Hello QuickBooks users, and thanks for joining us. These mini guides are designed to instill confidence while navigating your QuickBooks account so you can focus on running your business. This month’s guide breaks down the bank feed and best practices to keep it organized while covering how to match and categorize transactions and what to do if your bank feed isn’t updating. Now let’s make sure you’re feeling confident and keeping your bank feeds under control and dive into this topic!
Tips and where to find common items:
Here’s a run through of the main items you’ll need to keep your bank feed in check and where to find them in your account.
- Match or Categorize Transactions: With our new AI updates, QuickBooks can now find matches and prevent duplicate transactions. If you need to make any changes, you can switch between matching or categorizing to change the category using this toggle.
- Resize or customize your transaction list: Select Settings (Gear Icon) above the transaction list to to add columns or free up space if it’s too wide.
- Split transactions and see category history: Select dropdown arrow in the Action column on any transaction to see the options to “Split” or see “Categorization History”.
- See transfers or card payments: QuickBooks adds a Pair badge to anything it predicts as a transfer or card payment. To edit this for a transaction, select the row to expand it. Then select Transaction type.
- Edit right in the transaction list: Selecting an editable item in the transaction list displays a quick-access menu. This menu allows for fast updates and adding attachments without needing to expand the transaction row.
Matching transactions in QuickBooks Online:
Connecting your bank or credit card to QuickBooks automatically imports transactions from your financial institution. These transactions initially appear in the "For review" tab and will not impact your accounting records until you take action.
To prevent duplicate entries and keep your books accurate, you must either match or categorize these imported transactions. Matching links the new transactions to existing QuickBooks records, such as invoices, bills, and receipts.
- What exactly is matching?
- Finding a match means QuickBooks has a downloaded transaction that is the same as the one you have already categorized and posted. Matching is important for two reasons:
1. It avoids duplicates. QuickBooks suggests matches so you don’t mistakenly count the expense twice.
2. It links related transactions together. For example, if you have a bank transaction that might be for a payment you received on an invoice you already sent and posted to your books, QuickBooks can suggest matching the bank transaction to the invoice. If you match and post the bank transaction, it will be connected as the payment for that invoice and record that it was paid. - When do I match vs categorize?
-To put it simply, you want to match the transaction to a record that you’ve already entered in QuickBooks, and you’ll categorize the transaction when you’re adding it as a new record. You also have the option to exclude a transaction if you don’t want it on your books.
- What are record types that you can match to bank transactions?
-The most common matching example is downloaded payments to bills or invoices. QuickBooks with either close the bill or invoice and mark it as paid, or it will create a payment received or bill payment record for you. Before you match a transaction to open bills or invoices, make sure to check that you’ve paid the bill or been paid for the invoice.
- How do I categorize transactions?
-If there’s no match suggestion for a transaction, Categorize is selected automatically. QuickBooks also suggests and pre-fills a category for you if it has enough info to go on. Suggestions improve over time as QuickBooks learns your preferences.
-If you agree with the category suggestion, select Post to complete categorizing the transaction. To learn more about a suggested category, select the Suggested by AI Image of the Suggested by AI icon. icon next to the suggestion.
How do I fix duplicate transactions?
Duplicates may sometimes occur when transactions automatically update from your bank after you’ve manually uploaded them.
1. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions.
2. In the For review tab, select the checkbox for each transaction you want to exclude.
3. Select Exclude. Notes:
- Excluded transactions move to the Excluded tab. They won’t be added to QuickBooks or downloaded again.
- If you excluded a transaction by mistake, from the Excluded tab, find the transaction and select Undo.
Why is my bank feed not updating?
Step 1: Start a manual update
Most banks update transactions with QuickBooks every 24 hours, but times can vary. To get the most recent ones, do a manual update. Here's how.
1. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions.
2. Select Update.
Note: If you get another verification message, follow the steps on your screen to complete the update. And, transactions older than 90 days can't be downloaded. You'll need to add them to QuickBooks Online manually.
Step 2: Check your banks or credit cards website
If downloads seem slow or stuck, the issue may be on the bank’s end. Sign in to your bank’s website to check.
1. Go to your bank or credit card's website.
2. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions.
3. Then, select Link account.
4. Find and select your bank, or copy the listed URL.
5. Sign in to your bank or credit card's website.
If you are unable to sign in, there might be something else going on. Within your banks website, make sure you:
-Review for messages, notifications, or alerts
-Check for display issues as you browse the website as they can block QuickBooks from downloading transactions
-Look out for security updates
Step 3: Update your bank info in QuickBooks
If you’ve recently updated your password, username, or bank account number you’ll want to update that in QuickBooks. Here’s how:
1. Go to All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions.
2. Select the account card for the bank account you’re working on.
Note: If you don’t see the account card, select the ▼ dropdown menu next to your bank account. Then, select Show account cards.
3. Select Edit ✎, then select Edit sign in info.
That's all for today. Thanks for joining us, we'll see you next time!
