How to Disconnect a Bank Account from QuickBooks

Disconnecting a bank account from QuickBooks is a simple process, but understanding what happens to your data before you click that final button is important. This guide will walk you through the exact steps for both QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop, explain what to do after you disconnect an account, and cover the key considerations to keep in mind. We’ll show you how to properly sever the link to your bank while keeping your financial records clean and accurate.

Before You Disconnect: What You Need to Know

Before you remove a bank feed, it helps to understand a few things about how QuickBooks handles the process. Taking a moment to review this information ensures you won't encounter any surprises, and it helps preserve the integrity of your accounting data. Think of it as a quick pre-flight check before taking off.

• Your Existing Data is Safe: Disconnecting a bank or credit card account only stops QuickBooks from importing new transactions. Any transactions that have already been downloaded, categorized, and reconciled will remain in your company file. You will not lose any historical data simply by removing the bank feed.
• Timing Matters: The best time to disconnect an account is right after you have completed your most recent bank reconciliation. This creates a clean cut-off point. After you disconnect, you’ll no longer be able to automatically match downloaded transactions for that reconciliation period, so it’s best to have everything tidied up beforehand.
• Bank Rules are Preserved: If you've set up bank rules to automatically categorize transactions from that account, those rules will remain in QuickBooks. If you reconnect the account later, or connect a different account from the same bank, those rules will still be available for you to use.
• Reconnecting is Possible: If you disconnect an account by mistake or need to re-establish the connection later, you can. You’ll just go through the initial setup process again to link the bank feed to the correct account in your Chart of Accounts.

There are several common reasons for disconnecting a bank account. You might have permanently closed the bank account, you could be switching to a new account at the same or a different bank, or you could be troubleshooting persistent syncing errors that can only be resolved by resetting the connection. Whatever the reason, the process is fully reversible and won't harm your existing records.

How to Disconnect a Bank Account in QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online centralizes bank feed management in its "Transactions" section, making this a very straightforward task. Follow these steps carefully to ensure the account is unlinked correctly.

Step 1: Navigate to the Bank Transactions Screen

Start by signing into your QuickBooks Online account. On the left-hand navigation menu, select Bookkeeping, then choose Transactions. If your menu looks slightly different, you may see this listed as Banking and then Bank transactions. Both paths will take you to the same place: a dashboard showing all of the bank and credit card accounts you have linked to QuickBooks.

Step 2: Select the Account You Want to Disconnect

On the Bank Transactions screen, you will see a series of rectangular "cards" or "tiles" at the top, one for each connected account. Find the card for the bank account you wish to disconnect and click on it. This will make it the active account, showing you the transactions list for that specific bank account below.

Step 3: Access the Account-Specific Settings

After selecting the correct account, look at the top right of that specific bank account card. You will see a button that says Link account and, right next to it, a small pencil icon. Click this pencil icon (✎) to edit the account's settings.

Step 4: Open the Account Information Panel

Clicking the pencil icon will bring up a pop-up window or a sidebar on the right side of your screen labeled "Edit account." This is where you can change the name of the account as it appears in QuickBooks and handle the bank feed connection itself.

Step 5: Check the "Disconnect this account on save" Box

This is the most important step. Inside the "Edit account" panel, you will see the name of the bank and the account details. At the very bottom of this panel, there is a checkbox labeled "Disconnect this account on save." Check this box. A small warning message may appear, reminding you that this action will stop future transactions from downloading. This is exactly what you want to do.

Step 6: Save Your Changes

Once you have checked the "Disconnect" box, click the green "Save" or "Save and Close" button. QuickBooks will process for a moment and then confirm that the account has been disconnected. The account tile will be moved from the main active section down to the "Disconnected" or "Needs attention" section of the Bank Transactions screen. The feed is now severed, and no new transaction data will be imported.

How to Disconnect a Bank Account in QuickBooks Desktop

The process is a bit different for users of QuickBooks Desktop because bank feeds are managed directly from the Chart of Accounts. The tell-tale sign that an account is connected for online banking is a small blue lightning bolt icon (⚡) next to the account name.

Step 1: Open Your Chart of Accounts

First, open your company file in QuickBooks Desktop. To access your Chart of Accounts, you can either click on the "Chart of Accounts" icon on the home screen, select "Lists" > "Chart of Accounts" from the top menu bar, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A. This will display a full list of every asset, liability, equity, income, and expense account for your business.

Step 2: Locate and Edit the Account

Scroll through your Chart of Accounts to find the bank account you want to disconnect. Remember, it should have a lightning bolt icon next to it. Once you find it, right-click on the account name. A context menu will appear. From this menu, select "Edit Account."

Step 3: Go to the Bank Feed Settings Tab

The "Edit Account" window will open. This window has several tabs across the top. Click on the tab labeled "Bank Feed Settings" or, on some older versions, it might be called "Online Services." This tab controls anything related to the connection between that specific account and your financial institution.

Step 4: Deactivate All Online Services

On the Bank Feed Settings tab, you will see the connection details for your bank. There will be a prominently displayed button labeled "Deactivate All Online Services." Click this button. It is the primary action for severing the link to the bank's servers for transaction downloads and direct payments.

Step 5: Confirm Your Decision

After clicking the deactivate button, a confirmation pop-up window will appear. QuickBooks will ask you to confirm that you really want to turn off bank feeds for the account. Review the message to ensure you've selected the correct account, then click "OK" to proceed. Once confirmed, you’ll be returned to the Edit Account window.

Step 6: Save and Close

Click "Save & Close" at the bottom of the Edit Account window to finalize the change. Back in your Chart of Accounts, you will notice that the lightning bolt icon next to the account name has disappeared. This visually confirms that the direct bank connection has been successfully removed.

What to Do After Disconnecting an Account

Simply disconnecting the bank feed is often just the first step. If the underlying bank account was permanently closed, there are additional housekeeping tasks you should perform in a timely manner to keep your Chart of Accounts accurate and uncluttered.

1. Reconcile Any Remaining Transactions

If you didn't do so before disconnecting, make sure the account is fully reconciled up to the date it was closed or the last transaction date. Since you can no longer rely on the bank feed, you may need your final bank statement to manually clear any pending checks or deposits in your QuickBooks register and complete one last full reconciliation.

2. Make the Account Inactive

Disconnecting the feed does not remove the account from your Chart of Accounts. If the bank account itself is closed and has a zero balance, you should make it "inactive." This hides it from most lists and reports, preventing you or your team from accidentally posting new transactions to a closed account. This keeps your Chart of Accounts clean and focused only on active accounts.

To do this:

• Go back to the Chart of Accounts.
• Right-click the account you disconnected.
• Select "Make Account Inactive" from the menu.

The account will disappear from the primary list. You can view inactive accounts at any time by checking the "Include Inactive" box at the bottom of the Chart of Accounts window.

Final Thoughts

Disconnecting a bank account in QuickBooks, whether on the Online or Desktop platform, gives you full control over your financial data links. By following these steps, you can confidently manage which accounts are actively syncing, troubleshoot issues, or update your setup when you switch banks, all without losing your valuable historical information.

While procedural tasks like this are a common part of bookkeeping, the business decisions behind a change—like closing accounts because of a shift in entity structure—can have significant tax consequences. When you’re wrestling with the tax implications of these deeper changes, you need answers you can trust. Our AI-powered research tool, Feather AI, provides busy professionals with instant, citation-backed responses directly from authoritative sources like the IRC and IRS guidance, helping you build a defensible position for any strategic move you make.