Even Xero, one of our favourite accounting apps, makes mistakes sometimes. Because of this, it’s important to check your books, even if you’re using automatic bank feed downloads. There are many parts of the Xero bookkeeping process that are manual, so human error is still a possibility. 

Because Xero uses live bank feeds, you can’t simply make a journal entry to the bank account to fix errors. Here are three ways to correct bookkeeping errors in Xero. The method you use will depend on what the error is.  

Delete

Sometimes Xero shows duplicate transactions coming from bank or credit card feeds. There’s a simple fix for this, but first you must confirm the transaction is a duplicate by viewing your bank or credit card statement. 

Once you’ve identified the transaction is definitely a duplicate, from the bank reconciliation screen, choose the tab that says “bank statements.” This is where you can view the information Xero has downloaded from your bank.

Now, locate the duplicate transaction. On the same line as the transaction, it should say “unreconciled” in red. If it says “reconciled” then see the Remove and Redo Section below for how to fix this.

Select the transaction by checking the box next to it. At the top of all the transactions, you should now see a box that says “delete.” Once you select “delete”, the transaction will be removed from Xero.

Remove and Redo 

Let’s say you’re reconciling your bank account, and you realize you allocated a payment to Staples to the office expenses account, but you’d already set up a bill for this. What you should have done was match the payment to the bill you’d already created.

No problem!

Go to the “account transactions” tab from the reconciliation screen. Find the item you want to fix and check the box to the left to select it. You’ll now see a “remove and redo” button at the top of all the transactions. Select this button.

This reverses your transaction. When you go back to the reconcile screen, you’ll see that the Staples transaction has reappeared and you can now choose to match it to the bill you had previously created.

Import a CSV File

This is the most involved and advanced way to correct bookkeeping errors in Xero. It’s best to use this method only if there is no other way to correct your mistakes and you have a good understanding of how debits and credits work.

You’ll rarely need to use this method, but it’s good to know just in case. It works best to correct several errors in the same bank account at the same time. To get started, from the bank account you want to adjust, go to “manage account,” then “import statement”. You will see the option to download a template. This template will get you set up with the columns you need to properly import transactions. 

Enter your adjustments on the spreadsheet. Be sure to save as a CSV file before importing to Xero. After you’ve imported the file, you will see the transactions on the reconciliation screen. Now you can post them. Be sure to check your bank balance afterwards to ensure it’s reconciled.

If you still need help correcting your bookkeeping errors in Xero, they have an amazing support team. We are also happy to help you with this. Contact us to learn more.