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jeffbean
Level 5

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Still learning how QBO's Banking works. Not at all intuitive for me. Help?

 

I few days ago I emailed a receipt. I confirmed it is showing in the Receipts tab. I waited for the banking transaction to show in my banking feed to see how matching works.

 

Today the banking transaction downloaded. Even though the Description/vendor field values and Amounts field values are identical, QBO didn't offer to match them. 

 

First question: I thought QBO would offer to match a transaction with a receipt, automatically when the transactions are imported from my bank, if there was a match. It didn't. Is it supposed to? 

 

QBO didn't match them, so I did it myself. Or at least I tried. From the banking feed, I clicked Find match. QBO didn't find it. I read somewhere it would find it if I Added it first. So I added it. Still no match found.

 

Second question: I thought QBO would offer to match a transaction with a receipt if I specifically manually told it to go look for a match and there was one. It didn't. Is it supposed to?

 

Lastly, since QBO didn't find the match on its own, and wouldn't find it when I told it go find it, I went to the Receipts tab. There the receipt was showing the match ("1 record found"). This clearly confirms that QBO was capable of matching the transaction and the receipt based on the data provided in each (even though the dates were off by one day), it just chose not to.

 

Third question: Is this the way QBO is supposed to work? If it won't find a match automatically when transactions import, and won't find it when I tell it to Find a match from the Banking review tab, will it only match a receipt with a transaction, and only from the Receipts tab, and only after I've added the transaction?

Solved
Best answer June 01, 2021

Best Answers
MadelynC
Moderator

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I really appreciate you for taking the time to post your concern here in the Community, @jeffbean.


Let me share some information on how QuickBooks Online banking works.


For your first question, QuickBooks Online reads the receipts, extracts information, and automatically matches to a transaction. However,  QuickBooks won't automatically match them from the banking page to the receipt, unless (either receipt or banking transaction) is already added. 


Sometimes if the transactions aren’t exactly the same, QuickBooks won’t find it. And it's you to manually locate and match them.


 QuickBooks Online allows users to directly upload receipts to the QuickBooks Online banking center where QuickBooks will read the receipt and either match to an existing transaction or allow users to add a new one.

 

There some criteria that could prevent the program from matching. Kindly check these:

 

  1. Verify the transaction first.
  2. Make sure the QuickBooks Online transaction has not been previously matched to another transaction.

Once you add the receipts and bills in QuickBooks, they’ll show up in the For Review tab where you can review, edit, and match transactions. The receipts tab is where you can manage to match your expense receipts and bills all in one place.


You can read more of these articles about matching and managing receipts: Capture and categorize receipts and bills.

 

I also added our help articles where you can learn more about banking, account management, and many others. You can select each to view them.

 

If QuickBooks unable to match, try to clear your browser’s cache. There are times unexpected behavior occurs. You can always get back to me here in the forum if you have follow up questions. Please take care.

View solution in original post

jeffbean
Level 5

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

So you've confirmed what I found: Quickbooks will match a receipt to a banking transaction, but it won't match a banking transaction to a receipt (not unless the receipt has already been matched to or added as a transaction first).

 

Apparently I should change my bookkeeping process to accommodate the way Quickbooks wants me to work, which is to review receipts first, match them to existing transactions or add them as transactions, then when the banking transactions download they should match.

 

(To correct a misconception: QBO had no problem matching the the receipt with the banking transaction, eventually, once it decided to look for it.)

View solution in original post

jeffbean
Level 5

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I can't believe that nearly a year later I'm still dealing with this issue.

 

The one part through all this that I thought QBO could do correctly was to match a Banking Transaction to an Expense that had been created from a Receipt. In reliance on this functioning, I changed my workflow: processing Receipts and creating Expenses from them before processing Banking Transactions. I had expected it to match correctly and reliably.

 

What I have learned over the months is that sometimes QBO will match correctly. Yet it often matches incorrectly, requiring correction. It often won't match at all, requiring manual matching. Worse, QBO will often not let me correctly match the Banking transaction with its matching expense.

 

At this moment I have sitting in my Expenses tab an Expense created from a Receipt. The Banking Transaction for it has been imported from the bank and is showing For review in my Transactions > Banking tab. Their Payees match. Their Amounts match. Their Dates match. Their Payment accounts match. But QBO will not, cannot, match them. Worse, QBO will not let me match these two transactions manually myself. 

 

Not only is QBO unreliable, it is prohibiting me from doing my bookkeeping.

View solution in original post

38 Comments 38
MadelynC
Moderator

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I really appreciate you for taking the time to post your concern here in the Community, @jeffbean.


Let me share some information on how QuickBooks Online banking works.


For your first question, QuickBooks Online reads the receipts, extracts information, and automatically matches to a transaction. However,  QuickBooks won't automatically match them from the banking page to the receipt, unless (either receipt or banking transaction) is already added. 


Sometimes if the transactions aren’t exactly the same, QuickBooks won’t find it. And it's you to manually locate and match them.


 QuickBooks Online allows users to directly upload receipts to the QuickBooks Online banking center where QuickBooks will read the receipt and either match to an existing transaction or allow users to add a new one.

 

There some criteria that could prevent the program from matching. Kindly check these:

 

  1. Verify the transaction first.
  2. Make sure the QuickBooks Online transaction has not been previously matched to another transaction.

Once you add the receipts and bills in QuickBooks, they’ll show up in the For Review tab where you can review, edit, and match transactions. The receipts tab is where you can manage to match your expense receipts and bills all in one place.


You can read more of these articles about matching and managing receipts: Capture and categorize receipts and bills.

 

I also added our help articles where you can learn more about banking, account management, and many others. You can select each to view them.

 

If QuickBooks unable to match, try to clear your browser’s cache. There are times unexpected behavior occurs. You can always get back to me here in the forum if you have follow up questions. Please take care.

jeffbean
Level 5

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

So you've confirmed what I found: Quickbooks will match a receipt to a banking transaction, but it won't match a banking transaction to a receipt (not unless the receipt has already been matched to or added as a transaction first).

 

Apparently I should change my bookkeeping process to accommodate the way Quickbooks wants me to work, which is to review receipts first, match them to existing transactions or add them as transactions, then when the banking transactions download they should match.

 

(To correct a misconception: QBO had no problem matching the the receipt with the banking transaction, eventually, once it decided to look for it.)

jeffbean
Level 5

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Curious. This reply above from @MadelynC was just marked as a "Solution." I didn't do that. (I didn't because it didn't address all my questions and spent more time answering questions I didn't ask.) Someone else identified it as a "Solution." Didn't know that would happen in this forum.

AileneA
QuickBooks Team

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Hi there, @jeffbean

 

I will be forwarding this to our engineer's team to further review regarding the marked as a Solution. Moving forward to answer your questions, QuickBooks matched the downloaded transaction with the one you already entered. This links the two so there aren't any duplicates. All you have to do is make sure the match is correct.  

  

Though, you may not be able to automatically find a match for a number of reasons, if the transaction is outside of the date range you are searching, the difference to resolve is too large, the sales receipt is over 90 days old, etc. 

 

In addition, here's an article you can read to learn more about managing your downloaded transactions and uploaded receipts: 

 

 

In case you need some related articles in managing your bank account, you can always visit our Banking and Bank Feeds page for reference. 

 

If thee's anything else that I can help you with, please let me know in the comment section down below. I'll always be around ready to help. Take care!

DanielleGM
Level 1

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Hello,

I have been adding bills in QBO. I then upload the bills and most of them end up matching except a handful every time. Any idea as to why? 

 

I enter the bill manually first because if I upload to create the bills, the terms aren't included or the vendor or the category (ie. food purchase) and sometimes the invoice number too. It's quicker to enter the bill manually and then upload to match, however the matches are not always finding the bill even though it is in there with all the same information. Am I missing something here? 

 

ReymondO
QuickBooks Team

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Let me share with you some insights on how you can categorize downloaded transactions in QuickBooks, @DanielleGM.

 

Once import bank transactions using the Excel CSV files, QuickBooks will scan your data looking for matches, rules, and recognized transactions. As you review them, you can match the transactions against existing transactions in QuickBooks.

 

Transactions added or matched are automatically marked “cleared” in the register after you accept them. 

 

However, there are several reasons QuickBooks may not recognize a match:

 

  • The transaction is not in the books.
  • The transaction is older than 180 days.
  • The transaction that you've imported is a payment/ deposit of two or more open transactions in QuickBooks.
  • The transaction was recorded in a different bank account.

 

You can use the Find Match tool and turn on Suggested Matches to see options that might match. Or, you can use filters/searches to locate transactions. Here's how:

 

  1. From the Banking menu, select Banking and go to the For review tab.
  2. Click the transaction and select Find match. If you can't find the match, click Find other matches.
  3. Turn on the Suggested Matches button. Then, look for the match transactions and check their boxes. 
  4. Select Save.

 

Also, I've included an article that will help you in matching your transactions: Tips for Working in QuickBooks Online’s Bank Feeds: Matching Transactions.

 

Don't hesitate to tag my name in the comment section below if you have other concerns in matching your transactions in QuickBooks. I'm always ready to help.

ChrisDon
Level 2

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

This is SOOOOOO FRUSTRATING. I've spent hours and hours trying to match receipts to transactions and there is no simple way of doing this (even after a 45 minute CHAT session, where the customer service rep was as equally confused as I was). Should be SO simple:

 

> Receipt comes into Transactions

> QB looks to see if there is a Receipt Match. If yes, then:

> Asks if you want to MATCH receipt when you click ADD Transaction. 

> Done. 

 

Am I missing something? Let me know and thanks. 

 

Maybelle_S
QuickBooks Team

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I want to ensure this is taken care of, @ChrisDon.

 

My colleague @MadelynC has already provided information about matching receipt in QuickBooks Online (QBO). Also, I'd recommend contacting our Customer Support Team again. This way, they can access your account and help you further with this.

 

I've added some articles here about managing your downloaded transactions in QBO:

Don't hesitate to drop a comment below if you have other questions. I'm always happy to help. Take care!

Olafandmaggie
Level 2

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

No, you're not and I think many users are right where you are with this feature. I have numerous receipts that I can't get to match the transaction that is in QBO. 

AlexV
QuickBooks Team

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Good day, Olafandmaggie.

 

There are possible reasons why we're unable to find the match.

 

First, the transaction was recorded to the wrong bank account in QuickBooks Online. You'll want to find and open the receipt and check if it's in the right account. Then, you'll want to correct it if needed.

 

Second, the dollar amount in QuickBooks is not equal to or higher than the bank transaction. You can edit the original transaction and refresh the bank feed window.

 

Also, we need to make sure that we recorded it using the right transaction type. Use the Find Match tool to manually match them.

 

I've added these links for your reference:

Leave a comment again if you need more help. Stay safe!

dnash13
Level 1

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I Spent HOURRRRS talking with chat about this exact thread and was (paraphrased) told "sorry quickbooks doesnt work the way you want it to work" 

 

Case # [removed]

 

Horrible customer service. Horrible software mapping. 

 

Everyone above this comment has 

1) made a transaction 

2) has their bank linked to quickbooks so said transaction comes into the book automatically

3) WOULD LIKE TO LINK THE RECEIPT PICTURE TO THE TRANSACTION AS A STATED SERVICE OF QUICKBOOKS FOR EASE OF ORGANIZATION AT TAX SEASON

4) cant do that because of unclear reasons the software wont match the receipts??? 

 

What a giant waste of time and money. 

Kay_T
Level 2

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I put in one receipt to see if I could avoid entering it as a bill,  then tried to allow the match when the bank transaction came through.  When I tried to manually match the bank transaction to the receipt, there is no way to do this.  It will be easier for me to either enter these as a bill or track them in my email system.  This functionality will create more work, not save any.

9414-0522
Level 1

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Same thing for me.

After take all my receipts in picture with QBO on my phone,

I've not figure how to match with any transactions on my bank acount.

No one can tell me what happen here.

It seem like you have to create a expense and match with bank acount and after add a picture of the receipts.

Receive a expense on bank acount, receive a expense on QBO acount, match then ETC.

I really want to change my software now!

IamjuViel
QuickBooks Team

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Let me share additional information on how QuickBooks handles your receipts, @9414-0522.

 

With QuickBooks receipt capture feature, you can now snap and store receipts digitally using the Optical Character Recognition (OCR). It extracts the necessary data, such as the vendor and the amount, to create a transaction record allocating the purchase to one of your categories for business expenses. There are three (3) different ways to attach digital copies of your receipts to transactions. 

 

Once you take a picture of your receipts, the system  will take up to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the file used, to be uploaded. Once uploaded, it will automatically tries to detect for a matched transaction. However, if you're unable to find once, you can click the Review link from the Action column. 

 

Once completed, you can now match it with your downloaded bank transactions. You can follow these articles for the detailed steps on how you can manage your transactions:

On the other hand, refer to these articles for more information about tracking check transactions in QuickBooks:

Don’t hesitate to click the Reply button if you have other questions or concerns when using QuickBooks to track your transactions. I'm always here to help.

TheReluctantAccountant
Level 3

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I'd been (unsuccessfully) attempting to match receipts taken with the app with credit card transactions.  The cards are linked so QBO can obtain the transactions automatically.

 

The insight above that I have categorize and accept the transaction before QBO will match the receipt was enlightening.  Once I did that, it worked well.

 

QBO Tech Team: If I already know the transaction, I can save your OCR a lot of work by simply matching the picture to the expense myself.  The user could then have a button for "match receipt" on the bottom of the categorization screen, just like there is currently "add attachment".

HappyThoughts
Level 2

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Just to confirm, I am also having the same issue.  I have tons of receipts that have been added to an expense transaction, but QBO won't Auto Match the bank feed to the transaction.  I have to tediously click on each transaction in my bank feed and select "FIND MATCH".  This forces QBO to look for a match, whicj 95% of the time it nails it right aweay.  I mean if QBO can find the match right away, why doesnt it just Auto-Match it so I can just confirm all of my transactions IN BULK, rather than just one by one???  Taking me forever to do this for the whole year, for all of my doggone receipts! 

HappyThoughts
Level 2

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Just to confirm, I am also having the same issue.  I have tons of receipts that have been added to an expense transaction, but QBO won't Auto Match the bank feed to the transaction.  I have to tediously click on each transaction in my bank feed and select "FIND MATCH".  This forces QBO to look for a match, whicj 95% of the time it nails it right aweay.  I mean if QBO can find the match right away, why doesnt it just Auto-Match it so I can just confirm all of my transactions IN BULK, rather than just one by one???  Taking me forever to do this for the whole year, for all of my doggone receipts! 

HappyThoughts
Level 2

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Just to confirm, I am also having the same issue.  I have tons of receipts that have been added to an expense transaction, but QBO won't Auto Match the bank feed to the transaction.  I have to tediously click on each transaction in my bank feed and select "FIND MATCH".  This forces QBO to look for a match, whicj 95% of the time it nails it right aweay.  I mean if QBO can find the match right away, why doesnt it just Auto-Match it so I can just confirm all of my transactions IN BULK, rather than just one by one???  Taking me forever to do this for the whole year, for all of my doggone receipts! 

DebSheenD
QuickBooks Team

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

Hi, HappyThoughts.

Thank you for sharing your concern here in the Community. Let me share the possible reason why QuickBooks won't automatically match the downloaded receipts.

If you see Review in the action column, that means QuickBooks know it matches too many transactions.
This is the reason why it won't categorize them as Match.

However, if there is only one possible match in the receipt, QuickBooks will automatically show it as Match in the Action column.

Since you've uploaded the receipts and bills in QuickBooks. These aren't your account yet. You need to review, edit, and match those existing transactions first:

  1. Go to the Banking menu or Transactions menu.
  2. Select the Receipts tab.
  3. Select a bill or receipt to see more details

If you see Review in the Action column, select it to make corrections or add missing info.

To categorize expenses and bills into the right account, follow the steps for your situation:

  • If you see Match in the Action column, it means QuickBooks thinks it matches a transaction you already entered. Review the Linked Record, this is the potential match. Select Match to connect it to the uploaded expense or bill so QuickBooks doesn't record duplicates.
  • If you know there isn't a matching transaction, create a brand new expense or bill from the image. Go to the Expenses menu and select the Expenses tab. Select New transaction and then Expense. Create a new expense and attach the receipt or bill image.
  • If there are multiple matches, select Review. Compare the potential matches and select the correct matching transaction.

I've also included this article that will help you match the receipts and bill into QuickBooks.

Feel free to get back to this post if you have additional concerns. I'm always here to help.

Lexah
Level 1

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

When are QBO just going to admit that you have designed a buggy piece of software that does not work very well. I'm literally sitting at my laptop now having:

 

1. Snapped a receipt on my mobile

2. Added the transaction that receipt is for in the banking tab

3. Reviewed the receipt in the receipts tab and made sure that every detail - even matching upper case and spacings - matches the added transaction.

4. Repeated process several times over only to be told every time that a match can't be found.

 

Surely even if only a few pieces of info match (amount, vendor, date within 5 days maybe since sometimes the transaction won't be processed by bank until a few days after it was paid) then that should be enough to at least offer me the chance to match it.

 

It would be quicker for me to take my own photo, bluetooth it to my laptop and then drag and drop it or attach it to the transaction.  I'd prefer not to have to do this as the whole point is to firstly save time and also save having to file either data on my laptop or the paper copy.

 

Just take some ownership of the fact your system does not work efficiently and re design it. At the very least please please stop giving everyone the same generic answers when if you bother to read the posts properly you can see that we have all tried multiple work arounds and are clearly not stupid. FFS.

 

 

jeffbean
Level 5

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I can't believe that nearly a year later I'm still dealing with this issue.

 

The one part through all this that I thought QBO could do correctly was to match a Banking Transaction to an Expense that had been created from a Receipt. In reliance on this functioning, I changed my workflow: processing Receipts and creating Expenses from them before processing Banking Transactions. I had expected it to match correctly and reliably.

 

What I have learned over the months is that sometimes QBO will match correctly. Yet it often matches incorrectly, requiring correction. It often won't match at all, requiring manual matching. Worse, QBO will often not let me correctly match the Banking transaction with its matching expense.

 

At this moment I have sitting in my Expenses tab an Expense created from a Receipt. The Banking Transaction for it has been imported from the bank and is showing For review in my Transactions > Banking tab. Their Payees match. Their Amounts match. Their Dates match. Their Payment accounts match. But QBO will not, cannot, match them. Worse, QBO will not let me match these two transactions manually myself. 

 

Not only is QBO unreliable, it is prohibiting me from doing my bookkeeping.

ChrisDon
Level 2

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

The accountants need to lead the workflow, not the engineers..... that's the main problem. It's incredible that a tool *supposedly* this mature still stumbles over something this basic. Is anyone at QB listening (other than the perfunctory 'empathy based' responses popularized by Apple?)

Rolar
Level 2

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

How's it coming with resolving this issue?  I have lots of examples where the transaction is recent, no reason it shouldn't be found when searching for transactions.  I end up printing the receipt from the receipts section and then manually adding it to the transaction.  

 

"Search Manually" from the receipts page isnt' finding the transactions that are sitting there on the Banking Page.  I've tried and reviewed all suggestion in this post and the problem is not resolved.  Seems it is not resolved for the original poster.

 

Help.  This is burning lots of time I don't have and I'm very frustrated.

Carneil_C
QuickBooks Team

QBO Won't Match Receipt with Transaction, but it will Match Transaction with Receipt?

I appreciate you for joining the thread, @Rolar. It's not the kind of impression that we want you to have. 

 

I know you're putting so much effort and time into getting a resolution to your concern. I’ll make sure you get routed to the right direction of support to sort out this issue with matching receipts with transactions. 

 

Since the issue persists after trying out the steps provided by my colleague above, I recommend reaching out to our QuickBooks Support Team. They have tools to pull up your account in a safe environment to find the root cause of your concern and find a fix.

 

Here’s how you can reach out to them: 

 

  1. Click the Help (?) icon at the top.
  2. Type Talk to a human.
  3. Enter your issue or question on the What can we help you with box.
  4. Review and Select from the following: Ask the communityChat with us, or Have us call you (callback).

 

To ensure that we address your concern on time, you can check our available hours when contacting our support.

 

In the meantime, feel free to review these handy resources that can help you manage your receipts and bank transactions: 

 

 

I’m always ready to assist you if you have any other questions or concerns about managing your bank transactions in QuickBooks Online. Tag me in your reply and I’ll sprint back into action. Have a good one and keep safe.

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