An Overview of QuickBooks Online Bank Feeds
May 27, 2022
An Overview of QuickBooks Online Bank Feeds
The bank feeds in QuickBooks Online are among the most dynamic features of the program. It links your online banking (and credit card) accounts and feeds the transactions directly into the Banking Center. When the transactions are pulled in, they are non-posting until you match them to previously recorded transactions or use them to add new transactions to your registers. This process simplifies data entry. It really helps businesses get a handle on their balances in real-time!
When using bank feeds to enter your transactions, your accounts become self-reconciling. Because transactions are matched to the bank or credit card as they are entered, they are already marked as tentatively cleared in the reconciliation screen. A matched or created transaction (tentatively cleared) from a bank feed has the letter C next to it in the register. A transaction marked cleared after being reconciled will have the letter R next to it.
Many thousands of financial institutions link to QuickBooks Online. If a financial institution does not participate, you can still upload bank feeds to QuickBooks Online. Export the form at the banking website to .CSV, .QFX, .QBO or .OFX formats. If you are unable to export your banking information to any of these formats, there is at least one app available that can convert a .PDF statement to a .QBO banking format.
When first opening the Banking Center (accessed by clicking Banking), you will be prompted to connect an account. After the first account is added, add another account by clicking Add account inside the Banking Center. Choose the name of the bank from the list provided or enter the bank’s login website address. Enter the online ID and passcode used to sign into your bank’s online banking page. QuickBooks displays the accounts included under the login ID of the bank.
Choose the type of account. Click Connect. If connecting to an account already set up in QuickBooks Online, choose which account to link to the bank feed.
TIP: You will be able to specify how much history is brought into the bank feeds from your financial institution.
If you click Custom you can specify the first date for which transactions should be brought from this account. If the date you choose is too early (i.e., the transactions cannot be brought in from that far back), you’ll see a message when you hover your mouse over that date:
Once the transactions have been imported, the account and its transactions are displayed in the Banking Center.
To upload banking transactions exported from your bank using a supported file type (.CSV, .QFX, .QBO or OFX formats), follow these steps:
- Click File upload from the Banking Center.
- Click Browse to locate the file to upload.
- Choose the QuickBooks bank or credit card account to link, then Next (add a new account here).
- If necessary, map the fields in your upload file to the fields in QuickBooks Online and follow any instructions. (*.qbo file formats do not require this step.)
- Click Let’s go! to import your data
TIP: If you are using a *.csv import file that has headers, click First row in .csv file is header row. Your headers appear in the drop-down menu. This makes mapping a whole lot easier!
A notification indicates your transactions were imported. Start working with your data in the Banking Center.
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