Why won't my bank deposit match a journal entry in QuickBooks Online, and how do I fix it?
Your cash and check journal entries won't match because their bank side is posting to a clearing account (your "Shopify clearing" account) instead of the actual bank account, so there's nothing on the bank line for the downloaded deposit to match against. The credit card ones match because their bank side does hit the bank account; fix where the cash and check side posts, and the match will work.
Why this happens
QuickBooks matches a downloaded deposit to records you've already entered against that bank account, so a journal entry that posts to a clearing account isn't visible to the match. A few other documented reasons you won't see a match suggestion: the amounts differ because of fees or discounts, several payments were deposited together as a group, the record falls outside the match window (90 calendar days before to 20 calendar days after the transaction date), or the record was already reconciled, in which case the downloaded transaction should be excluded since it can't be matched. One more structural point: a deposit matches a journal entry as a whole, not one line inside it, which is why a single daily summary entry with separate cash, check, and card lines often won't match cleanly.
Fix option 1: Point the bank side at the bank account
The goal is simple: make the cash and check payouts post where the card payouts already do.
- Open one of the cash or check journal entries and check which account the bank side (the deposit amount) posts to.
- If it posts to Shopify clearing rather than your checking account, adjust the setup so the cash and check payouts land in the bank account, the same way your card payouts do.
- Once the bank line hits the bank account, the downloaded deposit can find and match the journal entry.
Fix option 2: Clear the clearing account instead of matching
If you want to keep the clearing-account structure, the cleaner path is to record the bank deposit that moves the money out of the clearing account so its balance nets to zero, rather than forcing a match. Because app-specific setups vary, confirm the exact steps for your workflow before making changes.
Matching a journal entry that does hit the bank account
Once the entry posts to the bank account, matching takes four steps.
- Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions.
- Find the deposit, then select it (or select the sparkle icon) in the Categorize or Match column to expand the row.
- Review the Match suggestion column; if the right entry isn't suggested, select Find other match.
- Select the journal entry, then select Post.
Keep the match window in mind: suggestions cover records from 90 days before to 20 days after the transaction date, so older payouts may not appear, and anything already reconciled can't be matched (exclude the downloaded transaction instead). And if a payout is off by the processing fee, add a fee line to the original record so the amounts agree. Guides: Match your bank and credit card transactions and Fix downloaded bank transactions.
