If you are looking for some direct way How to recover deleted transactions in QuickBooks then we are very sorry to say, that there is no way possible.
If you have accidentally deleted transactions from your QuickBooks accounts then you cannot directly recover it as it is. Though there is a way out. If you have deleted or altered the entry by mistake then you can recover the details of an entry through the way of the audit log. But if there is any kind of data loss then if possible, the entries can be recovered through file backup.
Audit log on How to Recover Deleted Transactions in QuickBooks Desktop
As already said, once the entry has been deleted you cannot undo it, but you can make use of the Audit log to work your way out.
How to use Audit Log to Recover Lost Info?
- Login to your QuickBooks dashboard and click on the settings tab.
- From the drop-down menu, click on the audit trail option.
- What this does is maintains a record of every entry that is added, deleted, or edited.
- If you don’t know how to run an audit trail in QuickBooks and what it does then click on the link provided.
- Now choose the filters tab and sort the data by date and the activity type.
- This will help you narrow down your data.
- Choose the date range you presume the transaction was deleted in.
- If you have no idea about the dates then you can even generate a report by a week or a particular month.
- When the dates are set, click on the refresh tab and all the entries will be displayed.
- Select OK from the dialogue box that now appears.
- From the window, navigate to the deleted transaction.
- Thus if you have an entry from last year, edited yesterday then it will show up at the top.
- Since you will be having whole loads of data within your QuickBooks audit log, thus do Ctrl + F and type in the delete.
- This will help you navigate to the location where deleted entry will be located.
- From the history section of the current window, click on the view tab.
- You will now be able to see everything related to that transaction, like the date it was created, added by, and all the edits are done for that entry.
- This will be enough info, for you to recreate your transaction. Note down all the info. on a piece of paper.
- Re-enter your transaction in the same fashion within QuickBooks and you will be all sorted.
- If you had a bill that was deleted by mistake and you would now need to recreate the bill.
- In case of an invoice, recreate the invoice and you will be all set with all the changes saved.
If you have followed the above sequence above as it is, then you are sure to figure out how to recover deleted transactions in QuickBooks.
How to Recover Deleted Transactions in QuickBooks Online
Restoring a deleted transaction in QuickBooks Online is a pretty straightforward process for any user who is trying to do the same.
The user would only have to know how a transaction was deleted
Any transaction deleted accidentally by the user can easily be restored as long as the information about how the transaction got deleted in the first place is known.
The user might be trying to conduct a clean-up of junk data, which sometimes may contain transactions important to the user. Another reason why the user might want to restore a transaction deleted by them on purpose is that the user might be trying to boost the performance of QuickBooks Online.
The user will just have to follow these steps to recover any deleted transaction.
- First, the user needs to navigate to ‘Reports’, which can be found in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
- In the ‘Reports’ menu, the user will have to select the ‘Accountants and Taxes’ option.
- A side menu will open when the user selects the ‘Accountants and Taxes’ option, and, at this point, the user needs to select ‘Audit Trail’ from the side menu.
- When they select the ‘Audit Trail’ option, they will be able to see all of their transactions that were entered, altered, or deleted, being captured by QuickBooks.
- This is a great feature as it helps in preventing fraudulent issues by recording the date, time, and name of the user who deleted or modified the transaction.
- Now, the user will have to set a date range for the transaction they want to recover.
- The date range signifies when the user believes the transaction was deleted or modified.
- They can do so by selecting the ‘From’ box. They can also either set a ‘To’ date if they have an idea, or they can run the report by the week or month.
- Then, the user just needs to hit ‘Refresh’ and the user will be able to see all the transactions in the provided date range inside the Audit Trail.
- Now the user will have to locate the transaction that they are looking for in the list.
- Once found, they need to double-click on that transaction (The Audit Trail manages the transaction in a way that shows which user last created or modified a transaction, followed by the transaction type, the date it was created, and lastly, the date it was modified).
- Finally, the user will just have to re-enter the details of the deleted transaction.
- If the user has instead deleted an invoice, they can restore it by creating a new invoice using the details from the deleted transaction.
- If it is a bill or a bill payment, they can simply create a new bill or bill payment using the details that were deleted.
Once all of these steps have been completed, the user would have successfully restored their deleted transaction. This method works when the transaction was deleted or modified by a user on purpose.
Transactions that were deleted or modified on accident due to a computer glitch or any kind of loss or damage to the data can be restored to their original glory by using a backup file. The only condition is that the backup will have to be up-to-date. The user will just have to follow these steps to recover any deleted transaction.
- First, the user needs to restore the latest backup file. If the deleted transaction can be found in a list of just a few transactions, the user can simply restore the most up-to-date backup file. This can be achieved by first going to the ‘File’ menu which can be found in the menu bar on the top of the screen, and then navigating to the ‘Open or Restore company’ option in the list.
- Next, the user will have to click on the ‘Restore a backup company’ option and then hit ‘Next’.
- QuickBooks will then provide a prompt to the user asking ‘Is the backup stored locally or online?’. If the backup is stored on the user’s workstation, an external hard drive, or a flash drive, they need to select the ‘Local backup’ option. Else, they will have to select the ‘Online’ option and finally hit ‘Next’.
- Now the user will have to find a copy of their most recent backup that they have available on their workstation. The software will send another prompt to the user asking where the location is where they want the software to look for the file. The user can then set the desired location and hit ‘OK’. When the software can locate the backup file, the user just needs to double-click on the file and again select ‘OK’.
- Now, the user will have to set a location to save this new backup file copy. The software will ask the user where they want the software to save their backup file through a prompt, once the user locates the most recent backup file mentioned in the previous step. The user can just select the default location of the external hard drive or flash drive that they are using and select ‘OK’.
- The software will make a copy of the backup file at the location specified by the user. The user, at this point, will have to see through the file and make sure that the transactions that were deleted are now present in the file.
- Now, the user will have to re-enter the transactions that were entered between the period where the transaction was deleted and the deleted transactions were restored. The user will next have to re-enter all the data that was entered after the deleted transactions as per their requirement.
Any user using QuickBooks Online can seamlessly restore deleted transactions without facing any troubles if they can identify the scenario, concerning how the transaction was deleted or modified, as long as they follow the aforementioned steps in the right sequence.
But if your problem is still unresolved then we would suggest sparing 5 minutes and getting yourself on a call with our QuickBooks consultants.
