Thanks for your follow-up questions, @gloriadeb204. When you send an account to an attorney for collections, the collections will try to recover your receivables by sending a notice to the debtors to pay any outstanding balances. 

Now, when it has been determined that collection efforts will not result in payment of the amount due, the account will be considered uncollectible or bad debts. 

To acknowledge that a loss has occurred, you'll need to record them as bad debt and write them off. This is to ensure your accounts receivables and net income stay updated, and to balance your balance sheet. 

For more insights and detailed steps, I'll share the link again suggested by my peer @Rose-A: Write off bad debt in QuickBooks Desktop.

I'd suggest you consult an accountant for further guidance in handling debts that the previous bookkeeper write-offs that you're still collecting on. 

I've also got you this article will help you learn about the reconciliation workflow in QuickBooks.  

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