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Use Ready to post in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit• Updated about 23 hours ago

Learn how to review and post transactions that QuickBooks Online marks as Ready to post, and how to set your Ready to post criteria through your Transaction posting policy so automation follows your company's standards.

When you connect a bank account, QuickBooks Online imports your transactions and suggests categories from your chart of accounts that may be appropriate. Ready to post helps you move faster based on the work you've done in the past. QuickBooks finds the transactions it can categorise with high confidence, so you can review and post them as a batch instead of one at a time. Your Ready to post criteria set the standards a transaction must meet first.

Note: Ready to post is an Accounting AI feature, available with QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, and Advanced on the new AI-powered banking page. It isn't available in QuickBooks Online Simple Start

What is Ready to post?

Ready to post is part of the automated categorisation experience in your bank feed. As transactions come in, Accounting AI compares each one to transactions you've already categorised and to your Ready to post criteria. When the evidence supports a single, clear category and a payee or customer if your books usually include one, QuickBooks marks the category as ready. If you require only a category to post, that transaction will be Ready to post.

Many companies require additional fields such as from/to, class, or location on some or all of their transactions. If you require these fields, or your history shows that you used them for similar transactions, the transaction is only marked Ready to post if both the category and those fields are high confidence. If one or more fields are required and low confidence, that transaction is marked Held for review and won't show up in Ready to post.

You stay in control. You review them, make any edits, and post them when you're ready. Transactions that don't qualify stay in your bank feed for your usual review.

How does QuickBooks decide a transaction is ready?

A transaction is only marked ready when the evidence supports it. QuickBooks checks each transaction against several requirements:

Your history is the evidence: QuickBooks looks for similar transactions you've posted before with the same category. If there's no history to support a suggestion, the transaction waits for your review, even if the suggested category seems right.
One clear category: The transaction needs a single confident category suggestion. If more than one category could apply, QuickBooks reserves the transaction for more thorough review.
A payee/customer, class, or location when your books expect one: If you usually record an additional field such as a payee, class, or location on similar transactions, QuickBooks requires a confident suggestion for that field before the transaction can be ready. You can change which fields are required in your Ready to post criteria.
Your Ready to post criteria: QuickBooks checks each transaction against your criteria, which fields are required how far back to look for similar transactions, and important triggers like amounts that should receive extra review. A transaction that fails a single check is held for your review.
Your bank rules: Transactions that match rules you've created can also be marked ready if they meet all of your Ready to post criteria. AI never overrides your bank rules or causes your rules to auto-post a transaction.
Transaction posting notes: Share additional context or preferences. This may include how to assign certain unique categories, matching guidance, nuances with certain suppliers or in financial accounts, more complex accounting requirements, and more. The notes serve as documentation for how to work in your bank feed, and can be useful to others posting in your file, such as a colleague, client, or accountant.

The design is conservative on purpose. When QuickBooks isn't sure, it asks you instead of guessing.

Review and post transactions

When a bank account has transactions that are ready, a banner on your Bank transactions page shows you how many. You can also find them anytime with the Ready to post filter.

Go to All apps , select Accounting, then select Bank transactions (Take me there).
Select the Pending tab for the bank account you want to review.
Select Review on the banner, or turn on Ready to post. QuickBooks shows the ready transactions and selects them all.
Review each transaction. Check the category, the payee or customer, and the amount. Review signals show you which fields are backed by your history.
To change something, edit the transaction directly in the list, or select the transaction to expand it. QuickBooks saves your edits when you post.
Uncheck the checkbox for any transaction you want to come back to later.
Select Post.
Note: If you want to post a single transaction instead of multiple, select Post from the Action column.

QuickBooks posts the selected transactions to your books and refreshes your bank feed. Posting a large batch can take a moment.

Note: If only a few transactions are ready, the banner may not appear. You can still find them with the Ready to post filter.

Set your Ready to post criteria

Your Ready to post criteria are the standards a transaction must meet before QuickBooks marks it ready. They control which fields are required and how far back Accounting AI looks when comparing similar transactions.

You can review and change them in the Accounting tab from the Account and settings. The Personalise this feature link on the ready-to-post banner takes you there, or select Manage policies from any expanded transaction in your bank feed.

On the Transaction posting policy panel, select Edit.
Under Required fields, select a setting for From/To (customer/supplier), Class, and Location. Category is always required and can't be changed.
- Based on categorisation history—QuickBooks follows your existing patterns. If similar transactions usually include the field, it's required. If they don't, it isn't. If QuickBooks can't find history for that transaction, the field defaults to required.
- Always required—every transaction needs this field before it can be marked ready.
- Never required—transactions can be marked ready without it.
Under Transactions require review, enter an amount in Amount exceeds. Transactions above this amount are never marked ready—they always wait for your review.
Under History settings, set the Effective date. QuickBooks only compares against similar transactions dated after this date. If your accounting practices recently changed, a more recent date keeps old patterns from guiding new suggestions.
Under Transaction posting notes, add any additional criteria for ready to post transactions in your own words. This may include preferences, unique transaction treatment, or accounting guidelines that are important for your company.
Select Save. QuickBooks applies these settings to any transaction you import from this point forward and reevaluates your recent, unposted transactions. You can see revised predictions and assessments on the Pending tab in Bank transactions. Changing your Transaction posting policy never modifies transactions you've already posted.

How your criteria control Ready to post

Every imported transaction is checked against your criteria before it can be marked ready. A transaction qualifies only when it passes every check that applies. When a check fails—a required field is missing, the amount is over your review threshold, or there isn't enough similar history after your effective date—QuickBooks holds the transaction for your review and records the reason. Your criteria are yours to adjust anytime as your business changes.

Understand Policy reviews and Review signals

Ready to post is built to show its work. Two tools explain what the automation did and why, so you can trust what you post.

Read Review signals

Review signals are colour-coded icons on individual fields of a transaction, such as the category, class, or payee. They show which fields are backed by your transaction history and which ones need your attention. Use them to focus your review on the fields that matter.

Green tick—QuickBooks has strong data backing the suggestion. A clear pattern exists in your company's history.
Blue info—QuickBooks found some data to work with, but there's variation across similar transactions. Confirm the suggestion is right before you post.
Orange alert—limited data backs the suggestion. Review it carefully, gather any context you need, and adjust the fields before you post.

Read Policy reviews

Every transaction keeps a log of the checks that ran on it. Select a transaction to expand it, then select the Policy reviews tab. When one or more checks failed, the tab shows a red badge with the number of failed checks.

Checks are grouped by outcome, with a count for each group. Held for review appears first and lists what failed and why, such as “Low confidence prediction for category” or “Past transactions disagree about category—no clear pattern yet.” Ready to post lists the checks that passed, such as “All required fields are filled in” and “Amount is within the range you've allowed for this company.”

Each failed check tells you why the transaction is held, so you know what to fix: fill in a required field, or change your Transaction posting policy to make that field optional. Manage policies appear next to the log, so you can adjust your policy right there.