How do I turn off QB's automatic matching? I have never set up any banking "rules" yet it looks to me like QB has applied automatching and it's usually wrong.

How do I stop QuickBooks Online from auto-categorizing or auto-matching my bank transactions when I never set up a rule?

What you're seeing is most likely "suggested categorization," where QuickBooks guesses a category or payee from how similar transactions were handled before, and it doesn't need a rule to do it, which is why you can't find one. You can switch that off, and there are separate toggles for automatic matching and for bank rules if those are the ones bothering you.

Turn off suggested categorization (the usual fix for wrong payee/category guesses)

1. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions.
2. Select Settings (gear icon) within the Bank transactions section.
3. Uncheck Enable suggested categorization.

One heads-up: with suggestions off, QuickBooks may leave some details blank that it used to prefill (payee, category, class, or location), so you'll be categorizing more by hand, which is usually the point. Reference: Categorize online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Stop the wrong-payee guesses 

If it's the payee that's wrong, turn off automatic vendor-adding.

1. In Bank transactions, select Settings (the gear icon).
2. Turn off Add new vendors.

QuickBooks recognizes vendor-like names from your bank data and adds them automatically; switching this off stops it from inventing a payee like Macy's from a similar-looking name.

Turn off automatic matching (if it's matching, not categorizing)

Matching has its own switch on the Categorized tab.

1. Go to Bank transactions, then select the Categorized tab.
2. Select Settings (gear icon).
3. Set Automatic matching to Off.

Reference: Automatically match QuickBooks Online product transactions.

Check for a rule you didn't realize you had

Even "I never made a rule" is worth a quick look, since rules can be suggested or created by accident.

1. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Rules.
2. Review the list. From the Actions dropdown you can Disable or Delete a rule.
3. To keep a rule but stop it auto-confirming, select Edit and turn off Auto-add, then Save.

Reference: Set up bank rules to categorize online banking transactions in QuickBooks Online.

If it's specifically customer deposits being auto-linked and you use QuickBooks Payments, that has its own control in the Merchant Service Center under Deposit Settings; tell us if that's your situation and we'll walk you through it.