I need to know what to do after I migrate my data from desktop and link my bank. what do I do with the bank transactions?

Hello there, @sdppm. 

I'm here to share some information on how you can manage your bank transactions after transferring data from QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) to QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

Once you connect your bank to online banking, QuickBooks will automatically download the latest transactions. It will suggest matching transactions that are already in QuickBooks, and all you need to do is approve the match if it's correct.

Here are the steps to match with an existing transaction: 

1. Go to Transactions, then select Bank transactions.
2. Find a downloaded record. If you're in:
   • Business view: look for “matches found” in the Assign to column.
   • Accountant view: look for “matches found” in the Category or match column.
3. Select the downloaded record to expand the view. Note the date, Description (or Bank detail), and amount spent or received.
4. Review the Suggested matches for any possible matching transactions already entered in QuickBooks.
5. Click the link next to each match to get more details. Suggested matches will be the same amount as and from a similar date range as the downloaded transaction. Make sure that the match is correct.
6. Choose a match if it's correct, then select Match to match it.

For more details, please see this article: Match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online

You can also manage your future transactions seamlessly with the guidance of this article: Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online

If you need to enter old transactions to update your financial data, please see this article for a step-by-step guide: Manually upload transactions into QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know if you have any other banking concerns or questions about managing transactions in QBO. I'm here to help.

I'm struggling with (what I think is) this same issue. I've migrated my data successfully from QB Desktop, and the start guide had me match a few of the transactions, and created rules to auto-match many of them. Ok, great. Except it seems like it's pulling a bunch of old transactions that were previously reconciled. My ending balance from when I exported from QB was correct when I first started, but now that I've connected my bank account it's waaaay off. Do I need to manually match every single old transaction? If I "close my books" for everything 2023 and prior will that make it stop pulling old transactions in? Should I just delete everything and start over without linking my bank? 

Hello there, blatchford. I'm here to provide some help regarding this matter. 

In QuickBooks Online, connecting your bank account will automatically download your transaction up until the recent transaction. Given that you already have a transaction in your company file in QuickBooks Desktop, it will likely create a duplication of transactions. To resolve this, you can Exclude the transactions that were reconciled first. If there are transactions that aren't reconciled, you can match them. Kindly follow the steps below: 

If the transactions were reconciled: 

1. Go to the Transactions menu and choose Bank Transactions. 
2. Choose the affected bank in the bank in question. 
3. In the Categorized tab, click the Undo button. 
4. Find the transaction that you undo in the For Review tab. 
5. Tick the box beside with the Date of your transaction, and choose Exclude.
6. After excluding, you can view the transaction in the Excluded tab. 

If the transactions weren't reconciled: 

1. Go to the Transactions menu and choose Bank Transactions. 
2. Choose the affected bank in the bank in question. 
3. Under the For Review tab, see if certain transactions indicate that they contain Suggested matches. 
4. Make sure that the amount will be the same by clicking the link next to each match. 
5. If you're certain that it's the same, select Match. 

Also, please know that closing your books will not stop downloading old transactions since this is not how bank feeds work in QBO. 

In addition, regarding if you'll delete and start over, this will depend on the situation. If you see that it cannot be fixed anymore, you may consider restarting your company file again to QBO. However, please know that this will overwrite the current QBO data.

I'll leave these materials for you to see if you'd want to learn more about connecting your bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks Online:

• Connect bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks Online. 
• Categorize online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Afterward, you can reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online to balance your accounts so they always match your bank and credit card statements: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online. 

If you have further questions, please leave a comment below and I'll be glad to help you out.