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Accounting | How To

How To Import Credit Card Transactions Into QuickBooks Online

Published July 13, 2023

Published Jul 13, 2023

Tim Yoder, Ph.D., CPA

REVIEWED BY:
Tim Yoder, Ph.D., CPA

Mark Calatrava

WRITTEN BY:
Mark Calatrava

This article is part of a larger series on Accounting Software.

Learn More With Our QuickBooks Online Course
Explore the chapters in the guide.
  1. How to Set Up QuickBooks Online
  2. Part 1: Setting Up QuickBooks
    1. How to Set Up Company Information
    2. How to Customize Invoices, Sales Receipts & Estimates
    3. How to Set Up Invoices, Sales Receipts & Estimates
    4. How to Set Up Products and Services
    5. How to Set Up Messages
    6. How to Set Up Statements
    7. How to Set Up Expenses
    8. How to Set Up Advanced Settings
  3. Part 1: Setting Up QuickBooks (Cont.)
    1. How to Import Bank Transactions
    2. How to Import Credit Card Transactions
    3. How to Set Up Multiple Users
    4. How to Set Up the Chart of Accounts
    5. How to Set Up the Products and Services List
    6. How to Set Up Customers
    7. How to Set Up Vendors
  4. Part 2: Managing Sales and Income
    1. How to Create Estimates (Quotes or Bids)
    2. How to Create and Send Invoices
    3. How to Receive Payments
    4. How to Create & Send Sales Receipts
  5. Part 3: Managing Bills and Expenses
    1. How to Write & Print Checks
    2. How to Enter Bills
    3. How to Pay Bills
  6. Part 4: Managing Banking Transactions
    1. How to Enter Banking Transactions Manually
    2. How to Manage Downloaded Banking Transactions
    3. How to Record Bank Deposits
    4. How to Transfer Funds Between Bank Accounts
    5. How to Handle Bounced Checks From Customers
    6. How to Process Bank Reconciliation
  7. Part 5: Managing Business Credit Card Transactions
    1. How to Enter Business Credit Card Transactions Manually
    2. How to Manage Downloaded Business Credit Card Transactions
    3. How to Enter a Credit Card Refund
    4. How to Reconcile Business Credit Card Accounts
  8. Part 6: Managing Credit Card Sales
    1. How to Manage Credit Card Sales With QuickBooks Payments
    2. How to Manage Credit Card Sales With a Third-party Credit Card Processor
  9. Part 7: Set Up and Manage Payroll
    1. How Set Up and Run Payroll
    2. How to Manage Payroll Tax
    3. How to Add Historical Payroll Data
    4. How to Set Up Automatic Deposits
    5. How to Print Payroll Checks
    6. How to Run Payroll Reports
    7. How to Reconcile Payroll Liabilities
  10. Part 8: Reporting in QuickBooks Online
    1. How to Run a Profit and Loss Statement
    2. How to Run a Balance Sheet Report
    3. How to Run a Statement of Cash Flows
    4. How to Run an A/R Aging Report
    5. How to Run an A/P Aging Report

In this tutorial, we’ll cover how to import credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online. You’ll learn how to import transactions automatically by connecting your credit card account to QuickBooks and how to import credit card transactions manually into QuickBooks Online manually in case your credit card isn’t supported by the platform.

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To connect your credit card to QuickBooks, you need the username and password that’s used to sign in to your online credit card account. If you haven’t set up online access to your credit card account, you must do so before continuing with these steps. Visit your credit card company’s website for information on how to activate your online access.

If you’ve completed our tutorial on how to import bank transactions, then this tutorial will be a breeze as the process is very similar. The only difference is that you’re importing credit card transactions instead of bank transactions.


Select the Banking dropdown under Banking from the left menu bar of your QuickBooks Online company dashboard, as shown below.

Screen showing how to navigate to the Banking Center in QuickBooks.

Go to the Banking Center in QuickBooks Online

Seeing a different left-side navigation menu?

  • 1. Check User View
  • 2. Switch to Accountant view

QuickBooks has two user views: Business View and Accountant View. Your left-side navigation menu may look different depending on the user view you are in.

If your sidebar menu is not what is shown in our tutorial, it means that you are on Business View. We prefer and recommend using the Accountant View because it shows a full range of business accounting features and tools that you can use in QuickBooks.

To verify whether you’re using the Business View, click on the cog wheel at the top right-hand corner of your QuickBooks dashboard, and check whether the button on the lower right-hand says Switch to Accountant view, as shown below. If so, then it means you are on Business View.

Screen showing where to verify whether you are using the Business View or Accountant View in QuickBooks Online

Verify whether you are using Business View or Accountant View in QuickBooks

Once you verify that you are on Business View, click on Switch to Accountant view to update the appearance of your sidebar menu. In a few seconds, you should see the same left-side menu bar illustrated in this tutorial.

Steps showing how to switch from Business View to Accountant View in QuickBooks Online

Switching from Business View to Accountant View in QuickBooks

If this is the first bank or credit card account that you’re connecting to QuickBooks, you’ll see the following screen and you should click the green Connect account button to add your credit card account.

Connecting your first bank account in QuickBooks Online.

Connect your first bank account in QuickBooks Online

If you’ve already connected another bank or credit card account, you’ll be taken to the banking center. Click the Link account button in the upper right corner of the screen to continue.

Connecting a bank account to QuickBooks Online.

Link a credit card account to QuickBooks Online

Locate your credit card from the displayed options or enter the name of your credit card provider in the search box. QuickBooks supports more than 20,000 financial institutions worldwide, so it is likely that your credit card provider is supported for automatic import into QuickBooks. However, if you can’t locate your bank, then you need to import your transactions manually.

To guide you in the next steps, let’s follow a sample scenario where our fictitious company, Paul’s HVAC, has a business credit card with Capital One. In this case, we select Capital One from the list.

Screen where you can choose your credit card provider to connect to QuickBooks.

Search for your credit card company in QuickBooks Online

After clicking on your bank or credit card provider, QuickBooks will display a new screen to sign in to your bank account, as shown below.

Credit card sign-in page.

Continue to your credit card sign-in page


QuickBooks will open a new browser where you can sign in to your bank or credit card account using your username and password. This step is necessary to establish a connection (called bank feeds) between QuickBooks and your bank or credit card provider.

New window where you can log in to your bank account and connect to QuickBooks.

Sign in to your credit card account in a new window

After signing in, your bank might ask you to confirm that you want to share your banking information with Intuit and provide a summary of the information to be shared. If you agree, click the appropriate button on your bank’s confirmation page, and you’ll be taken back to QuickBooks.


After completing the authorization process, QuickBooks will display a list of available accounts associated with your bank. This list may include various types of accounts, such as credit card, checking, and savings accounts. Select the specific account or accounts you wish to connect to QuickBooks Online.

If it’s a new account, such as in our case where Paul’s HVAC needs to create a new account for its Capital One credit card, we’ll click Add new (shown below) at the top of the drop-down box to open the new account setup form.

Select the bank account or accounts that you want and link to the Chart of Accounts.

Select the bank account or accounts that you want and link to the Chart of Accounts


After clicking Add new, you’ll be asked to provide information to add an account to your Chart of Accounts. You can check out our tutorial on setting up the chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online if you want to learn more but, for now, you can provide a few details.

Since Our Last Update:

QuickBooks Online has revamped its chart of account setup form. The brand-new version is easier to use than the previous and has new features, such as simplified category selection and the ability to see where your new account is displayed in your reports.

New account setup form in QuickBooks Online featuring new features like easier category selection.

Add a new credit card to the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online

To complete the setup form based on our example, let’s select “Credit Cards” as the account type. Select the appropriate account, such as “Credit Cards.” Then, select the starting date or the date when you want to begin tracking transactions for that account in QuickBooks and the opening balance. Once done, click the green Save button.


After linking your credit card to an account from your chart of accounts, you must decide when QuickBooks should begin importing transactions.

Selecting the beginning date to transfer bank transactions.

Select the beginning date to transfer bank transactions

The default start date to pull transactions is the beginning of the year. You should try to pull transactions back to the date you wish to start using QuickBooks Online. If your credit company or QuickBooks doesn’t allow you to go back that far, you’ll have to transfer the older transactions using a QBO or CSV file.

As seen above, Paul’s HVAC is importing credit card transactions starting January 1 of the current year. Click the green Connect button when you’re done.


QuickBooks Online will take you to the Banking Center after connecting your bank account. You can find the uploaded transactions ready for review in the For review tab in the banking center.

Banking Center in QuickBooks showing the For review tab.

For review tab in the Banking Center

You can peek at our guide on how to manage QuickBooks Online bank feeds if you’d like to learn more about classifying transactions, but we recommend waiting until we complete a few more setup tutorials. It’s important to have your chart of accounts finalized before you start assigning transactions.

Now that your credit card account is connected, new transactions will be imported automatically into QuickBooks Online daily—or you can click Update in the upper right corner to import any new transactions immediately. You can visit the banking center anytime by clicking the Banking drop-down under Banking from the left menu bar (as you did at the beginning of this tutorial).


How To Import Credit Card Transactions Manually Into QuickBooks Online With a CSV or Similar File

QuickBooks Online can import credit card transactions from the following types of files:

  • CSV: These files are commonly used to export data for a multitude of purposes and can be opened and edited with Excel.
  • QBO: QBO files are QuickBooks WebConnect files specifically designed for exporting information from bank or credit card accounts to QuickBooks.
  • QFX: QFX files are financial exchange files created for exporting information to Quicken, but they’ll also work with QuickBooks Online.
  • OFX: An OFX file is a text file specifically designed for exporting financial data.
  • TXT: Text files can be imported but might require some editing first. You might want to open the TXT file with Excel and convert it to a CSV file for a smoother transfer.

To obtain a transfer file, log into your credit card account, and locate the option to download your account transactions. You’ll likely have the option to download your transactions in multiple formats. Choose the QBO or QFX format, if available, since they’re designed specifically for QuickBooks. The next best option is an OFX file. If none of those file types are available, a CSV or TXT file will suffice but require a couple of extra steps.

Save the transfer file to a location on your computer that you can remember easily to import the file.


From the Banking Center, open the drop-down menu next to Update in the upper right corner, and then select Upload from file.

Banking center in QuickBooks highlighting the Upload from file button.

Select Upload from file from the Banking Center in QuickBooks Online

Drag and drop your file of transactions or click Select files to browse your file on your computer, as shown below. Click the green Continue button to proceed.

Screen where you can drag and drop your files of transactions into QuickBooks.

Select the transfer file to import into QuickBooks Online


Next, you must choose an account from your chart of accounts to record the imported bank transactions. Based on our sample scenario, let’s pick the Capital One credit card.

Screen where you can select the QuickBooks account for the bank file you wish to upload.

Select an account to record imported transactions in QuickBooks Online

If needed, you can click Add new to set up a new credit card account as demonstrated earlier.

If your transfer file is a QBO, QBX, or OFX file, you’re done and can go back to the banking center to review the uploaded transactions. However, if your transfer file is a CSV or TXT file, you have a couple more steps to complete.


Before completing this step, you should open your CSV or TXT file in Excel to determine what information your bank exported and how it’s formatted. Below is a sample CSV file with columns for important information, such as date, description, and amount.

CSV file for import into QuickBooks Online.

CSV file for import into QuickBooks Online

When you open a CSV file in Excel, you may be asked to save the file as an Excel file to preserve features. Don’t do this because the file must remain a CSV file to be imported into QuickBooks.

Notice that transaction amounts are shown in column C with credit card charges shown as positive numbers and payments to reduce the credit card balance as negative numbers. Some credit card companies might include charges in one column and payments in another column. Either way is fine, but you’ll need to know how the amounts are organized in the next step.

After completing Step 3, if you’re importing a CSV or TXT file, QuickBooks will take you to the file setup screen, where you’ll be prompted to specify the format of your data (i.e., whether the first row in your file is a header and how many columns show amounts). Scroll down to the file setup screen to map the fields in QuickBooks to the columns on your file.

Screen where you can setup your file before importing it to QuickBooks.

Set up your file before importing to QuickBooks

When you’re satisfied with your mapping, click the green Continue button (not shown in the image) in the bottom right corner of the screen.


QuickBooks Online will then provide a list of transactions associated with the account you selected. Select the transactions you wish to import by clicking the checkbox next to the transaction.

Screen where you can select which transactions to import into QuickBooks.

Select which transactions you want to import to QuickBooks

A good practice is to import all your transactions into the file, including your personal transactions. Reconciling your credit card account from QuickBooks to your credit card statement is an important step to make sure your books are accurate. The reconciliation isn’t possible if you don’t import all transactions.

Once done, click the green Continue button in the bottom right corner of the screen to complete the import of your transactions. You will then receive a confirmation from QuickBooks that the import is successful.

Now that you have successfully imported your transactions, you can go back to the banking center to review them. If you need a guide on how to review the transactions, such as accepting, excluding, or matching them to an existing transaction, head to our tutorial on how to manage QuickBooks Online bank feeds.


The Importance of Connecting Your Credit Card to QuickBooks

The ability to connect a credit card to QuickBooks is one of the many reasons we hailed QuickBooks Online as the overall best small business accounting software. Once connected, all you need to do is sign in to QuickBooks and classify the transactions that will transfer daily automatically.

Most credit card companies allow you to connect to QuickBooks using your online sign-in credentials. If your credit card doesn’t allow a connection to QuickBooks, you can still import your credit card transactions using a QBO or CSV file with the help of Excel.

Combining personal and business activity on the same credit card makes for messy bookkeeping, as explained in our guide on how to separate business and personal finances. We highly recommend that you get a business credit card and use it purely for business, and you can check out our list of the best small business credit cards on the market for options.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

You can import your transactions automatically by connecting your credit card account to QuickBooks. If your credit card is not supported by QuickBooks, then you need to import your credit card transactions manually using the Upload from file button in the banking center.


QuickBooks Online supports the following file formats: CSV, QBO, QFX, OFX, and TXT.


Yes, you can. QuickBooks allows you to connect and import transactions from multiple credit card accounts.


Wrap Up

You’ve now learned to connect your credit card to QuickBooks Online and import credit card transactions manually when necessary. Our next guide is on QuickBooks Online multiple users setup, where you’ll learn how to allow your external accountant and other employees full access to your QuickBooks Online account.

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About the Author

Mark Calatrava

Find Mark OnLinkedIn

Mark Calatrava

Mark Calatrava is an accounting expert for Fit Small Business. He has covered more than 50 accounting software for small businesses and niche industries and has developed an in-depth knowledge of the important features of accounting software and how the importance of these features vary by business.

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