Don’t Panic! How to Find Deleted Invoices in QuickBooks
Many enterprise-level software suites like NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics try to convince potential customers that QuickBooks does not have an audit trail. This is incorrect.
QuickBooks does have an audit trail, and you cannot turn it off! If you have inadvertently deleted an invoice in QuickBooks, don’t worry—the information is saved, and you can retrieve it!
We’ll show you how to find deleted invoices in QuickBooks and walk you through every step.
How to Retrieve a Deleted Invoice in QuickBooks
People may think that QuickBooks can’t help you find deleted invoices because there is no direct “restore” feature, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find deleted files. Below is a Fourlane step-by-step guide for how to find deleted invoices in QuickBooks.
There are two ways to find deleted invoices: through the Audit Log (in the online version) and by running reports (in the desktop version).
QuickBooks Online: Audit Log
When using the Audit Log, you need to:
- Go to Settings (the small gear icon).
- Click on “Audit Log.”
- Click on the “Filter“ dropdown menu.
- Select the appropriate user, date, and event.
- Click “Apply.”
- Find the deleted invoice. To find it quickly, press the “Ctrl” and “F” keys at the same time. A search bar will appear, and you can type “deleted,” which should highlight all mentions of “deleted.”
- Under the “History Column” of the deleted invoice, click “View.”
All the information you need should be found in the “Event” column, and you can use that info to reenter the invoice information. It’ll be just like it was never deleted.
It’s important to note that the Audit Log solution only works for saved transactions, so it may be better in the long run to void a transaction instead of deleting it completely.
QuickBooks Desktop: Reports
To access a deleted invoice using Reports, you’ll need to:
- Go to “Reports.”
- Click “Accountant.”
- Run the “Voided/Deleted Transactions Report.”
- Find the details of the invoice in question.
You can add columns for more information on this report as well. You cannot restore the deleted invoice. You can print out or save the transaction report so that you have the information to re-enter as a new invoice.
How to Access the QuickBooks Audit Trail
In the same section of QuickBooks there is also the Audit Trail Report.
This report can be filtered by number or date in order to find the transaction you are looking to recreate. The audit trail gives you two date ranges—the first is for the “transaction date.” The second is the “modified date.”
This allows you some flexibility in how to best find the transaction if you know when it was created, or when it was changed.
Why You Might Need to Access the QuickBooks Audit Trail
Here is a real-world example of a client who benefitted from the QuickBooks Audit Trail.
This Fourlane client is a distributor and maintenance company. They had a glaring balance change in an asset account and had no idea where it came from (or when it started). Their leadership was worried that someone was messing with their books or that they had a bug in their system.
They went back and compared balances for six months to see where the difference originated, then reached out for our help. We hopped on a quick LogMeInRescue session to inspect them. In about 30 seconds, we ran the QuickBooks Audit Trail Report for all changes that impacted the prior year (meaning the transaction was dated in the prior year) that had been changed in the last week (meaning the date the transaction was created).
It was January, so one of the people on the accounting staff had accidentally dated a transaction to January 12th, 2017—instead of 2018. We made sure to show them the closing date as well. We switched the transaction date to the correct year and corrected their balances. In situations like this, the QuickBooks Audit Trail is often the easiest way to see who, when, where (and sometimes why) a particular transaction was changed and rectify it quickly!
Prevent QuickBooks Accidents with Fourlane
So, can you recover a deleted invoice in QuickBooks? Absolutely—but we understand the confusion.
QuickBooks can be an overwhelming tool to use, no matter how helpful it is. Mistakes like this are common when you aren’t familiar with the software. The QuickBooks experts at Fourlane can walk you through more than just how to find deleted invoices in QuickBooks—we can help all aspects of QuickBooks, so there’s no need to panic when a mistake is made.
If you need assistance accessing your QuickBooks Audit Trail or need an experienced third party to help you with your QuickBooks instance, Fourlane can help! Connect with our friendly team today.
