How to Fix an Unbalanced Balance Sheet in QuickBooks
Published 09/30/2011 | 
First try Rebuilding the file (File > Utilities > Rebuild Data). If you’re lucky, that’s all you’ll need.
If that doesn’t fix it, try searching for the amount you’re off. If there’s just one transaction causing the problem, this is usually the easiest way to find it.
If there are more than one causing the problem, you’ll need to do more research. Start by pulling a Balance Sheet report for All Dates and then select Month for Columns. Find the first month that it doesn’t balance, then change the dates to that month and select Day for Columns to find out what day doesn’t balance.
Then create a Custom Transaction Detail report for that day. If you Total the report by Account, it might be easier to identify the problem. Once you find the corrupted transactions, delete and re-enter them.
This article is provided for informational purposes and is not intended to be construed as legal, accounting, or other professional advice. For further information, please consult appropriate professional advice from your attorney and certified public accountant.
Written by +Ruth Perryman, CMA, CFE, CFM, MBA
Ruth is the president of The QB Specialists, an Intuit Premier Reseller that offers huge savings and expert advice on QuickBooks POS and QuickBooks Enterprise. She is an Advanced Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor and a member of Intuit’s Trainer/Writer Network. She is also certified in QuickBooks POS and QuickBooks Enterprise and has provided expert QuickBooks help to thousands of businesses all over the world since 1996.
Web Store | Price List | Free Trials | Newsletter
Greetings,
Pls i have a problem on Quickbooks 2011 in one of my organization the account is not balance how to do i delete the added transaction that make it not to balance? i delete the a transaction but i still see it on the report how do i remove from showing on the all report? pls
Hi Lawal,
To delete a transaction, you need to open it and then go to Edit > Delete.
Ruth
Thank You’re a star, worked like a charm, all fixed now
There condensed journals are not in balance. When I restore a prior data file I observe that transactions are missing in the current file. I can’t go back to the old file as too much data has been entered since then. I believe the error has to do with a Quickbooks Upgrade. Can upgrades be reversed?
Unfortunately, QuickBooks is not backwards compatible, meaning you can’t open a file in an earlier year. For instance, QuickBooks 2011 can only be opened with 2011 and 2012 and once it’s opened in 2012 it can only be opened in 2012 and future versions.
However, upgrades do not make transactions disappear. This probably means you restored an old backup instead of the most current one when you upgraded. You’ll need to compare the backup you restored with the most current backup that you should’ve restored to find out what’s missing. If a lot are missing, you might want to use Karl Irvin’s Data Transfer Utility to move the transactions from the old file to the new.
You also mention “condensed” journals. What do you mean by that? Did you have the file condensed? If so, it’s possible the condensing journal entries are incorrect. In this case, just compare the trial balances in the condensed years to see which ones are incorrect and correct them.