QuickBooksHelpIntuitConnect bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks
by Intuit•144• Updated 1 month ago
By connecting your bank or credit card account to QuickBooks, you can streamline your bookkeeping process and save valuable time that would otherwise be spent on entering transactions manually.
Note: This article is for customers using QuickBooks Online (Advanced, Essentials, Plus, Simple Start) and QuickBooks Sole Trader.
Follow the steps below based on the product you are using.
This article will cover how to:
- Link a bank or credit card account
- Refresh your bank feed and categorise transactions
- Manage bank consent and bank connections
Before you start
- Make sure your bank supports Open Banking connections. If you can’t find your bank, you can manually upload transactions instead.
- If you have a foreign currency account, here’s how to set it up.
- To link cash on hand accounts, follow these steps.
If you used bank feeds in QuickBooks Desktop, you'll need to connect your bank/credit card accounts again in QuickBooks Online for security reasons. If you plan to import your data from Desktop, follow these steps before you connect your bank:
- Find your most recently categorised transaction in QuickBooks Desktop.
- Make a note of the transaction date.
- Follow these steps to import your Desktop data. Note: It's important to do this before you connect your bank. Otherwise, your Desktop data will replace any downloaded bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.
- Your categorised transactions will copy from Desktop to Online. Uncategorised transactions won't copy over.
- To connect your bank to QuickBooks Online, continue reading this article. To avoid adding duplicate transactions, make sure to only pull transactions after the date in Step 2. You can do this by changing the transaction pull date while you're connecting your bank:
If you miss that step and download duplicate transactions by mistake, don't worry. You can exclude them from your books during the review process.
You can also find out more about how features and data move to QuickBooks Online.
Step 1. Connect a bank or credit card account
Follow the steps below based on the product you are using.
- Go to Transactions and select Bank transactions (Take me there).
- Select Connect account.
Note: If you’ve already connected an account, select Link account to add a new one. - Select your bank, then select Let’s go.
- Read through the terms and conditions, then select Agree.
- Select Sign in and enter your online banking credentials. Then, follow the steps to connect to your bank. Your bank may require additional security checks and may take a few minutes to connect.
- Select the account you want to share with QuickBooks, such as savings, current, or credit card.
Note: Select an account type that matches your chart of accounts.
If you don’t see the correct account type, select Add new.
- For new bank accounts:
- From the Account Type ▼ dropdown, select Cash at bank and in hand.
- From the Detail Type ▼ dropdown, select Savings.
- Give the account a name and then select Save and Close.
- For new credit card accounts:
- From the Account Type ▼ dropdown, select Credit Card.
- Give the account a name and then select Save and Close.
Note: You can edit the account name in the new account name field or change it later.
- Select the date to start pulling transactions into QuickBooks.
Note: Some banks let you download the last 90 days of transactions. Others can go back as far as 24 months. - Select Connect, and then Done.
To link an account from your chart of accounts or a recently added account, follow these steps:
- Go to Settings
and select Chart of accounts (Take me there). - Find the account you want to connect to.
- In the Action column, select the Account history ▼ dropdown.
- Select Connect bank.
- Select your bank and select Let’s go.
- Read through the terms and conditions, then select Agree.
- Select Sign in and enter your online banking credentials. Then, follow the steps to connect to your bank. Your bank may require additional security checks and may take a few minutes to connect.
- Select the account you want to share with QuickBooks, such as savings, checking or credit card.
Note: Select an account type that matches your chart of accounts.
If you don’t see the correct account type, select Add new.
- For new bank accounts:
- From the Account Type ▼ dropdown, select Cash at bank and in hand.
- From the Detail Type ▼ dropdown, select Savings.
- Give the account a name and then select Save and Close.
- For new credit card accounts:
- From the Account Type ▼ dropdown, select Credit Card.
- Give the account a name and then select Save and Close.
Note: You can edit the account name in the new account name field or change it later.
- Select the date to start pulling transactions into QuickBooks.
Note: Some banks let you download the last 90 days of transactions. Others can go back as far as 24 months. - Select Connect, and then Done.
Step 2. Refresh your bank feed and categorise transactions
Refresh your bank feed to automatically download your recent bank transactions.
Once connected, your bank transactions will be automatically imported into QuickBooks. You can refresh the bank connection anytime to import the latest transactions.
- Go to Transactions and select Bank transactions (Take me there).
- Select
Update. - Carefully review, categorise, and match the downloaded transactions to make sure everything is correct. This will help you keep your charts of accounts organised and accurate.
Step 3. Reconfirm your bank feed consent
Every 90 days, you'll need to reconfirm the connection between your bank and QuickBooks to stay compliant.
You can manage all your bank connections and keep track of when you need to renew them, allowing you to stay on top of everything.
Tip: To avoid losing important transactions, make sure to reconfirm the QuickBooks connection before it expires. When renewing, select the original expiration date to recover any lost transactions caused by the expired connection.
Fix bank errors
If you encounter an error code or message, or face difficulties while downloading transactions, here's a guide to help you resolve common bank errors.
Open Banking is part of a new regulation that allows customers to share their financial information electronically, securely and with permission that is confirmed every 90 days. Open Banking offers enhanced speed, security and smart solutions to banking customers.
PSD2 is the Payment Services Directive, European wide legislation which sets out rules on how to retrieve your banking information. Open Banking is the standard which implements the PSD2 directive.
Intuit QuickBooks was one of the first companies to be registered as an Account Information Service Provider (AISP) back in February 2018. Our experience in financial data management has allowed us to work with key stakeholders in Open Banking to create a secure, reliable and simple experience for consumers. We are committed to delivering only the highest quality solution to our customers.
Yes, Open Banking is available to QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed customers.
For small business and self-employed
- Fast, easy and secure set-up in less than one minute.
- See all your business finances in one place.
- Save time and hassle with synchronised solutions.
- Manage your cash flow with real-time data and future forecasting.
For accountants and bookkeepers
- Instant, up-to-the minute view of your clients' business finances.
- Richer data and insights to provide your clients with advisory services.
- Save time chasing clients for their statements.
For existing customers
- Simple and seamless upgrade experience.
- More accurate, reliable and uninterrupted bank feeds.
- Real-time reconciliation to see an up-to-date view of all your business finances in one place.
- Smarter cash flow management.
Open Banking puts you in control of your data, allowing you to share information more easily with companies like QuickBooks. To do this you will be redirected to sign in to your bank's website and give permission to allow the new connection. Once you give permission, we get your data into QuickBooks.
Yes, you can retrieve up to 24 month’s historical data with Open Banking when connecting your accounts for the first time. The amount of historical data that is available may differ between banks.
Transactions will automatically refresh in QuickBooks Online every 24 hours. If you select Update, QuickBooks will retrieve any new transactions that are available in real-time.
The answer has to do with how QuickBooks records transactions. If you exclude a transaction and then delete it from the excluded section, QuickBooks has no record of it. As a result, the transaction will reappear when you download bank transactions.
To stop this from happening, you need to exclude the transaction and leave it in the excluded section. You can also assign the transaction to a bank register so it becomes a recognised transaction.
Yes, you'll need to sign in and authenticate the new connection using your account holder credentials.
You consent to a connection for 90 days. After that, you'll be invited to re-authorise the connection in the Banking page in QuickBooks.
If your bank connection has expired and you are unable to re-authorise the connection, follow the steps in this article to connect to your bank account.
If you get an error while trying to connect your bank feed, here's how to fix common banking connection errors.
No, you won't have to re-authenticate the connection if your online banking password.
If you're an accountant, you won't be able to authorise a new bank feed connection on behalf of your client. The authorisation of the new feeds can only be done by the primary account holder.
There are a few reasons for this. Some banks may not be supported on Open Banking. This is a new system that allows financial data to be shared between different banks and software platforms. Not all banks have signed up for this yet, so QuickBooks can't always get the information it needs from them.
You may have recently received notice from us that your bank is no longer supported. This change is happening on a phased basis, so not all customers are affected at once. Check your inbox for an email sent from Intuit for more details.
If your bank doesn’t support Open Banking, you can continue to import your bank transactions using data uploads. This will allow you to use your financial data in the meantime, until your new connection is available.
It's hard to say for sure, but we're working closely with banks and financial institutions to make sure that as many banking products are compatible with Open Banking as possible. For updates on new Open Banking connections, refer to our article: Does my bank support Open Banking?
Payment accounts (current account products, credit card and some savings products) are generally available under Open Banking.
Non-payment accounts (for example, fixed term savings and other products where you can’t pay money in and out whenever you wish) are not supported on Open Banking.
If you see the error message 'there are no valid accounts to connect' when trying to connect your bank account to Open Banking, it means that you don't have any valid accounts available on Open Banking, or that you don't have have the appropriate account privileges with your bank to share your information. Contact your bank for more information.
If you see any other error message when trying to connect, here's how you can resolve them.
How Open Banking affects your accounts depends on which country your accounts are domiciled in. The Channel Islands fall outside of. the PSD2 regulation, and therefore your bank is unlikely to provide Open Banking feeds.
Gibraltar is within the PSD2 regulation and you should be able to keep your existing or new feeds using Open Banking. This means that you shouldn't have any problems accessing your account information via Open Banking.
Open Banking is a framework that allows financial institutions to provide bank feeds to third-party applications like QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed. This framework was implemented under EU regulations, but after Brexit, UK financial institutions will need to use a different framework.
This change may cause some disruptions for QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed customers who use bank feeds. As a result, some customers may need to re-enter their credentials, but don't worry–you'll be prompted to do so when the time comes.
We are working hard to prevent any loss of connectivity for UK banks. If your account is impacted by Brexit, you'll be notified if your bank feed will be temporarily unavailable.
Unfortunately, you can't. Foreign currency transactions aren't converted to GBP in QuickBooks, so you'll only be able to link accounts that use the same currency.
You can, however, link accounts that use the same currency. For example, you could link a GBP account to a GBP COA, a USD account to a USD COA, Euro account to a Euro COA. Any other foreign transactions would come through as the account default.
Before you start
Make sure your bank supports Open Banking connections. If you can’t find your bank, you can manually upload transactions instead.
Step 1. Connect a bank or credit card account
Follow the steps below based on the product you are using.
- Go to Transactions and select Bank transactions (Take me there).
- Select Connect account.
Note: If you’ve already connected an account, to add a new account select Link account from the New transaction dropdown. - Select your bank, then select Let’s go.
- Read through the terms and conditions, then select Agree.
- Select Sign in and enter your online banking credentials. Then, follow the steps to connect to your bank. Your bank may require additional security checks and may take a few minutes to connect.
- Select the account you want to share with QuickBooks, such as savings, current, or credit card.
- Select the date to start pulling transactions into QuickBooks.
Note: Some banks let you download the last 90 days of transactions. Others can go back as far as 24 months. - Select Connect, and then Done.
Step 2. Refresh your bank feed and categorise transactions
Once connected, your bank transactions will be automatically imported into QuickBooks. You can refresh the bank connection anytime to import the latest transactions.
- Go to Transactions and select Bank transactions (Take me there).
- Select Refresh.
- Carefully review the downloaded transactions to make sure everything is correct.
Step 3. Reconfirm your bank feed consent
Every 90 days, you'll need to reconfirm the connection between your bank and QuickBooks to stay compliant.
You can manage all your bank connections and keep track of when you need to renew them, allowing you to stay on top of everything.
Tip: To avoid losing important transactions, make sure to reconfirm the QuickBooks connection before it expires. When renewing, select the original expiration date to recover any lost transactions caused by the expired connection.
Fix bank errors
If you encounter an error code or message, or face difficulties while downloading transactions, here's a guide to help you resolve common bank errors.
Open Banking is part of a new regulation that allows customers to share their financial information electronically, securely and with permission that is confirmed every 90 days. Open Banking offers enhanced speed, security and smart solutions to banking customers.
PSD2 is the Payment Services Directive, European wide legislation which sets out rules on how to retrieve your banking information. Open Banking is the standard which implements the PSD2 directive.
Intuit QuickBooks was one of the first companies to be registered as an Account Information Service Provider (AISP) back in February 2018. Our experience in financial data management has allowed us to work with key stakeholders in Open Banking to create a secure, reliable and simple experience for consumers. We are committed to delivering only the highest quality solution to our customers.
Yes, Open Banking is available to QuickBooks customers.
For small business and self-employed
- Fast, easy and secure set-up in less than one minute.
- See all your business finances in one place.
- Save time and hassle with synchronised solutions.
- Manage your cash flow with real-time data and future forecasting.
For accountants and bookkeepers
- Instant, up-to-the minute view of your clients' business finances.
- Richer data and insights to provide your clients with advisory services.
- Save time chasing clients for their statements.
For existing customers
- Simple and seamless upgrade experience.
- More accurate, reliable and uninterrupted bank feeds.
- Real-time reconciliation to see an up-to-date view of all your business finances in one place.
- Smarter cash flow management.
Open Banking puts you in control of your data, allowing you to share information more easily with companies like QuickBooks. To do this you will be redirected to sign in to your bank's website and give permission to allow the new connection. Once you give permission, we get your data into QuickBooks.
Yes, you can retrieve up to 24 month’s historical data with Open Banking when connecting your accounts for the first time. The amount of historical data that is available may differ between banks.
Transactions will automatically refresh in QuickBooks every 24 hours. If you select Refresh, QuickBooks will retrieve any new transactions that are available in real-time.
The answer has to do with how QuickBooks records transactions. If you exclude a transaction and then delete it from the excluded section, QuickBooks has no record of it. As a result, the transaction will reappear when you download bank transactions.
To stop this from happening, you need to exclude the transaction and leave it in the excluded section. You can also assign the transaction to a bank register so it becomes a recognised transaction.
Yes, you'll need to sign in and authenticate the new connection using your account holder credentials.
You consent to a connection for 90 days. After that, you'll be invited to re-authorise the connection in the Banking page in QuickBooks.
If your bank connection has expired and you are unable to re-authorise the connection, follow the steps in this article to connect to your bank account.
If you get an error while trying to connect your bank feed, here's how to fix common banking connection errors.
No, you won't have to re-authenticate the connection if your online banking password.
If you're an accountant, you won't be able to authorise a new bank feed connection on behalf of your client. The authorisation of the new feeds can only be done by the primary account holder.
There are a few reasons for this. Some banks may not be supported on Open Banking. This is a new system that allows financial data to be shared between different banks and software platforms. Not all banks have signed up for this yet, so QuickBooks can't always get the information it needs from them.
You may have recently received notice from us that your bank is no longer supported. This change is happening on a phased basis, so not all customers are affected at once. Check your inbox for an email sent from Intuit for more details.
If your bank doesn’t support Open Banking, you can continue to import your bank transactions using data uploads. This will allow you to use your financial data in the meantime, until your new connection is available.
It's hard to say for sure, but we're working closely with banks and financial institutions to make sure that as many banking products are compatible with Open Banking as possible. For updates on new Open Banking connections, refer to our article: Does my bank support Open Banking?
Payment accounts (current account products, credit card and some savings products) are generally available under Open Banking.
Non-payment accounts (for example, fixed term savings and other products where you can’t pay money in and out whenever you wish) are not supported on Open Banking.
If you see the error message 'there are no valid accounts to connect' when trying to connect your bank account to Open Banking, it means that you don't have any valid accounts available on Open Banking, or that you don't have have the appropriate account privileges with your bank to share your information. Contact your bank for more information.
If you see any other error message when trying to connect, here's how you can resolve them.
How Open Banking affects your accounts depends on which country your accounts are domiciled in. The Channel Islands fall outside of. the PSD2 regulation, and therefore your bank is unlikely to provide Open Banking feeds.
Gibraltar is within the PSD2 regulation and you should be able to keep your existing or new feeds using Open Banking. This means that you shouldn't have any problems accessing your account information via Open Banking.
Open Banking is a framework that allows financial institutions to provide bank feeds to third-party applications like QuickBooks Sole Trader. This framework was implemented under EU regulations, but after Brexit, UK financial institutions will need to use a different framework.
This change may cause some disruptions for QuickBooks Sole Trader customers who use bank feeds. As a result, some customers may need to re-enter their credentials, but don't worry–you'll be prompted to do so when the time comes.
We are working hard to prevent any loss of connectivity for UK banks. If your account is impacted by Brexit, you'll be notified if your bank feed will be temporarily unavailable.
Unfortunately, you can't. Foreign currency transactions aren't converted to GBP in QuickBooks, so you'll only be able to link accounts that use the same currency.
You can, however, link accounts that use the same currency. For example, you could link a GBP account to a GBP COA, a USD account to a USD COA, Euro account to a Euro COA. Any other foreign transactions would come through as the account default.
We're here to help
If you've got any questions or need a hand fixing a connection error, linking or reconciling a bank account, let us know. Sign in to QuickBooks and start a discussion in our QuickBooks Community.
We're here to help
If you've got any questions or need a hand fixing a connection error, linking or reconciling a bank account, let us know. Sign in to QuickBooks and start a discussion in our QuickBooks Community.
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