How can I take a NEGATIVE bank transaction that was automatically downloaded and split that transaction into multiple categories?I am using QuickBooks Online Simple Start

I'll help with your online banking question, vacations365-aol.

You don't need to enter a negative amount when using the Split feature for expense or debit type of transactions. This is because the downloaded transaction is already in a negative format. Adding a negative sign will only add up and change the original amount. 

Once added to your register, it will be recorded as an expense transaction. 

Please see this article for more details: Categorize and Match Online Bank Transactions in QuickBooks Online.

I'd also like to share these articles as well for additional references when working with your banking transactions:

• Unmatch Downloaded Bank Transactions or Move Them to Another Account
• Undo or Remove Transactions From Reconciliations in QuickBooks Online

Feel free to reply to me or post more questions if you need anything else. We're always to help you all the time.

Hello Jeno.  I understand and know that.  But that is not my question.  Here is what I am trying to accomplish.  I am using Quickbooks Online Simple Start to track the income and expenses of short-term rental condos.  So for example if I paid someone via a single check to paint 3 of those condos, I see a single Withdrawal/Debit negative transaction downloaded from my bank.  I need to take this single Withdrawal/Debit and split it so that I can track how much of that withdrawal/debit was for each condo.  I have defined each condo as a separate expense category.  This allows me to run a P&L report for each place as well as allows me to report taxes (income and expense) for each condo appropriately.  I can do this fine for a Deposit/Credit transaction, but not for a Withdrawal/Debit transaction.  hope it makes sense what I am trying to do with that negative transaction.  

Hi there, @vacations365-aol. Allow me to chime in and add some information.

You can also do split a withdrawal or expense transaction into multiple categories. You only have to select the accounts and enter the amounts.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Banking menu.
2. Select your bank account.
3. Select the payment from the list.
4. Click the Categorize radio button. 
5. Select the Split button beside Add.
6. Select the name of the vendor in the Payee drop-down. 
7. Select each expense category.
8. Enter the amounts for each one. 
   
9. Select Apply and accept.

For more insights about this process, please refer to this article: Add and Match Downloaded Banking Transactions.

Furthermore, you can reconcile your account to make sure your books are accurate. Just go to the Accounting menu from the left pane and select Reconcile.

Drop me a comment below if you have any other questions about categorizing transactions. I'll be happy to help you further. Have a great day.

Thanks for your reply Liera Marie.  When you do it that way the values are being added as a positive value and not a negative value, hence it becomes a credit transaction vs a debit transaction.  This causes the P&L report to show them as Credit vs a Debit expense and totally messes up my P&L report and the overall category totals.  If you notice in your screenshot it is now showing the original total as being a positive number vs a negative number as the orginal bank downloaded transaction was.  

Thanks for your response, Liera Marie.  Unfortunately, when I try to do that, the values are entered as a positive number vs a negative number.  This causes the total entry in the categorized transaction to change from being a negative value to a positive value.  This messes up the P&L report since now the expense shows up as a credit vs a debit, plus the bank balances in Quickbooks and the bank don't match, and the expense category value is incorrect as well.  If you notice when you go to categorize the debit transaction, the original value in the categorization window has been changed to a positive value vs a negative value.