How to Manually Enter Banking Transactions in QuickBooks Online

Welcome to the Fit Small Business QuickBooks Online training course! In this lesson, we’re going to cover how to manually enter banking transactions in QuickBooks Online.

You can follow along on your own QuickBooks Online account. If you don’t have one already, click here to sign up for a free 30-day trial and follow along below.

To complete this lesson, you can either watch the video below, read through the step-by-step instructions, or do both. Let’s begin!

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When to Manually Enter Banking Transactions in QuickBooks Online

The most efficient way to import your banking transactions into QuickBooks is by using one of the following methods:

• Automatically connect your bank account to QuickBooks
• Import your banking transactions from an Excel CSV file

If you are unable to do this because your financial institution is a smaller bank that does not offer either of these options, you will need to manually enter your banking transactions into QuickBooks.

How Do I Manually Enter My Banking Transactions?

Before you can manually enter your banking transactions into QuickBooks, you need to set up the bank account.

Step 1 – Display the Chart of Accounts List

To start, navigate to the chart of accounts list by clicking on the gear icon to the left of your company name. Below the Your Company column, select Chart of Accounts as indicated below.

Step 2 – Create Bank Account

The chart of accounts will display. Click on the New button in the upper right hand corner and complete the fields as indicated below.

1. Category Type: All checking, money market, and savings accounts that you connect to QuickBooks will fall into the Bank category.
2. Detail Type: This field allows you to select the type of bank account you are setting up. (i.e. checking, money market, savings, etc.)
3. Name: This is how the name of the account will appear on reports such as your financial statements and your chart of accounts list.
   TIP: I recommend that you include the last 4 digits of the account # in this field.  This will help you to easily distinguish accounts when writing checks and reconciling.
4. Description: If you have additional information you would like to capture about this account, you can put that information in this field.  Otherwise, just put the same info that you included in the Name field.
5. Balance: The is the most important field in the setup.  Be sure that you have a copy of your bank statement handy.  In order for you to successfully reconcile your bank accounts, you need to indicate the ending balance on your bank statement.
   TIP: The bank statement that you use will be determined by the date that you start using QuickBooks.  For example, if you start using QuickBooks as of January 1 then you want to use the ending balance on your December bank statements when you set up your bank account in QuickBooks.
6. As of: This is going to have the same date as the bank statement that you used for the balance field.  
7. Once you have verified all of the information is accurate, save & close.

Step 3 – Review Updated Chart of Accounts

The new account will appear on the chart of accounts list, as indicated below.

Step 4 – Navigate to Check Register

From the Chart of accounts list, click on the View register link in the far right column as indicated below.

Step 5 – Check Register

The check register should display on your screen as indicated below. Below you will find a brief description of what information appears in each field.

1. Bank Register: you can determine what bank account register you are in.  You can easily switch to a different bank account by clicking the drop down arrow.
2. Ending Balance: this is the current balance of the bank account.
   TIP: When you create a check in QuickBooks, the bank account balance is immediately updated, regardless of whether or not you have printed the check.
3. Reconcile: in the reconciling bank accounts  lesson, we will walk through step by step how to reconcile bank accounts.
4. Date: this will be the transaction date (i.e. check date, deposit date)
5. Ref No/Type: if you have a reference number such as a check number, it belongs in this field.  The transaction type (i.e. check, transfer, deposit) will appear in this field right below the reference number.
6. Payee/Account: for withdrawals, this field will include the payee and the expense account the purchase was categorized to. For deposits, this field will include the customer the payment was received from along with the income account it was categorized to.
7. Memo: typically you would include some additional information about the transaction (i.e. august rent)
8. Payment: enter the amount paid in this field.
9. Deposit: enter the deposit amount in this field.
10. Balance: this is the running balance that is automatically updated after each transaction.

Step 6 – Enter a Banking Transaction

To enter a banking transaction, once you are in the register, click on the drop down arrow to the right of Add check and select one of the following transaction types from the list as indicated below.

Complete all of the necessary fields and save the transaction as indicated below.

How Do I Modify Banking Transactions?

If you do need to make changes to a transaction that was previously entered into the check register, just can easily to that.  Just follow the steps below:

Step 1 – Navigate to the Check Register

From the Chart of accounts list, click on the View register link in the far right column as indicated below.

Step 2 – Select the Banking Transaction that You Need to Edit

Once you are in the register, click on the transaction that needs to be edited and make your changes as indicated below. Save your changes.

Wrap Up

That wraps up the section on How to Manually Enter Banking Transactions. The next lesson in our QuickBooks Online Training Course will be how to manage downloaded banking transactions. In this lesson, we will walk you through what to do after you have imported your banking transactions into QuickBooks.

To access this lesson or any of the others in the series, click here. 

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