Set Up Bank Feed to Existing QuickBook Accounts

Let's connect your bank account, @reolsen.

You must set up an account from your Chart of Accounts. You can click on the Create New Account button to set up a bank account. You can also go to the Lists menu to set up a bank account. Here’s how:

1. Go to the Lists menu and then Chart of Accounts.
2. On the Account dropdown, click on New.
3. On the Choose Account Type window, select Bank and Continue.
4. On the Add New Account window:
5. Set a Bank Name.
6. Select the Enter Opening Balance button and based on your bank statement, type in your Statement Ending Balance and Statement Ending Date. More information about opening balance is available here.
7. Click OK and then Save & Close.

Check this article for more information: Get started with Bank Feeds for QuickBooks Desktop. 

Once done, you can now proceed and connect your bank account. From here, you can now start downloading transactions from your banks. Read this article for more information: Download Bank Feed transactions in QuickBooks Desktop. 

I'm always here if you need more help in setting up your bank connection. Have a great rest of the day!

Thanks for your reply.  As I tried to indicate in my initial question, all three accounts have long been set up in QuickBooks.  I use them all the time.  So there are no new accounts to add.  (I would prefer not to add new accounts and then try to merge them with existing accounts in QuickBooks.)  I am trying to download transaction data into existing account but I am not being given an opportunity in QuickBooks to select the existing accounts.

I appreciate you getting back to us, @reolsen.

There are two possible reasons why you can't select your existing bank account from your bank feeds to download your transactions. It could be:

• Your bank is having a website maintenance as of that moment.
• Your QuickBooks release version is not updated.

I'd recommend verifying the website maintenance from your bank. You can attempt to reconnect your bank after their website maintenance.

However, if they don't have website maintenance, let's update your QuickBooks release version. Here's how:

1. Go to the Help menu, then select Update QuickBooks Desktop.
2. Select the Update now tab.
3. Put a checkmark in the Reset Update checkbox.
4. Click Get Updated tp start the download.
5. Once done, restart your QuickBooks Desktop and accept the option to install the new release.

I'm adding this article for more details: Update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release.

After updating the latest version, you can now select your existing bank accounts from the bank feeds and download your transactions from there. 

You might also want to check out this article to learn how to match transactions in QuickBooks Desktop: Add and match Bank Feed transactions.

If you need any additional assistance while managing your bank transactions, you can leave a comment below. I'll be sure to get back to you.

Thanks again.  Unfortunately, my bank was not updating its accounts, and my version of QuickBooks Desktop was already fully up to date.  I continue not to be given the opportunity to select any of the identified bank accounts to download bank feed transactions.

Question: I wonder whether it would be useful to delete three Web connections with our checking account (already linked) or our savings account (not yet able to link).  One happens to connect with the wrong QuickBooks account.  Would there be any harm in deleting the unneeded Web connections?

Any other thoughts as to what might be the problem here?  Can I get advice directly from QuickBooks support if necessaary?

Thanks for sharing additional details, @reolsen.

I also appreciate you for performing the troubleshooting steps suggested by my colleague Mark_R above. Just to make sure we’re on the same page, were you able to contact your bank and verify if there are changes made on their end? If not, I recommend contacting them and verify of any changes.

If so and there are none, I got some additional troubleshooting steps to fix this. I recommend running the Verify and Rebuild utility tool. This tool easily identifies and fixes issues within your company file. Let me guide you how.

To Verify:

1. Go to the File menu.
2. Select Utilities.
3. Then click Verify Data.

To Rebuild:

1. Go to the File menu.
2. Select Utilities.
3. Simply click Rebuild Data.

You can also check this article for more details about the troubleshooting steps: Verify and Rebuild Data in QuickBooks Desktop.

Also, there’s no harm in deleting those unneeded Web transactions. I'd recommend contacting your accountant for additional guidance in deleting those transactions. This way, we'll ensure the accuracy of your accounts after making these changes.

Additionally, if you wish to contact our Support team, you can reach out to them by following these steps:

1. Go to the Help menu.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. Click Contact Us.
4. Enter a brief discussion of your concern and click Continue.

You might also want to visit our Support Hours page to know the best time to contact them at a time that is convenient for you.

Lastly, let me add this article that can guide you in reconciling your account effectively: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Desktop.

Let me know if you have other concerns or questions about managing your banking feeds. I’m more than happy to help you anytime. Have a great day ahead and keep safe!

Thank you for your patience and support.

This is to let you know that I contacted my bank, and the bank assured me that it was neither updating accounts yesterday nor aware of any other reasons why the names of three of my QuickBooks accounts fail to appear when I click on a dropdown menu within QuickBooks.  So there is no confusion, please be aware that I have no problem connecting with the bank online from within QuickBooks, the three accounts are identified by the bank as available to link with my QuickBooks accounts, but QuickBooks fails to identify the accounts (to allow me to link them) when I click on the dropdown menu next to "Select existing or create new".  See the attached file.

I then ran the Verify Data in QuickBooks routine you suggested, but QuickBooks reported that there was no missing data.

A few other facts and questions:

1.  I recently gave our auditor access to read-only copies of our QuickBooks financials for the period January 2, 2017 to the present) by authorizing her (the "accountant") to have access to (and theoretically to change) financial information on or before January 1, 2017 (of which there is none).  Is it possible that access may be affecting my ability to link the three bank accounts?

2.  When I asked above about deleting Web linked accounts, I wasn't suggesting deleting any accounting data posted to QuickBooks or deleting any QuickBooks accounts from my chart of accounts.  I was only suggesting deleting the links ("Web links") by which I had, in the past, in two stages downloaded bank transactions to my computer and then uploaded the data into QuickBooks.  One of those Web links, in fact, was incorrect and caused checking account data to be uploaded to a savings account in error.  I am wondering whether the existence of those Web links may be hindering my ability to establish new account links directly between my bank and QuickBooks.

3.  I have no concern here about reconciling accounts, but thanks for the information.

How do you suggest I proceed?  Thanks again.

Thank you for the detailed information and screenshot added, @reolsen.

I appreciate the steps you've performed while trying to fix the issue you're getting when clicking the drop-down arrow beside the Select existing or create new section. Since those steps don't make any difference, we can proceed with repairing your QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). This helps resolve common errors in QBDT.

Here's how to run the repair tool:

Here's how to run the repair tool:

1. First, create a back up of your company file.
2. Restart your computer to make sure there are no programs that may affect the repair.
3. Open the Windows Start menu, then select Control Panel. If you're using Windows 8 or 8.1, search "Control Panel" in the Windows Start menu.
4. Click Programs and Features then Uninstall a Program. If you don't see Programs and Features, select Programs instead. Then select Program and Features.
5. Choose QuickBooks from the list of Programs, then Uninstall/Change.
6. Tap Continue, or Next.
7. Hit Repair, then Next. The repair should start right away, but it may take a while to finish. You can leave it running, and come back once it's done.
8. Once completed, select Finish. Then You restart your computer to complete the repair.

Once QBDT is open, update it to the latest release or make sure you have the most recent fixes and security updates. For your guide check out the instructions from this link.

Then, try clicking the drop-down options under the QuickBooks Accounts column. If the error continues, I encourage reaching out to our Support Team. This way, a representative can open your account securely and be able to review and investigate the root cause of the error. To contact support, follow the steps provided by JasroV above or follow the steps provided from here: Contact the QuickBooks Desktop Customer Support Team.

In case you need related topics about banking in the future, feel free to open the articles from this link.

Get back to me if there's anything you need assistance with. I'm always here to help you out. Keep safe, @reolsen!

Thanks for the suggestions.  QuickBooks Support later confirmed my suspicion that I was unable to edit and add to the bank feed links because I had previously created an accountant's copy of our financials.  When I cancelled the accountant's copy restriction, QuickBook accounts to link to began to appear in the dropdown menus.  For now, my concern is substantially resolved.  Thanks again.

I had the same problem. I fixed it by Choosing Chart of Accounts, Edit Account, for the account I wanted to use that wasn't in the drop down list. Once in Edit Account, there should be two tabs at the top, one for General and one for Bank feeds.  Choose, Bank Feeds and then choose the Deactivate box.  Now, go back to upload the manual QBO file or connect for the direct feed and you should see now the account you were looking for previously but wasn't there.  Try this first before all the other suggestions.

I have a problem that might be similar to this issue. I am new to QBO and using bank feed (since January) When I set up my banking feed, it created the account shown on the attached JPG. I believe I should have it feeding into my COA #1005 which is the checking account. I would like to fix this but worry about the transactions that have already been fed since January. Can someone please provide the steps for me to fix the bank feed and make sure all transactions come over correctly and not duplicative of what came over previously.

Hi there, @dkeiner. I'm here to lend a hand.

If you have two bank accounts, 1 is connected to online banking in your QuickBooks Online (QBO) account and the other is not, the option to merge is unavailable. You may need to choose what to keep or use moving forward. 

If you decided to keep the bank account that is connected to online banking, you can manually upload transactions by clicking the Upload from file option on the Banking page.

Here's how:

1. On the left navigation bar, click Banking or Transactions menu.
2. Go to the Banking tab.
3. Select the blue tile for the account you want to upload the transactions into.
4. Choose the Link account ▼ dropdown and click Upload from file. 
5. Click Browse.
6. Choose the file you want to upload.
7. Click Next. 
8. Under QuickBooks Account, select the bank account, then press Next.
9. Map the columns and click Next.
10. Select the transactions to import and hit Next until finish.

But if you want to connect the other one, you can link it to online banking to automatically download bank transactions up to a certain date. 

Additionally, if duplicate transactions are showing, you can exclude the transactions.

1. On the left navigation bar, click Banking or Transactions menu.
2. Go to the Banking tab.
3. Choose the account that is showing duplicate.
4. Click the For Review tab.
5. Mark the checkbox of the transactions you want to exclude.
6. Select the Exclude option

For more insights about the process above, please check out these articles: 

• Manually upload transactions into QuickBooks Online
• Exclude a bank transaction you downloaded into QuickBooks Online

For future help, here's an article you can use to reconcile the account in QuickBooks: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

On the other hand, if you’re referring to something else, please let me know and kindly attach the JPG file again, so I can provide the most accurate resolution.

Drop me a comment below if you have any other questions. I'll be happy to help you some more. Keep safe and have a great day!