How to connect bank accounts and manage imported transactions in QuickBooks Online

You can connect QuickBooks Online to your financial institution using your online banking sign-in credentials. This will automatically import bank transactions into QuickBooks Online, letting you manage connections and transactions once they've been imported, saving you time and making the reconciliation process easier.

In this article, you'll learn how to:

• Create a new account
• Connect accounts to the bank
• Update online banking credentials
• Edit or remove a connected bank account
• Manage imported transactions

Create a new account

Before you can connect an account to online banking, you must create the account. (To add a foreign bank account, see How do I add a foreign currency account?)

1. Go to Settings ⚙️ and select Chart of accounts.
2. Select New to open the Account dialog.
3. From the Account Type dropdown, select Bank.
4. Assign a name and add an optional description for the account.
5. Specify whether this is a sub-account of another account.
6. Enter the opening Balance of the account as of the date you specify.
7. Select Save and Close.

You've created the account and added it to the Chart of Accounts. Now, you can connect it to your bank.

Connect accounts to the bank

To connect your account to your bank, you must have your bank login credentials handy, as you will have to log in to your bank's website to establish the connection. You can connect an account either from the Bank transactions (Take me there) page or from your Chart of Accounts.

From the Bank transactions page:

1. Go to Transactions and select Bank transactions (Take me there).
2. On the Bank transactions page, select Connect account Or select Link account if you already created one.
3. Search for your financial institution and select it from the list.
4. Enter your login credentials. This includes your username and password for your online banking account.
5. Allow QuickBooks permission to access your account. This allows us to import your transactions and account information.
6. Select the accounts you want to connect to QuickBooks from the list of accounts associated with your bank or credit card provider. If you haven't already created the account, you can select +Add new to create a new account.
7. Select Connect.

Note: QuickBooks automatically downloads transactions up to a certain date. This process can take several minutes. If you need fewer transactions, select  a specific date range. If you want to enter older transactions, or if your bank or credit card can't connect to QuickBooks, you can still upload transactions manually. (For more information about this, see Manually upload transactions into QuickBooks Online.)

QuickBooks uploads the bank transactions to the accounts you've selected, and returns you to the Bank transactions (Take me there) page, where you can view, add, categorize, or match transactions, and accept them into QuickBooks Online.

Through the Chart of Accounts:

1. Go to Settings ⚙️ and select Chart of accounts.
2. Locate the account to connect.
3. From the Account history dropdown list in the Action column, select Connect bank.
4. Follow the prompts to complete the process for connecting your bank account.

Note: The transaction account type must be set to Bank.

Update online banking credentials

If your online banking user ID or password for a connected bank account changes, automatic transaction importing will be turned off until you update your banking credentials in QuickBooks Online.

1. Go to Transactions and select Bank transactions (Take me there) .
2. Select the appropriate account.
3. Select Edit ✎, then select Edit sign in info.
4. In the Sign in to account window, enter your new login credentials and select Save and connect to save your changes.

Your credentials are updated to allow QuickBooks Online to continue to connect to your bank and automatically download your transactions.

Edit or remove a connected bank account

You can easily change the account type of a connected bank account, rename it, add a description or detail type, or make it a sub-account of another bank account.

You can also disconnect the account from online banking, which stops the automatic download of new transactions and removes the account from the Bank transactions (Take me there) page. Removing the account does not remove the corresponding account from the Chart of Accounts to give you continued access to previously downloaded transactions.

1. Go to Transactions and select Bank transactions (Take me there).
2. Select the appropriate account.
3. Select Edit ✎, then select Edit account info.
4. In the Account dialog, update the account as needed in the fields provided.
5. Select Save and Close.

Your changes take effect as soon as you save them.

Manage imported transactions

Once a bank account is connected to QuickBooks Online, it is displayed as a card on the Bank transactions (Take me there) page.

If you have connected multiple accounts, you can specify the account to work in by selecting the card for that account or selecting the account from the Bank and Credit Cards dropdown menu.

The Bank and Credit Cards window displays three tabs for each connected bank account:

• For review: Displays newly downloaded transactions
• Categorized or Reviewed: Displays transactions that have already been added or matched
• Excluded: Displays transactions that were excluded

For more information about adding, matching, and managing your transactions, see Add and match downloaded banking transactions.