Part of our jobs as Accountants and ProAdvisors is detecting what “our clients have done”; sometimes it is an adventure investigating what has happened in their QBO file. Such detective work can make us zig and zag through the QBO file looking for the answers to ‘what’s different since the last time?’
Detective
But there is Super News for those of us that must do this work. Just like Sherlock Holmes had his ‘magnifying glass’ and ‘Gerber Artifact Multi-tool’ (akin to a modern day Swiss Army Knife), our own detective work can be aided by tools found inside our QBO-Accountant Toolbox.
One QBO feature that many times seems to be overused by our clients is the “DELETE” function. If they don’t like the way an entry looks they all-too-often delete it, if they think there is an error in a transaction they delete it, and sometimes I begin to wonder if they just delete for the sole purpose of trying to see if I catch the fact that they deleted something.
By using the Voided/Deleted Transaction tool we can easily identify the clues and piece together the evidence to correct our client’s deletions. This important “tool of the Accountant ‘Detective’ trade” can be used in a couple of different ways. First, you can either openly search through the voided/deleted lot to examine everything that has been voided/deleted and in so doing find evidence of situations you might not have otherwise even know existed. Second, you can use this tool to search for a specific instance within the log of a voided/deleted transaction.
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Using the Voided/Deleted Transaction Tool Log
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Step 1 - From the Accountant’s Tool Box, select Voided/Deleted Transactions
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Step 2 – From the Audit Log, you can filter using specific parameters to find the transaction if necessary.
QBOA Tools VD Audit Case
QBOA-Tools Void Delete Audit
Step 3 - Viewing the Audit History we can see when a transaction was changed and 'who' made the changes.
QBOA - Tools Audit History
QBOA-Tools Audit History Clues
Did you know that you can filter the Voided/Deleted Audit Log to help you quickly 'find the clues'?
QBOA-Tool VD Audit Log Filter Search
QBOA Tool - VD Audit Filter Tip
As Accountants and ProAdvisors we wear many hats; we are advisor, financial interpreter, bookkeeper, trainer, and yes, at times, even detective. Although we can not always prevent incorrect deletion of transactions by our clients, we can use the "Accountant 'Detective' tools" we have been given in QBOA to find the clues and solve the case.