Why can't I bulk edit certain transactions?

Transactions can only be bulk edited if they qualify for all the changes you're trying to make. Let’s say you’ve selected 3 transactions and want to bulk update their category and applicable sales taxes. All the selected transactions that are eligible for those bulk actions will be successfully edited. The transactions that cannot be edited with those actions won't be updated, and you'll receive a notification telling you how many transactions were not updated.

You can also mark the selected transactions as reviewed when bulk editing. Transactions with an unknown account field won’t be marked as reviewed. Make sure a category and account are selected for each transaction.

Transactions cannot be edited in bulk if:

  • The transactions cannot be edited
  • The transactions can only be edited individually

Examples of transactions that cannot be edited

  • Online payment transactions and Stripe transactions cannot be edited or deleted as they are created by Wave automatically and are already correctly categorized.
  • Sales tax cannot be applied to payments accepted through Wave, Stripe, and manually entered invoice and bill payments, as any tax was already applied at the time the invoice or bill was created.
  • Sales tax cannot be edited on transfers or journal entries, because sales tax can’t be applied to these types of transactions.
  • Accounts can’t be edited for transfers because this will “break” the transfer. However, if you’ve seen an error with a transfer and need to change the account, this can be done at the individual transaction level – see the list below.

Examples of transactions that can only be edited individually

  • If the transaction is a multi-line transaction, like a payroll entry, Wave can't tell which line you want to edit when you bulk select. Go to this transaction individually to update category or sales tax on specific lines.
  • If the transaction is a journal entry, Wave doesn't know which money account or category type you're trying to update, so you’ll need to handle this type of transaction individually.
  • Individual transfers that you’ve entered manually can be edited individually, but not in bulk, for the same reason.