15 Nov Ask the Expert – Changing Bank Accounts
Ask the Expert – Changing Bank Accounts
Q – I changed banks and closed the original account. Even though I made the old account inactive in the Chart Of Accounts, it still shows up as the default in the Pay Bills screen and in the Deposit To field in Sales Receipts.
A – There are a couple of issues that need to be addressed when you change bank accounts in QuickBooks: Checking the preferences and confirming memorized transactions.
Checking Preferences
Your question deals specifically with the first. Since the release of version 2001, there have been two preferences that deal with this issue. I believe you need to review and change the Checking:My Preference based on your explanation of the situation.
Checking: My Preference – permits setting the default bank account for write check, pay bills, pay sales tax, and make deposits. Although it does not state it specifically, the make deposit choice also controls the deposit to line on the sales receipt and receive payment screens. This means each user has control of this preference for the transactions they enter.
Checking: Company Preference – permits setting the default bank account used to create paychecks or pay payroll liabilities.
With version 2005 – there is another preference that addresses an issue with the “deposit to” field in sales receipts and receive payments. It is 0″>Sales & Customers: Company Preference and controls if “undeposited funds” is used as the default deposit account. Typically this is the preferred to group receipts from several customers together as one deposit into the bank account.
Memorized Transactions
Although it does not deal with your question specifically, I think it also bears mentioning that if a transaction has been memorized using an account that has since been “closed” or marked as inactive, that transaction will continue to use that account. For this reason, it is important to confirm within QuickBooks that any appropriate memorized transactions have been changed and re-memorized, all recurring charges out of the old bank account have been set up properly to be paid from the new account, and that you periodically check the closed account in QuickBooks to confirm that the balance is still zero.