Square Gift Card sales and Square Gift Card Discounts sync over to QBO as "Square Items", and not my preferred service category name

Thank you for your help. How would I manually assign to a specific category? Are you saying I should manually assign gift card transactions for example, to my Gift Card folder, and manually assign any discounts to my Gift Card discount folder?

With that, all future transactions that are Gift Cards, or Gift Card Discounts should map there automatically?

I know you also gave an example of a customer's names requiring an exact match, which is the same as product and services.  Does that mean I need to know the exact name of how Gift Cards and Gift Card Discounts are listed from Square, and add that to QBO?

I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts on this, @musicbizlover.

Allow me to chime in and share some ideas about Square Gift Card sales and Square Gift Card Discounts in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

To begin, you need to manually assign Square Gift Card sales and discounts to a specific category by setting up an account in the Chart of Accounts (COA). If you haven't created an income account yet, you'll need to do so and ensure it is assigned appropriately. If you already have an existing income account, simply select that specific account for your Square Gift Card items.

To change your income account for Square Items, you can follow the steps below:

1. Go to Sales, then select Products & services.
2. In the Find products and services field, search for Square Item.
3. Click Edit.
4. Under the Income account dropdown, choose the account you want to record.
5. Then select Save and Close.

In addition, it's crucial to manually assign Gift Card transactions to the specific Gift Card folder and Gift Card Discounts to their respective folder to maintain accurate financial records. This process ensures proper tracking, reporting and facilitates seamless reconciliation with bank statements. To maximize automation, use the exact naming conventions provided by your payment processing system, such as Square.

To ensure seamless automation and accurate mapping of future transactions involving gift cards and gift card discounts, it is essential to use precise naming standards for items, customer names, products, and services. These standards can be found in the Square item section under the menu. This approach will help ensure alignment with your payment system in QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

Moreover, after linking the Square Gift card transactions to your QuickBooks accounts, you can categorize them and reconcile your account to ensure it consistently aligns with your monthly statements.

The Community is always available 24/7. Fill me in if you need extra help with your transactions or QuickBooks in general. Your efforts are much appreciated, stay safe!