How to Find and Correct Doubled Income in QuickBooks Online

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Have you ever looked at your Profit and Loss and realized that something isn’t quite right?

The income is suspiciously high. Something got duplicated somewhere.

In this blog post, I’ll show you a few different methods for finding duplicate income. Then, how to fix it so your income on your Profit and Loss report is correct.

Quick Instructions

Search for doubled income:

  1. Open the Profit and Loss Report
  2. Click the dollar amount on the Total Income line to open the Transaction Report
  3. Sort by Transaction Type
  4. Search for Deposits
  5. View the Transaction List for the customer associated with the Deposit. Is there a payment matching the deposit amount?
  6. Double-check the bank register for the account the money got deposited into. Do you see doubled income?

Fix doubled income

  1. Open the Payment
  2. Change the Deposit to to Undeposited Funds
  3. Click Save and close
  4. Click Yes on the warning message pop-up
  5. Open the Bank Deposit
  6. Check off the Payment under Select the payments included in this deposit 
  7. Delete the payment Under Add funds to this deposit 
  8. Click Save and close
  9. Click Yes on the warning message pop-up

Keep reading for a complete walkthrough with screenshots:

Profit and Loss Report

Let’s start by finding that doubled income in the Profit and Loss report.

To navigate to your Profit and Loss report click Reports in the left-side menu.

Open reports in QBO

Then open the Profit and Loss report. You have it in your Favorites up at the top. Or, you can use the search bar to find it.

Profit and Loss report in Reports in QBO

Your income is at the top of the Profit and Loss report. If it looks too high you can drill down further. Click the dollar amount across from Total Income to open the Transaction Report.

Opening the transaction report from the Profit and Loss report in QBO

Transaction Report

Transaction Report is a list of all the transactions that add up to equal that Total Income amount.

You can scroll through the list and look for anything that looks unusual or doubled.

It can be difficult if you have a lot of transactions. To make it easier click Sort towards the upper left. Then Sort by Transaction Type.

Sort the QBO Transaction Report by Transaction type

Most often the problem is a deposit.

This is because the flow of income is usually:

  1. Create an invoice or sales receipt
  2. Payment is received
  3. Payment is deposited into the bank

One way that income can get doubled is if those first two steps are skipped.

Here’s an example, in my transaction list I see a Deposit of $300 for a client, Duncan Harrington.

Finding a deposit that's doubled income in the QBO transaction report.

I can check whether or not this is a legit deposit by viewing Duncan’s transactions.

Viewing Customer Transactions

First, we’ll navigate to the customer list by clicking Sales then Customers in the left side menu.

Now I’ll search for Duncan in my customer list.

Searching for a customer in the QBO Customer List

In Duncan’s Transaction List, I can see there’s an Invoice and a Payment both for $300.

Invoice with corresponding payment in a QBO customer Transaction List.

If I open the Payment I can see it went into my checking to pay for the invoice on 1/25/23.

Payment received to pay for an invoice in QBO

If I open the Deposit I found in the Transaction Report I see that same $300 recorded as a deposit into my checking account on 1/31/23.

Duplicate payment in QBO recorded as a deposit.

These are two duplicate records of the same payment.

Checking the Chart of Accounts

The Chart of accounts is another place where you could find or verify that you have doubled income.

To navigate to the Chart of accounts click Accounting then Chart of accounts in the left side menu.

navigating to the chart of accounts in QBO

You’ll want to view the register for the account that contains doubled income. In my example, it’s checking so I click view register to the right of my checking account.

Opening the register for the checking account in Chart of accounts in QBO

If you have a lot of transactions in your register you can click on the funnel icon in the upper left. In the Find box enter the dollar amount of the doubled income then click Apply.

Finding transactions by dollar amount in the bank register of QBO

When I do this search I see the doubled income from Duncan.

Finding doubled income in the bank register in QBO

Now I know for sure that I need to delete one of these.

Deleting Doubled Income

In the screenshot above you may have noticed a little R on the line of the Deposit. This means it’s reconciled.

I want to keep the record of the $300 as a Payment towards an Invoice. But I don’t want to delete something that’s been reconciled or I’ll get a warning message:

Error message when deleting a reconciled transaction in QBO

Move the Payment to Undeposited Funds

To fix this you’ll open the Payment to the Invoice (that’s the screen that says Receive Payment at the top).

Change the Deposit to from whatever it was (in my example checking) to Undeposited funds (in my account it’s Payments to deposit). Then click the Save and close button.

Changing a Payments Deposit to from a bank account to Undeposited Funds in QBO

Since this Payment is attached to an Invoice you’ll get a warning message. Click Yes.

Error message when editing a payment connected to an invoice in QuickBooks Online.

All this did is remove the payment from the bank register.

The payment itself still exists and you’ll see it if you view your customer’s transaction list.

But, the doubled income still exists in your Transaction Report. There’s one more step.

Delete the Deposit

In the Transaction Report I’m going to click to open the original deposit I found.

This is what it looks like:

Bank Deposit to delete and instead connect to a payment in QuickBooks Online.

There’s the Payment at the top and the Deposit at the bottom. To fix this I’ll check off the payment and click the trash can to the right of the deposit to delete it. Then click Save and close.

Disconnecting a check from a bank deposit and connecting it to a payment in QuickBooks Online.

That warning about editing a transaction that’s reconciled will pop-up. This time I click Yes because the dollar amount has not been changed. I’ve only changed what that check payment was connected to.

Now the deposit is gone and the check payment is correctly connected to the Invoice. Duplicate income fixed!

☕ If you found this helpful you can say “thanks” by buying me a coffee… https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gentlefrog

Below is a video if you prefer to watch a walkthrough.

If you have any questions about duplicate income in QuickBooks online click the green button below to schedule a free consultation.

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This content is for information purposes only and should not be considered legal, accounting, or tax advice, or a substitute for obtaining such advice specific to your business. Additional information and exceptions may apply. Applicable laws may vary by state or locality. No assurance is given that the information is comprehensive in its coverage or that it is suitable in dealing with a customer’s particular situation. Gentle Frog, LLC does not have any responsibility for updating or revising any information presented herein. Accordingly, the information provided should not be relied upon as a substitute for independent research. Gentle Frog, LLC does not warrant that the material contained herein will continue to be accurate, nor that it is completely free of errors when published. Readers and viewers should verify statements before relying on them.

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