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Get started with your transactions

by Intuit•2• Updated 8 months ago

One of the first things you need to do when setting up your QuickBooks Online account is decide on how you're going to get your transactions into QuickBooks.

This page will explain the 2 ways of getting this done:

Bank connections
Manual uploads

For a tailored suggestion on what we think you should use based on your bank or credit card account type, see our list of financial institutions that support QuickBooks Online.

Bank connections

A bank connection (also known as a bank feed) is a way of automatically importing transactions from your bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks Online. It is the fastest and most reliable way of keeping track of your money, and means you don’t need to upload anything manually.

There are 2 types of bank feed connections available to QuickBooks customers - standard and direct.

Difference between a standard and direct bank connections.

Standard Bank Connection	Direct Bank Connection
Connect by logging in with your internet banking username and password	Connect your bank account by either completing a Client Authority form or enabling the connection from an Internet Banking setting for Westpac and ANZ accounts
Transactions start flowing into QuickBooks immediately after the connection is set up successfully	Your bank provides QuickBooks with bank transaction data daily, and we bring them into your QuickBooks company
All bank account types are supported, even loan and term deposit accounts	Not all bank account types are supported
QuickBooks logs onto your internet Banking and screen scrapes your account's transactions to bring them into your QuickBooks company	Your bank provides QuickBooks with bank transaction data directly and on a daily basis, then we bring them into your QuickBooks company
Any time you update your bank account credentials, you have to update this in QuickBooks as well to continue receiving transactions	Updating your bank account credentials will not interrupt transactional data from flowing into your QuickBooks company

You can also check the status of each bank connection here.

If this option sounds right for you, find out how to set up and manage a bank connection here.

Manual uploads

This is a great method to use if you've just started using QuickBooks, if your bank or credit card doesn't support a bank connection, or you want to enter historical transactions. It involves downloading transactions straight from your bank or credit card account's statement, and uploading them into QuickBooks using a .csv file.

If this option meets your needs, learn how to manually upload transactions, receipts, and bills into QuickBooks Online here.

What's next?

After you’ve connected your bank or uploaded your transactions, the next step is to make sure that everything is where it needs to be. Learn how to manage your bank transactions in QuickBooks here.

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