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Accounting | How To

How To Manage QuickBooks Online Bank Feeds

Updated May 12, 2022

Tim Yoder

WRITTEN BY: Tim Yoder

Published October 6, 2020

Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and CPA with 25 years of experience. He brings his expertise to Fit Small Business’s accounting content.

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
Quickbooks Online

In this tutorial, we’re going to cover how to manage QuickBooks Online bank feeds. After connecting your bank accounts to QuickBooks, you should review each transaction to ensure the date, amount, and account are correct. By using the QuickBooks Online Banking Center, you can then add them to the QuickBooks check register as a new transaction or match them to an existing transaction already entered in QuickBooks.

We’re happy you’re completing this free tutorial for QuickBooks Online, our best overall pick for small business accounting software. We encourage you to follow along in your own QuickBooks Online account. If you don’t already subscribe to QuickBooks Online, you can choose from a 30-day free trial or 50% off for three months.

Visit QuickBooks Online

This tutorial is one in our series of Free QuickBooks Tutorials. The video below and the illustrated instructions that follow present the same information.

Why It’s Important to Manage QuickBooks Online Bank Feeds

Bank transactions imported into QuickBooks Online from your connected bank accounts are not entered into the check register automatically. You must review each transaction in the Banking Center, match it to any existing transaction already in QuickBooks Online, and then click to add it or exclude it from the check register. In this tutorial, we will show you how to review and categorize your transactions so they can be added to the check register.

QuickBooks Online Banking Center Layout

To open the QuickBooks Online Banking Center, hover over Transactions from the left menu bar and then click Banking:

Navigate to the QuickBooks Online Banking Center

Navigate to the QuickBooks Online Banking Center.

The QuickBooks Online Banking Center includes a tile across the top for each bank and credit card account that is connected to QuickBooks. Each tile includes the name of the financial institution, the current bank balance, and the current account balance in QuickBooks. If your bank is not shown in a tile at the top of the screen, it is not yet connected to your QuickBooks Online account. Visit our prior tutorial, How to Import Bank Transactions, to connect your bank account.

QuickBooks Online Banking Center

QuickBooks Online Banking Center.

A. Bank balance: This is the actual balance in your bank account as of the last time QuickBooks imported your banking transactions. In the above example, the bank account was “Updated moments ago.”

B. In QuickBooks: The balance in QuickBooks will be different from the bank balance as a result of bank transactions that have not been added to the check register.

C. Bank feed transactions: Transactions imported through your bank feed are organized into three tabs:

    • For Review: Imported transactions initially appear in the For Review tab where you must add, match, or exclude them.
    • Review: Transactions that have been added or matched move from the For Review tab to the Reviewed tab.
    • Excluded: The Excluded tab lists imported transactions that you have chosen to not transfer to your QuickBooks check register. Excluding should be extremely rare and likely only used when correcting for a previous error. All bank transactions―even if personal―must be entered into the QuickBooks check register.

Finding errors: The QuickBooks balance (B) and bank balance (A) should match after you have added and matched all transactions for review. Certain errors, such as adding a transaction that should have been matched to an existing transaction or excluding a bank transaction, can cause differences. These errors will be easiest to find when you reconcile your account as we will teach you in How to Process Bank Reconciliations.

How to Manage QuickBooks Online Bank Feeds

Navigate to the Banking Center as described above, then follow these few easy steps to review and add the imported transactions to the check register.

1. Examine Transactions in the For Review Tab

All newly imported banking transactions will appear in the For Review tab at the bottom of the Banking Center screen:

Review Transactions in the Banking Center

Review Transactions in the Banking Center.

Each transaction in the For Review tab must be added to the check register, matched to an existing transaction already in QuickBooks, or excluded from QuickBooks.

2. Match Imported Transactions to Existing Transactions

It’s critical that imported transactions are matched to any existing transactions, instead of being added as new transactions. If you add transactions that already exist, the check register will include them twice, and your bank account and financial statements will be wrong. Some examples of imported bank transactions that will already exist in QuickBooks include:

  • Checks printed from QuickBooks
  • Deposits of customer payments

A great feature of QuickBooks Online is that payments can be matched against outstanding bills, even if you haven’t recorded the payment in QuickBooks. When you match a payment to an outstanding bill, QuickBooks will create a bill payment transaction and record it in the check register.

QuickBooks Online will automatically propose any matches for your imported transaction. To review the details of the match, click anywhere on the transaction. When you are satisfied that the match is correct, click on the green Match button:

Match Imported Bank Transactions in QuickBooks Online

Match Imported Bank Transactions in QuickBooks Online.

The matched transaction will move from the For Review tab to the Review tab. You can undo the match by clicking on the Reviewed tab, locating the transaction, and clicking Undo.

3. Add New Transactions

Imported transactions that have not been entered into QuickBooks can be added as new transactions to the check register. An example might be an electronic payment of an expense where the bill was not recorded in QuickBooks. To add a transaction, click anywhere on the transaction to open more detail.

Adding Imported Bank Transactions to Check Register in QuickBooks Online

Add Imported Bank Transactions to Check Register in QuickBooks Online.

The only requirement to add a new transaction is to provide a Category, or account, from your chart of accounts. However, I highly recommend that you also provide the Vendor, Customer/Project, Class, and Location so that QuickBooks has all the available information to run useful management reports. If Class and Location do not appear on your screen, you need to enable Class and Location tracking in the Advanced Options.

How to Create Bank Rules to Streamline QuickBooks Online Bank Feeds

You can reduce the amount of time it takes to code and record transactions in the Banking Center by setting up bank rules. QuickBooks will use these bank rules to code transactions for you automatically, but you’ll still have the opportunity to review the transactions (as above) before you add them.

1. Navigate to Manage Rules and Create a New Rule

Click on the Rules tab at the top of the banking center, then click the green New rule button:

Create a New Banking Rule in QuickBooks Online

Create a New Banking Rule in QuickBooks Online.

2. Set Up Conditions for New Rule

The Create rule screen collects data regarding how to identify intended transactions and then how to classify them:

Design a Banking Rule in QuickBooks Online

Design a Banking Rule in QuickBooks Online.

A. Name: Provide a name for the rule that will make it easy to identify later.

B. Transactions: You can specify whether you want the rule to apply to transactions that are Money out or Money in to either all bank accounts or specific bank accounts.

C. Conditions: You can specify one or more conditions that the transaction should meet to be classified under your new rule. If you specify multiple conditions, you can choose whether the transaction must meet all the conditions or at least one of the conditions.

Conditions can reference the transaction’s description, bank text, or amount. If the condition is based on the transaction’s description or bank text, you can specify that it must contain, doesn’t contain, or exactly matches the text you enter. Conditions that reference the amount of the transaction can specify the amount must be equal to, not equal to, greater than, or less than the value you specify.

Here are some examples of conditions you could specify to make a rule:

Field
Comparative Statement
Text or Amount
Amount
Equals
22.17
Amount
Is less than
100.00
Description
Contains
telephone
Bank Text
Contains
Verizon

D. Assign transaction: In the final section, you tell QuickBooks Online how to assign the transaction. You can specify the following fields for each transaction that meets the criteria in C:

  • Transaction type
  • Category or account
  • Payee

By expanding the link Assign more, you can also specify:

  • Class
  • Location
  • Add memo

Be sure to click the green Save button when you are done creating your rule.

Wrap Up

Congratulations on the completion of another tutorial in our QuickBooks Online Training Course. You’ve learned how to classify transactions imported from your connected bank accounts and to create rules that will automatically classify transactions. The next tutorial in our QuickBooks Online Training Course is How to Record Bank Deposits. That tutorial will teach you to record the deposit of individual checks and groups of checks using the undeposited funds account.

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About the Author

Tim Yoder

Find Timothy OnLinkedIn

Tim Yoder

Tim worked as a tax professional for BKD, LLP before returning to school and receiving his Ph.D. from Penn State. He then taught tax and accounting to undergraduate and graduate students as an assistant professor at both the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Mississippi State University. Tim is a Certified QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) Pro, QuickBooks ProAdvisor for both the Online and Desktop products, as well as a CPA with 25 years of experience. He most recently spent two years as the accountant at a commercial roofing company utilizing QuickBooks Desktop to compile financials, job cost, and run payroll.

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