Exclude a bank transaction you downloaded into QuickBooks Online

Learn how to exclude a downloaded bank transaction.

Sometimes, you may want to keep a downloaded transaction from going into your company expenses. Here’s how to exclude it and keep your books in order.

Step 1: Check if you should exclude the transaction

Before excluding a downloaded transaction, make sure it’s the right thing to do for your accounting. This may make it easier or harder for you to reconcile an account.

Consider the following situations:

• If it’s a duplicate transaction, excluding makes sense. 
• If it’s a personal expense, it’s best to add it to QuickBooks instead of excluding it. Otherwise, your bank account in QuickBooks won’t match your bank statement when reconciling. To avoid recording the transaction as a business expense, many business owners add the transaction to an equity account they’ve created, called an owner’s draw.

Excluding a transaction means it won’t show up in your account records or financial reports.

As always, check with your accountant or bookkeeper if you’re not sure how to handle a personal expense or any other type of transaction. We can help you find an Accountant.

Step 2: Exclude a downloaded transaction

Once you confirm that excluding a transaction makes sense, here’s how to do it. Choose an appropriate heading based on the device you are using.