Match transactions in QuickBooks Online

Learn more about matching transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Matching is one of two ways QuickBooks accounts for your bank transactions. 

When you link your bank or credit card account to QuickBooks, your financial institution sends transactions to QuickBooks. These transactions appear in the For review tab, but won’t affect your books until you match or categorize them.

Matching links the transactions to existing records in your QuickBooks like invoices, receipts, bills, and more to prevent duplicate entries.

When to match versus categorize

When you review your bank transactions, consider whether you already have existing records to match them to. 

As you review each one, you can choose one of the following actions:

• Match the transaction to a record you’ve already entered in QuickBooks.

OR

• Categorize the transaction to add it as a new record in QuickBooks.

Not all bank transactions need a match. You should only match a transaction when you already have a record of it in QuickBooks. Otherwise, categorize it to add it as a new transaction. 

Note: You can also exclude a transaction if you don’t want to add it to your books.

Record types you can match to bank transactions

You can match downloaded transactions to a variety of your records already in QuickBooks. The most common matching example is downloaded payments to bills or invoices. 

When you match a payment to a bill or invoice, QuickBooks:

1. Closes the bill or invoice and marks it as paid.
2. Creates a payment received or bill payment record for you.

Other examples of matching include:

• Bank transactions to paychecks and tax payments.
• Bank transactions to checks and receipts in QuickBooks. 
• Transfers between your bank accounts.
• Credit card payments and refunds to records in QuickBooks.
• Sales channel transactions to deposits, sales receipts and invoices.
• Bank transactions to sales channel transactions.

In most cases, QuickBooks automatically suggests transaction matches for you to confirm. Where QuickBooks can’t find a match, you’ll need to manually find the match yourself. 

Tip: QuickBooks can automatically match transactions made with QuickBooks Payroll, Payments, and Bill Pay.