To reconnect a bank feed in QuickBooks Online, clear any connection error first, then link the account again and set the start date to the day after the newest transaction already in the register. That date fills the gap the broken feed left without pulling in lines you already have. Anything older than the bank allows comes in by file.
Why a QuickBooks Online bank feed stops and needs reconnecting
A bank feed needs reconnecting when the link between QuickBooks Online and the bank has stopped working, not when downloads are merely a day late. Typical causes are a changed banking password, a bank that moved to a new sign-in system, or a security prompt nobody answered. A late download fixes itself; a broken link does not.
Telling a broken feed from a slow one
Look at the date of the newest downloaded line in the account. If it is a day or two old, the bank may simply not have sent anything yet. If it is a week old, or QuickBooks shows an error on the account tile, the link has failed and waiting will not help. Write down that newest date now. It drives every later step.
Fix the error before you disconnect
Intuit's guide to disconnecting accounts connected to online banking warns that an account disconnected while it shows an error might download duplicate transactions when you reconnect it. The same page says disconnecting removes anything still in the Pending tab. So clear the error if you can, and add or match every waiting line before you touch the connection.
Which start date should a reconnected bank feed use?
A reconnected bank feed should start on the day after the newest transaction already recorded in that QuickBooks account. Intuit's guide to connecting bank and credit card accounts gives the same advice for an account that already holds transactions: pick a date that falls immediately after the most recent one.
A worked example
The dates and amounts here are examples. A café's checking feed last downloaded on September 18. The newest line in the register is a card deposit dated September 18 for 1,204.50. The owner fixes the password at the bank on October 2 and reconnects with a start date of September 19.
The feed then brings in September 19 through October 2 once. Nothing from September 18 or earlier comes back, so the deposit is not doubled. If the owner had picked September 1 instead, eighteen days of lines would arrive a second time.
Choosing a date is a bigger topic when you want the feed to reach a different point in history. Changing the bank feed start date in QuickBooks Online covers that case, including why there is no simple setting for it.
Reconnecting the bank feed step by step
Reconnecting a bank feed uses the same screens as the first connection: you sign in to the bank from inside QuickBooks Online, tick the account, and link it to the existing account in your chart of accounts. Linking to the existing account, rather than creating a new one, is the step that keeps your history in one place.
- Note the newest transaction date in the account's register.
- If the account still shows as connected but broken, disconnect it from the account tile's edit menu.
- Go to Bank transactions and choose to connect or link an account.
- Search for the bank, sign in with your online banking login and answer the bank's security checks.
- Tick only the account you are reconnecting.
- Pick the existing QuickBooks account it belongs to. Do not let it create a second one.
- Set the start date to the day after the date from step 1, then connect.
- Open the For review tab and check the oldest new line against the date you chose.
If you have never set a feed up before, how to download bank transactions into QuickBooks Online walks through the first connection in more detail.
Duplicates after a bank feed reconnect, and which copy to exclude
Duplicates after a reconnect mean the new start date overlapped lines the account already had, or the feed was disconnected while it showed an error. Either way, the fix is to exclude the new downloaded copy and keep the line that was already matched or reconciled, because that one is tied to your earlier work.
Cleaning up
Intuit's page on fixing duplicate transactions in bank feeds lists reconnecting an account as one cause. It says to tick each extra copy in For review and choose Exclude. If you exclude the wrong one, the Excluded tab lets you undo it.
Work through the overlap by date, oldest first. For each date, compare the amount and description with what the register already holds. A line with no partner in the register is new and should be added or matched. A line that already has a partner is the duplicate.
Two habits that prevent it
- Never pick a round date like the first of the month out of habit. Use the exact day after the newest line.
- Do not upload a file covering the same days as the reconnected feed. Choose one source for each date range.
Can a reconnected feed reach transactions older than 90 days?
Often it cannot. Intuit's disconnect guide says that if transactions are older than 90 days, you will not be able to download them from the bank when you reconnect, though you can still upload them manually. Some banks reach further, so the true limit depends on the bank.
Filling a long gap
If a feed was broken for months, the reconnect brings back only the recent part. The older stretch needs a file. Download the bank's statements or transaction export for the missing months and upload them to the same account, stopping the day before the feed's new start date. How far back the QuickBooks Online bank feed goes explains the limits bank by bank.
When the bank offers only PDF statements for older months, the PDF has to become a CSV or QBO file first. That conversion is what SimpleBankConvert is being built for. If your books are in Xero rather than QuickBooks, the file route for a gap is described in importing an OFX file into Xero.
After the gap is filled, reconcile the account against the statement for each month you added. A matching closing balance is the proof that the reconnect, the file and the register now agree.