of assessing the health of QuickBooks data files on a regular basis, I am thrilled that Intuit has taken the first step in making the process a little easier. There are features included in the Client Data Review (CDR) that only Intuit can provide to make the clean up process more efficient. The CDR includes the ability to add extensive notes, but these notes will not go to the client unless the Accountant provides them as a PDF.

The Reclassify Transactions tool allows you to find transactions that may have an incorrect account and reclassify them into the correct account. There are two panes in the Reclassify Transactions window. In the left pane, you specify the accounts to display and select an account; in the right pane, you specify the transactions to show and perform the reclassification.

Using this tool it is possible to choose either a specific P&L account on the left and then choose specific transactions on the right to change the account or class. Or, choose a specific name on the right for all accounts and then make the account or class change to the chosen transactions. This is a great way to quickly and easily clean up coding inconsistency; to split apart transactions that were merged together; or to subsequently assign a class if that feature was not used previously.

In QuickBooks Premier (or Enterprise Solutions) 2010: Accountant Edition choose Accountant from the menu bar at the top of the software, then Client Data Review > Account Balances > Reclassify Transactions. Note that most of the Client Data Review features are available under the Company pull down menu option in the Pro and non-Accountant Premier versions by using the External Accountant login.