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June 29, 2020
Question

Multiple bank transactions to a single receipt/expense

A common scenario we've been running into is multiple banking transactions to a single receipt/expense.

 

The workflow goes like this:

  1. Import a receipt for a purchase with a total of say $100. 
  2. Create an expense for the receipt, again for $100.
  3. Company ships the order, but in two (or more) separate transactions, charging a debit/credit card each time.  One for $75, one for $25.
  4. When trying to resolve the banking transactions to the expense, nothing can be found and its non obvious how to even find either of the expenses.   It seems as if the search mechanism is "expenses less than the banking transaction amount".   Since the expense is already filed for $100, but the two bank transactions are less than that, nothing can be found even if you wanted to just match one and ignore the other.
  5. Sadness.  :(

We've run into this in many cases from several different vendors.  Bestbuy, Amazon, etc.  They all charge sep as items ship.    Ebay for a while (back in October/November 2019) was doing multiple transactions once they started collecting sales tax.  I have a whole queue of banking transactions I can't resolve because of this issue.

 

How in the world are you supposed to resolve your banking transactions to an expense when they can't be many -> one?    What is the suggested procedure here?    You can't seem to split an existing expense into multiples.    What is the recommended solution?

 

 

 

26 replies

Moderator
June 29, 2020

Welcome back to the Community, ExpoCorey.
 

I'll show you how to get your expense records properly matched with banking transactions. We'll use the workflow example you provided. Here's what you'd do in such a situation:

  • Step 1: Delete the $100 expense

1. In the left navigation bar, go to Expenses, then Expenses.
2. Locate the record you want to delete.
3. Use the Action ▼ drop-down menu and choose Delete.
4. Select Yes to finalize the deletion. Once an expense is removed, your Audit Log will maintain knowledge of it.

  • Step 2: Recreate the deleted expense as two separate transactions

1. In the menu bar, hit the + New button, then choose Expense.
2. For the Payee field, enter a vendor.
3. Pick a Payment account.
4. Input the date of purchase in the Payment date field and specify the Payment method.
5. Enter the amount/tax paid.
6. Select Save and close.


The last part (Step 3) is to match the receipt with both items. This is how the example you provided can be solved.

There's additionally the option of keeping the expense while excluding the two banking items from your bank feed. Then, you can reconcile the unmatched $100 record. This will also solve the problem, but it won't display a green matched box when being viewed in your register.

I've included an article which may come in handy moving forward: Enter, edit, or delete expenses in QuickBooks Online

Please don't hesitate to respond here if you have any other questions. Have a wonderful day!

February 6, 2021

It's not clear from the link provided for Step 3 how to match the multiple transactions to a single receipt. Can you explain please?

January 12, 2022

I appreciate you for coming up with a workaround. I'll clarify about handling multiple bank feed transactions with a single expense entry, HeathRaftery.

 

Yes, you are right, the Online Banking feature will only let you match a single bank transaction with multiple expenses, not the other way around. Where the option to link a single expense to multiple downloaded transactions is unavailable in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

 

We can create individual expenses for each transaction since QuickBooks suggests matches that have the exact amount. Then, manually clear the expense (if you recorded them in QBO) and exclude them to avoid duplicates. Let me show you how to exclude bank downloaded transactions: 

  1. From the Transactions menu, select Banking.
  2. Click the checking bank account.
  3. From the For review tab, select the two expense transactions. 
  4. Press Exclude. 

 

Then, manually clear the expense in the check register by following these easy steps:

  1. Go to the Accounting menu and click Chart of Accounts. 
  2. Look for the checking account and click View register under the ACTION column.
  3. Select the Expense and under the reconciliation status column indicated with a checkmark, repeatedly click the box until it displays the cleared ( C ) status. 
  4. Press Save.

 

Here's an article you can refer to for more details about categorizing and editing your downloaded banking transactions. If you're about to reconcile your account, I recommend reading our reconciliation guide to ensure your register is accurate.

 

That should do it. Please know that I'm just a post away if you have any other questions about matching transactions in QuickBooks. It'll always be my pleasure to help. Have a great day ahead.


Thanks for the clarification. Again, just so I'm not missing something, why would excluding the transaction help? The  scenario in this topic is that the transactions are valid, it's just that a single expense is split over multiple transactions. Excluding any of them would mean only part of the expense gets recorded, right?

JoesemM
QuickBooks Team
January 13, 2022

We appreciate and have taken note of your feedback about creating expense transactions, @CSG-UK.

 

I'd encourage you to send feedback or product suggestions from QBO where they will be sent directly to our engineers. Here's how:

 

  1. Go to the Gear icon at the top, then select Feedback.
  2. Type in your feedback or product suggestions.
  3. Click Next to submit feedback.

 

The feedback will be forwarded and reviewed by our Product Development team to help improve your experience while using the program. You can also track the request by going to this website: QuickBooks Online Feature Requests.

 

Feel to check out these links and articles for additional guidance reference when dealing with expense transactions in QuickBooks:

 

 

If there's anything else that I can help you with, please let me know in the comment section down below. I'll be always around ready to help. Take good care, @CSG-UK

January 13, 2022

I have now done this thanks, and would encourage any other user to do the same if they feel this would be beneficial. 

June 27, 2022

I might have read wrong, but I don't think this solution addressed the question. I read the question to mean, 1 expense item, multiple bank transactions (same issue I have matching 2 bank transactions to 1 expense). The solution proposed creating 2 expense items linking to the bank transactions.  

July 26, 2023

Hello, 

I don't know if it's the right thing to do. Still, when I run into something like this I would create a copy of the receipt in Adobe, and in red letters, I add a comment with the total amount of $75 and another copy for $25, I upload both receipts keeping in mind it will upload as a duplicate, and match them to each of there transaction.