To unmatch a transaction in QuickBooks Online, open Bank transactions, select the account, go to the Categorized tab, select the Matched link on the bank line and choose Undo. The bank line returns to For review, and the entry it was matched to stays in your books, free to be matched correctly or left alone.
What does unmatching a transaction change in QuickBooks Online?
Unmatching a transaction breaks the link between a bank line and the entry QuickBooks paired it with. The bank line goes back to For review, also labelled Pending. The entry you already had, such as an invoice payment, a bill payment or a check you typed, stays in the register. Nothing is deleted.
A match is different from an add. When you add a bank line, QuickBooks creates a new entry from it. When you match, QuickBooks says "this bank line is the same money as an entry you already recorded" and marks that entry as cleared by the bank. A wrong match therefore causes two problems at once: one entry is marked as cleared when it should not be, and the real counterpart of the bank line sits uncleared somewhere else.
Unmatching fixes the first problem and sets up the second. The bank line is back on the list, ready to be paired with the right entry.
Unmatch steps for a matched bank line on the Categorized tab
The Categorized tab, sometimes labelled Posted, holds every bank line already added or matched for the selected account. The unmatch control is the link in the Added or Matched column. Selecting it opens the match, and Undo reverses it. Intuit's page on fixing duplicate transactions in QuickBooks Online describes this exact path.
- Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions.
- Select the tile for the account the bank line belongs to.
- Open the Categorized tab (or Posted).
- Find the line. Searching by amount is usually fastest.
- Select the Matched link in the Added or Matched column.
- Select Undo.
A worked example
Here is an example of a wrong match. The customer names and amounts are made up.
| Example detail | |
|---|---|
| Bank line | 06/12, MOBILE DEPOSIT, 750.00 |
| Wrong match | Payment from Harbor Dental for invoice 1041, 750.00, dated 06/03 |
| Right match | Payment from Lakeside Gym for invoice 1047, 750.00, dated 06/11 |
Both payments were 750.00, so QuickBooks suggested the wrong one and it was accepted. After the undo, the 06/12 bank line is back in For review, and the Harbor Dental payment is uncleared and waiting for its own bank line.
If you are fixing many lines from one bad upload rather than one wrong match, undoing a bank upload in QuickBooks Online covers clearing the whole file.
Matching the bank line again with Find match
Find match is the option on a For review line that lets you pick the entry yourself instead of taking the suggestion. Open the bank line, select Find match, filter the list by amount or customer, tick the right entry and save. The bank line moves to the Categorized tab, matched to that entry.
For the example above:
- In For review, open the 06/12 MOBILE DEPOSIT line.
- Select Find match.
- Narrow the list to 750.00 and look for the Lakeside Gym payment.
- Tick it and confirm the match.
Later, when the bank line for the Harbor Dental money arrives, match it to the Harbor Dental payment the same way. Two equal amounts in the same fortnight are the classic setup for a wrong match, so slow down whenever you see one.
Can you unmatch a transaction that is already reconciled?
You can unmatch a reconciled transaction, but it changes a balance your past reconciliation relied on. Intuit's article on fixing accounts you reconciled in the past lists unreconciled transactions among the causes of a beginning balance that is off, and notes that an undone bank feed line goes back to Pending.
In practice that means reconciling the period again after you rematch. The same article says the primary admin or an accountant can undo a reconciliation from the History by account screen if a cleaner restart is needed. When the wrong match sits in a reconciled month, the safer fix is often to swap the two matches in one sitting and reconcile once, rather than leave the period half-fixed.
Xero users meet the same idea under a different name. Xero calls it unreconciling, and a bad import there can leave the statement balance off; fixing a Xero statement balance that is wrong after an import covers that side.
Sales receipt and deposit matches that need an unmatch
The wrong matches that come up most after an upload are deposits matched to the wrong sales receipt or invoice payment of the same amount, and card payments matched to a transfer that was meant for another month. Both look right at a glance, because the amount is identical.
Two habits cut down on them:
- Record sales receipts with the date the money will reach the bank, not just the sale date, so QuickBooks suggests the nearest match. Uploading sales receipts to QuickBooks Online covers getting those entries in before the bank lines arrive.
- Check the date gap on every suggested match. A suggestion more than a week away from the bank date deserves a second look.
Cleaner upload files help as well. SimpleBankConvert is being built to turn a PDF statement into a file with every date in one format, so a bank line carries the right day and QuickBooks has less reason to reach for an entry from another week. See how it works.