How to See Unreconciled Transactions in QuickBooks Online

Finding unreconciled transactions in QuickBooks Online is a necessary task for anyone managing accurate financial records. These lingering items can skew your account balances, lead to incorrect financial statements, and complicate tax preparation. This guide provides three distinct methods to locate unreconciled transactions, so you can clean up your books and maintain precise financial control.

Why Unreconciled Transactions Are a Problem

Before we jump into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." An unreconciled transaction is simply an entry in your QuickBooks that has not been matched to a corresponding transaction on your bank or credit card statement. This mismatch is a red flag for several reasons:

• Inaccurate Cash Balances: If an unreconciled deposit is sitting in your books, your cash balance in QuickBooks will appear higher than it actually is. Conversely, an old, uncleared check will artificially lower your cash balance.
• Misleading Financial Reports: These inaccuracies flow directly to your Profit & Loss statement and Balance Sheet. A missed expense will overstate your net income, while a duplicate entry could understate it, giving you a false picture of your business's financial health.
• Tax and Audit Complications: Clean, reconciled books are the foundation of a defensible tax return. A large number of old, unreconciled items can signal poor bookkeeping practices to an auditor.
• Potential for Fraud: Regular reconciliations help you spot unauthorized transactions quickly. Transactions that remain unreconciled for long periods might mask fraudulent activity.

Pinpointing these entries is the first step toward correcting your records and relying on your financial data with confidence.

Method 1: Using Your Reconciliation History

The simplest way to start is by looking at what was left over from your last successful reconciliation. QuickBooks keeps a detailed report for every past reconciliation, which includes a list of all transactions that remained uncleared at that time. This method is excellent for understanding the state of your books as of your last statement date.

Here’s how to access this report:

1. Navigate to the gear icon on the top right, and under "Tools," select Reconcile. Alternatively, you can go to Accounting in the left-hand menu and choose Reconcile from the tabs at the top.
2. Instead of starting a new reconciliation, look for the link that says "History by account." Click it.
3. You'll see a list of all your past reconciliations. Locate the most recent completed one for the account you're working on and click "View report" in the Action column.
4. The report will open, showing a summary of the reconciliation. Scroll down past the "Cleared transactions" section.
5. At the very bottom, you will find a section titled "Uncleared transactions as of [Statement End Date]." This is your list of every transaction that was still pending when you finished your last reconciliation.

This list is your initial clean-up target. Review each item and determine why it hasn't cleared. Was it a check that was never cashed? A deposit that was incorrectly recorded? This report gives you a clear snapshot of outstanding items from the previous period.

Method 2: A Quick Look From the Chart of Accounts

If you just need a fast, unfiltered view of all unreconciled transactions in an account right now, you can go directly to the account register from your Chart of Accounts. This method is less formal than a report but very effective for a quick review.

1. Go to Accounting > Chart of Accounts from the left navigation menu.
2. Find the bank or credit card account you want to inspect and, in the "Action" column, click "View register."
3. The account register displays all transactions. Look for the column with a checkmark header. This is the reconciliation status column.
4. You will see one of three statuses for each transaction:
   • R: This transaction has been successfully Reconciled in a previous period.
   • C: This transaction has been manually Cleared, typically done mid-month while working with bank feeds. It has been seen in the bank account but not yet part of a formal reconciliation.
   • Blank: A blank status means the transaction is open and completely unreconciled.
5. To easily find the unreconciled items, click the funnel icon to filter the list. In the "Reconcile status" dropdown, select "Not reconciled" and hit "Apply."

The register will now only show you the transactions with a blank status. This is the fastest method to get a raw list of everything that needs your attention in a specific account.

Method 3: The Best Way—A Custom Transaction Detail Report

For the most powerful and flexible approach, creating a custom report is unbeatable. This method allows you to filter transactions across specific date ranges, accounts, and types, making it the preferred choice for most accounting professionals. You can get an exact view of the items you need to investigate.

Here is a step-by-step process for building this report in QuickBooks Online:

1. From the left-hand menu, navigate to Reports.
2. In the search bar at the top of the Reports screen, type "Transaction Detail by Account." This is one of the most useful reports in QuickBooks for accountants. Click on it to open.
3. The default report might show a small date range like "This Month-to-date." The first and most important step is to set the proper Report period. For a thorough clean-up, select "All Dates." This ensures you don't miss old, forgotten transactions from prior years.
4. Click the "Customize" button, typically located in the top-right corner. This will open the report customization menu.
5. In the customization menu, scroll down until you see the "Filter" section. This is where the magic happens.
6. Look for the filter option named "Cleared." This is the QuickBooks term for reconciliation status. Click on it.
7. From the dropdown menu, select "Uncleared."
8. Click the "Run report" button.

The screen now displays a clean, detailed list of every single transaction across all your accounts (or specific ones if you also filtered by account) that has not been reconciled. You can now save this customization for future use, export it to Excel for further analysis, or use it directly to investigate each item one by one.

Investigating and Correcting Common Issues

Once you have your list of unreconciled transactions, the next step is to figure out *why* they are there and fix them. Here are the most common culprits:

• Duplicate Entries: This often happens when a transaction is manually entered and later downloaded again through a bank feed without being properly matched. Find the duplicate, decide which one is correct (usually the one from the bank feed), and delete the other.
• Old, Uncashed Checks: A check you wrote to a vendor two years ago that was never cashed is a classic example. After a certain period, you may need to void the check and potentially reissue it, or work with your state's unclaimed property division. The key is to address it, not let it sit in your books forever.
• Incorrect Amounts or Dates: A simple typo can prevent a transaction from matching its bank counterpart. Edit the transaction in QuickBooks to match the bank statement exactly.
• Transactions Entered into the Wrong Account: A payment was drawn from your checking account, but it was mistakenly recorded as coming from your savings account in QuickBooks. This transaction will never clear in the checking account reconciliation because QuickBooks is looking in the wrong place. Edit the transaction to assign it to the correct source account.
• Bank Feed Errors: Occasionally, transactions come through the bank feed but are added without being properly categorized or matched to an existing manual entry. These can create duplicates or uncategorized expenses that need to be resolved.

Final Thoughts

Mastering these methods for finding unreconciled transactions transforms your reconciliation process from a month-end headache into a routine "health check." Using these reports and register views moves you from simply reacting to discrepancies to proactively ensuring your financial data is always accurate, reliable, and ready for analysis.

Once your books are clean and reconciled, the real advisory work of interpreting the financial story and planning for the future can begin. For those deep dives into R&D tax credits, S-Corp reasonable compensation, or multi-state nexus questions that come next, we built Feather AI. Ask a complex tax question in plain English and get an immediate, audit-ready answer backed by IRC and IRS guidance, so you can spend less time searching and more time advising.