Do Recurring Transactions in QBO Work for Anyone?

JohnnykT · ‎March 07, 2025

There is so much in QBO that completely mystifies me... and support is more than useless. They are a time sinkhole where you have to teach them what QBO is and how to use it. Not once has the person in support even known what I am talking about.

I used Desktop for ages and I am new to QBO... and completely underwhelmed by how bad it is at nearly everything. Some of that is growing pains... but a lot is just 80% of functionality implemented by Intuit.

Today's problem is Recurring Transactions... do they actually work for anyone. I know a moderator will get on here and point me to the online articles about Recurring Transactions... please don't. Those articles assume the software works, or reference features that no longer exist. The articles are of no help whatsoever.

Let's take a prepaid expense. I p[ay for insurance today for $1200 as a prepaid expense. Now, I need to enter a transaction every month for $100 to actually put the expense in the correct month. Basic accounting.

This is easy to do: setup a recurring transaction to remind me every month to enter the $0 bill (delete $100 from prepaid expenses, increase $100 in Insurance expense). This works perfectly in QBDT. Just set it up and you get a notification every time you login that some items are due.

QBO never reminds you of ANYTHING... you must always go searching for it.

I don't want QBO to SCHEDULE the transaction and enter it automatically -- because (a) I don't trust QBO to do anything, it will do it wrong and (b) I want to updated the memo each month to document it clearly.

If I got to Recurring Transactions and USE the template... it works... but the date of the NEXT occurrence never updates. It just stays the same and I have to re-write the template to have it start next month.

How can I get QBO to actually be helpful and keep track of these things, let me know what needs attention and automatically update to remind me next month?

THe scream you here will be me responding to QBO support answering this question by linking to a useless online article about recurring transactions that is neither accurate nor helpful.

BigRedConsulting

You seem to be building a fair and accurate opinion of QuickBooks Online.

Lots of users here have a similar experience, with broken features and features with terrible designs. Not to mention constant bugs that get in you way.

I saw at least three glaring bugs when trying to create and run memorized reports yesterday in a test file I use to create reports for our Donor Statements product. And also when adding new customers and sub-customers to the customer list. Among other things, the custom reports list intermittently displays without the groups I've set up. Also, memorized reports seem to be able to use columns that don't exist in the user interface when creating new versions of the same report. Weird. Also, after adding a customer or sub-customer, they don't appear on the list to pick as a parent when setting up another sub-customer. The last one set up is always missing.

They are all things I'd never see using Desktop.

I really don't know how users can tolerate using QuickBooks online.

KiazzymaeC

I totally get your frustration, @JohnnykT, and I value the time and effort you've put in to sort this out.

I know you've already reached out to our support team before, but I strongly recommend contacting them again for a more thorough investigation of the issue you're facing. They have the right tools to securely access your account, see things from your perspective, and help guide you in resolving in regards with your recurring transaction.

To contact our support team, here's how:

Log in to your QuickBooks Online account.
Click (?) Help in the upper right corner of your screen.
Select the Search tab and enter your questions or hit Contact Us to get connected with one of our experts.

Please be aware with the availability of our support hours. We are open with this following time:

Monday to Friday 6 AM to 6 PM PT.
Saturday, 6 AM to 3 PM PT.

We're always looking to improve, and your feedback is invaluable in helping us enhance our service. If you have further issues or need assistance with your recurring transactions, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to help you have the best experience possible with our platform.

JohnnykT

While I appreciate your effort to help, I don't think you realize just how useless Quickbooks "support" is... they don't know what a recurring transaction is, they don't know what a reminder is, and they certainly don't know what expensing from a prepaid account it. They do not understand how to use the software.

Instead, they put me on hold while they talk with others who, theoretically, know how to use the software. We're not allowed to talk with those people. So, I have a person who DOES NOT EVEN UNDERSTAND MY PROBLEM, asking another expert how to solve the problem that they DO NOT UNDERSTAND... and, as expected, the response is useless and not applicable.

So.... instead of telling me to try again with the "experts" Intuit has hired... why don't you any my question: does this process actually work for anyone anywhere in QBO? Is there a person ANYWHERE at QBO support that can make Recurring Transactions work?

Or, is it like I suspect... that it's just some fragments of code that no one ever tested and none of it works?

BigRedConsulting

@JohnnykT You're too kind!

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Do Recurring Transactions in QBO Work for Anyone?