Welcome to the Fit Small Business QuickBooks Online training course! In this lesson, we’re going to cover how to enter credit card charges in QuickBooks Online. We’ll explain how to automatically link up your credit card accounts to QuickBooks, as well as how to import credit card transactions into QuickBooks manually using a CSV file.
If you cannot locate your bank on QuickBooks online or if you need to import more than 90 days of credit card transactions, then you’ll need to import your credit card transactions using an Excel format called CSV or a QBO file. We’ll cover how to do that later in this lesson.
We’re glad you’re taking the time to learn QuickBooks Online, our best overall pick for small business accounting software. We encourage you to follow along in your own QBO account. If you don’t already subscribe to QuickBooks Online, click here to sign up for a free 30-day trial.
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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Why It’s Important to Connect Your Credit Card Account to QuickBooks
One of the many benefits of QuickBooks Online is you can save a lot of time by importing your business credit card transactions into QuickBooks instead of manually inputting each transaction.
Most big banks allow you to quickly and easily connect to QuickBooks, but some of the smaller banks and credit unions do not have that capability. To find the right credit card for your business, check out our credit card marketplace.
How to Automatically Import Credit Card Transactions into QuickBooks Online
In order to import credit card transactions into QuickBooks, you need to connect your credit card account to QuickBooks. In order to do that, you will need your online banking user ID and password to log into your account. You will only need to do this once. Going forward, your transactions should automatically download into QuickBooks every day.
Follow the seven steps below to import credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online:
1. Navigate to the Banking Center
From the Home Page, select Transactions and then Banking from the left menu bar, as shown below:
Navigate to the Banking Center in QuickBooks Online
After you have selected banking, you need to choose one of the following options:
- Type your bank/credit card name in the search box as indicated below or
- Select from the list of banks/credit card companies right below the search box.
If you are unable to locate your credit card company or you need to import more than 90 days of credit card transactions, then you need to Upload Credit Card Transactions using CSV Format, which is covered later in this lesson.
Select the financial institution from which you want to import credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online
2. Log into Your Business Credit Card Account
You should see your bank login screen like the one below:
Enter your login credentials for your credit card account
Enter the user ID and password that you normally use to access your business credit card account, as we have done for Paul, owner of fictitious company Paul’s Plumbing.
Depending on your internet connection and the number of accounts that you have, it may take a few minutes for QuickBooks to connect to your bank.
3. Select Business Credit Card Accounts
You should see a screen similar to the one below that will list all of the accounts you have at this bank (descriptions for each key item are shown below):
Select the business credit card accounts you want to link to QuickBooks Online
- Select Your Account: Place a check mark in the first column for each account you would like to connect to QuickBooks.
- Account Name: This is the bank’s name for the account. No edits can be made to this field.
- QuickBooks Account: From the drop down, select the QuickBooks account you want to link to this bank account. If you have not set up the account in QuickBooks yet, select Add Account from the drop down.
Your screen should display the following account setup window. Complete the fields below to setup Paul’s credit card in QuickBooks:
A. Category Type: Select the type of account you are importing transactions for. Typically, this would be either a Bank or Credit Card account.
B. Detail Type: This field automatically populates with Credit Card based on the selection made in the Account Type field.
C. Name: This is how the account name will show up in QuickBooks.
D. Description: Enter the bank/credit card name and the last four digits of the account number.
TIP: If you’ve got more than one business credit card that you plan to connect to QuickBooks, including the name of the card and the last four digits of the card number allows you to easily tell one credit card account from another when you reconcile these accounts.
E. Save and Close: Double-check to make sure that you have made selections in all five fields.
4. Select the Correct Date Range
The maximum number of transactions that will import is 90 days. If you need to import more than 90 days of credit card transactions, then skip to the Uploading Transactions using CSV File section of this course.
If you would like a shorter date range, just click the link that says need a shorter date range, as indicated below:
Select the date range you want to download credit card transactions for in QuickBooks Online
Note: If the date you started using QuickBooks is less than 90 days, then you would need to use a shorter date range.
Below is an example of when you might need to use a shorter date range:
Example: Paul has decided that he is going to start using one of his personal credit card accounts for business only. He has had this credit card for a number of years now, but just stopped using it for personal expenses about a month ago.
In this situation, Paul only wants to import transactions for the last 30 days into his QuickBooks account. In this situation, he needs to modify the date range by clicking the “Need a shorter date range” link and enter in the correct date range. If he does not do this, QuickBooks will automatically import the last 90 days of transactions, which will include personal expenses that Paul does not want to add to his QuickBooks file.
5. Click Connect
Before you click the connect button, double-check to make sure that you did not select any accounts that you do not want to keep track of in QuickBooks. (e.g., personal bank accounts).
A WORD OF CAUTION: Once you click Connect, all transactions will be imported into QuickBooks. Unfortunately, there is no automatic “undo” button. Later on, if you find out that you accidentally selected an account that you do not want connected to QuickBooks, then you will need to manually delete all of those transactions before you can delete the credit card from QuickBooks.
Once you are ready, click the Connect button to start the process to enter credit card charges in the QuickBooks file.
Click the Connect Button when you are ready to download credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online
6. Transactions Have Imported
Once the transactions have successfully imported into QuickBooks, the following message will display:
7. Review Imported Transactions
In the Banking Center, you should see the credit card account and balance as indicated below.
Review downloaded transactions in the QuickBooks Banking Center
If you have other credit card accounts that you want to track in QuickBooks, then you can just click the Add account button as indicated above and go back to Step 1. To learn how to manage banking transactions after they are imported, watch our step-by-step video tutorial on how to manage banking transactions.
When to Import Credit Card Transactions Using a CSV File
If you can’t directly connect your credit card account to QuickBooks or you need to import more than 90 days of credit card transactions, it is important that you know how to enter credit card charges in QuickBooks using an Excel CSV file or QBO file.
To obtain this type of file, log into your credit card account and go to the section where you can import transactions and credit card statements. Most likely you will have the option to import your transactions in multiple formats.
If you don’t see either of these options (CSV or QBO), then contact your credit card company. Let them know that you would like to import your credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online, and you would like to know how to do that from their website.
How to Import Credit Cards Transactions into QuickBooks Online with a CSV File
If your financial institution does not integrate with QuickBooks or you need to import more than 90 days’ worth of transactions during your initial QuickBooks company setup, you can import credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online with a CSV file.
Follow the ten steps below to automatically import your credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online with a CSV file:
1. Navigate to the Banking Center
From the left icon bar, select Transactions and Banking.
Navigate to the Banking Center in QuickBooks Online
2. Select Upload a File
Click the Upload a file option as indicated below at the very bottom of the screen.
Select the financial institution from which you want to import credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online
3. Select the File to Upload
Click Browse to locate the file that you wish to upload.
4. Select a QuickBooks Account
From the drop down, select the QuickBooks account you want to link to this credit card account. If you have not set up the account in QuickBooks yet, you can do that by clicking the drop-down menu and selecting Add New.
Select the business credit card accounts you want to link to QuickBooks Online
5. Set Up the QuickBooks Account
Your screen should display the following account setup window. Complete the fields below to setup Paul’s VISA credit card in QuickBooks:
Create a new account in QuickBooks Online for your business credit card account
1. Account Type: Select the type of account you are importing transactions for. Typically, this would be either a bank or credit card account.
2. Detail Type: This field automatically populates with Credit Card based on the selection made in the Account Type field.
3. Name: This is how the account name will show up in QuickBooks.
TIP: If you’ve got more than one business credit card that you plan to connect to QuickBooks, then be sure to include the name of the card and the last four digits of the card number. This will allow you to easily tell one credit card account from another when you reconcile each month.
4. Description: Put the bank/credit card name and the last four digits of the account number.
5. Save and Close: Double-check to make sure that you have made selections in all five fields.
Once you have both the Bank file and the QuickBooks Account selected as indicated below, you can proceed to the next screen.
Select the business credit card accounts you want to link to QuickBooks Online
6. Map the QuickBooks Online Fields to Your Bank Account Fields
Map the fields in your upload file to the fields in QuickBooks Online.
Map the QuickBooks Online field to your bank account fields in QuickBooks Online
- If your CSV file has a header row, make sure to check the box at the top left of the screen as indicated above.
- Select the column that has the date in it.
- Select the format of the date column.
- Select the column that has the description of the transaction (e.g., Staples).
- Select whether your file has both positive and negative numbers in one column or if it separates the positive and negative numbers into two columns.
- Select the column that has the positive numbers (Debit).
- Select the column that has the negative numbers (Credit).
7. Select Credit Card Transactions to Import
Select the transactions to import into QuickBooks by putting a check mark in the first column and select Next.
TIP #1: If you get to this screen and there are no transactions listed, make sure that you have done the following:
- Removed any formatting, like $ from the dollar amount column.
- Deleted any blank rows in your spreadsheet. Be sure that everything begins at row 1, column 1 of the spreadsheet.
TIP #2: If you make any changes to your spreadsheet, you will need to save it and re-upload it. Go back to Step 3 to do this.
8. Confirm Transactions to Import
Click Next and QuickBooks will confirm the number of transactions that you have selected for import:
Confirm the number of transactions to import into QuickBooks Online
9. Transactions Have Successfully Imported
Once the transactions have been successfully imported, the following message will display:
Message in QuickBooks that transactions were successfully imported
10. Review Imported Transactions
In the Banking Center, you should see the credit card account and balance as indicated below.
Review imported transactions in QuickBooks Online
Wrap Up:
That wraps up the section on how to Import Business Credit Card Accounts into QuickBooks. The next lesson in our QuickBooks Online Training Course will be How to Grant Multiple Users Access to Your QuickBooks Data. In this lesson, we will walk through how to give your accountant and bookkeeper access to your QuickBooks data.
To access this course or any of the others in the series, click here.
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