Open the transaction you want to fix by going to the Banking tab or the Transactions menu and clicking on the entry. In the detail view, you’ll see a Category dropdown. Change it to the correct account and hit Save. That’s it for single transactions.

For bulk changes, go to the Banking tab and filter to show reviewed or categorized transactions. Check the boxes next to each transaction you want to change. A batch actions menu appears at the top. Select Modify Selected and you can change the category for all selected transactions at once. This saves significant time when you’ve been miscategorizing the same vendor for months.

QuickBooks remembers how you categorized transactions and suggests the same category next time. If you’ve been categorizing something wrong repeatedly, you’ve probably created a rule without realizing it. Go to Banking, then Rules, and look for rules that are causing problems. Delete or edit the rule so it stops auto-categorizing incorrectly. Otherwise you’ll keep fixing the same error every month.

Split transactions need extra attention. If you split a transaction between multiple categories and got the amounts or categories wrong, click on the transaction and select Split. You can adjust each line, change categories, or remove splits entirely. Make sure the split amounts add up to the total transaction amount or QuickBooks won’t let you save.

For transactions that were matched incorrectly to the wrong invoice or bill, you’ll need to unmatch them first. Find the transaction, click on it, and select Undo. Then you can match it to the correct entry or categorize it manually.

If you’re finding errors from months ago, work through them systematically. Run a Transaction Detail report filtered by category and date range. Catch-up bookkeeping often involves exactly this kind of cleanup, going through past transactions and fixing categorizations that were rushed or guessed at during busy periods.

Getting categories right matters because they determine what shows up on your Profit and Loss statement and what gets reported to your accountant at tax time. Office supplies categorized as equipment affects your deductions. Meals categorized as supplies overstates one expense and understates another. These errors compound across hundreds of transactions.

Review your categorizations weekly instead of waiting until year end. Catching a mistake when you remember what the purchase was for takes seconds. Finding it eight months later means researching old receipts and guessing. A Scottsdale bookkeeper can set up a review process that catches errors before they become problems and configure your rules correctly from the start so auto-categorization actually helps instead of creating more work.