Manually upload transactions into QuickBooks Online

by Intuit •

2228 •

Updated 8/24/2026 20:42

You can manually upload bank and credit card transactions intoQuickBooks Online if you cannot connect your bank or need to add transactions from an earlier period.

Important notes:

When you connect your bank and credit card accounts, QuickBooks automatically downloads transactions up to a certain date. If you can’t connect to your bank or want to add transactions from before you did so, use this process.
QuickBooks allows you to upload an account statement (PDF or image) or a list of transactions (QBO, QFX, or CSV file).
When you upload your bank and credit card transactions, it's important to know if they go to one account or individual accounts. You can set up parent accounts and subaccounts on your chart of accounts to smoothly upload your transactions.

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Video transcript

[0:00] This is Katheryn from the QuickBooks team. If you can, it's best to connect your bank or credit card to QuickBooks, because then QuickBooks automatically downloads your transactions for you. However, that's not possible for some banks, or you may want to add some older transactions to QuickBooks.

[0:17] In those cases, you'll need to download the transaction from your bank and then upload them to QuickBooks. Let's go over how to upload transactions for a new account, and then how to upload more transactions in the future. First, you'll need to download the transactions from your bank sign into your bank or credit cards website.

[0:37] Follow your bank's instructions for how to download transactions to your computer. This process will be slightly different for each bank, so you may need to search for how to do it. Now you have to decide how far back you want your transactions to go. This is important so you can avoid duplicate transactions.

[0:55] If this is for an account that isn't in QuickBooks yet, then set the range for as far back as you want QuickBooks to keep track of. If you want QuickBooks to start at the beginning of the month, then download just the transactions from this month. If you want to go back further, then set the range back further.

[1:13] If you've already added your account to QuickBooks but haven't added any transactions yet, then have your transactions go back to match the date of the opening balance of your account when you set it up in QuickBooks. If your account is in QuickBooks and you've already added transactions to it, then find the date of the last transaction and select the next day.

[1:34] Once you've set your date range, download the transactions to your computer. It's best to save these as a QBD file if you have that option. If not, you can save them as a CSV file. If you aren't able to download a file from your bank. You can use a PDF, bank statement, or even a picture of a paper statement and upload it to QuickBooks. Check out our help material here to learn how.

[2:00] Now go to QuickBooks to upload your new transactions. Select accounting. Then choose to upload transactions manually. Next, select the account you want to upload transactions into. If this is a new account, select Add New and name it. QuickBooks will add the transactions to your account. Then select upload from this device. Select the file you downloaded from your bank.

[2:26] Here you'll fill out details about the header columns and date format used in the file you downloaded from your bank. Once that's done, you'll map the columns from your file to the correct QuickBooks fields, so QuickBooks knows exactly where each piece of information belongs. When finished, select continue.

[2:46] On the next screen, you'll check whether the amounts for your transactions are shown correctly as positive or negative. If the values are in the reverse amount, just select reverse all values to fix it. Once everything looks accurate, select the transactions you want to import, then choose continue, then yes, then done. You'll see all your new transactions here under your account.

[3:11] Whenever you have more transactions to add in the future, just download them from your bank. Then select the account. Select upload from file and follow the steps again. Now you're ready to start posting your manually downloaded transactions to QuickBooks.

Prerequisites

Before you start the upload process, ensure you have completed the following steps:

See your financial institution’s website to learn how to get a record of your transactions from them.
Before you upload your files, check your Chart of accounts to avoid creating duplicate transactions.
To categorize your uploaded transactions as you upload them, set up bank rules in QuickBooks first.
Make sure the record or account statement starts at least one day before your oldest QuickBooks transaction in that account.

File guidelines

Review the specific requirements for your file type before uploading.

Account statement file guidelines

Your account statement can be from any bank, as long as it's in English.
It can be a PDF or an image file, such as a JPG, PNG, or HEIC.

Transaction list file guidelines

Your upload file must be in English and 350 KB or less. We suggest a QuickBooks Online data (QBO) file. You can also upload (Quicken) QFX, or Comma-separated values (CSV) files.
Each file needs either 3 (Date, Description, Amount) or 4 (Date, Description, Credit, and Debit) columns.
For larger uploads, shorten the date range and download transactions in smaller batches.
Remove the word “amount” from Credit and Debit.
Leave any cells in Amount, Credit, or Debit that only contain zero (0) blank.
Remove numbers from cells in the Description column.
Enter all Dates in the same format. We recommend the dd/mm/yyyy format.
If your bank adds the day of the week in the Date column (for example, 20/11/2022 TUE), split the date and the day of the week into separate columns.

Upload an account statement as an image or PDF

When you upload a PDF or image, our AI extracts the info from the account statement ‌and imports it into QuickBooks Online.

Go to All apps , then Accounting, then Bank transactions (Take me there).
If you see a tile for the account you want to upload transactions into, select it.
Select the Link account ▼ dropdown, then select Upload from file. If your account isn't connected yet to online banking, select Upload from file or Or upload transactions manually.
Upload the account statement as a PDF or image file from your computer. Note: We may tell you that some items need review. If so, our team of global experts may review your statement to make sure everything is correct. When the statement’s ready, we’ll tell you so on the Bank transactions page.
In the QuickBooks account ▼ dropdown, select the account you want to upload the transactions into. Note: If you're new to QuickBooks, you may not have an account to upload the transactions into. If you don't see one, select Add New ▼ from the dropdown to create a new bank account.
Select Continue.
Check the side-by-side view of your account statement and what QuickBooks extracted from it.
Edit any fields or items that need your attention and review everything for accuracy.
Select Save. You’ll see the transactions on your Bank transactions page for that bank or credit card account.

Upload a list

Follow these steps if you'd like to upload your bank statement from these file types: .csv, .txt, .qbo, or .ofx. You can include up to 1,000 lines per upload. Each line contains one transaction.

Go to All apps , then Accounting, then Bank transactions (Take me there).
If you see a tile for the account you want to upload transactions into, select it.
Select the Link account ▼ dropdown, then select Upload from file. If your account isn't connected yet to online banking, select Upload from file or Or upload transactions manually.
Select Drag and drop or select files, and select the file you downloaded from your bank. Then, select Continue.
In the QuickBooks account ▼ dropdown, select the account you want to upload the transactions into. Note: If you're new to QuickBooks, you may not have an account to upload the transactions into. If you don't see one, select Add New ▼ from the dropdown to create a new bank account.
Select Continue.
Match the columns in the file with the correct fields in QuickBooks. Then select Continue.
Select the transactions you would like to import. Then select Continue.
Select Yes, then select Done.

Note: QuickBooks may add additional details if we recognize transaction descriptions, or based on your banking rules.

Next steps

Match and categorize your uploaded transactions to place them in the correct accounts.
Reconcile them to make sure they’re recorded correctly.