How to create bank rules in QuickBooks Online
Sep 14, 2023
How to create bank rules in QuickBooks Online
Matching and adding transactions from a bank feed is straightforward, and an important part of keeping your QuickBooks Online registers in line with the activity recorded by your bank. In this article, we’ll look at how setting up a simple bank rule can allow QuickBooks Online to take the strain and help manage transactions automatically.
About Bank rules
Bank Rules automate the categorization of the transactions on the bank feed, including assignment of the transaction type, category, payee, class, and location. They can also be used to automatically split transactions. Rules can be prioritized over other rules, copied, edited, and exported. You can even create bank rules to automatically add transactions to the register.
Creating a rule
Let’s create a rule to automictically categorize your bank fees.
- Open Banking from the left navigation
- We’re in the Banking Center now, so select the Bank Rules tab at the top, just above the details about Terri’s checking account
- Select New Rule
- Add a description. Make it Bank fee—and this rule is for Money Out in all bank accounts
- Add a condition: select Bank text from the first drop-down
- Select Contains from the second
- Type SVC FEE in the final box. This means that anything with Svc Fee in the text of the transactions will qualify for our rule. Use the bank text description that appears I your bank feed transaction
- Make transaction type equal Expense. This means that the rule will create an expense transaction
- Select the payee. Make it Your Bank’s Name
- Select the category. Make it Bank Fees
- Now select Save
- Now go back to the Banking tab and select the Svc Fee transaction. Notice that it has a Rule icon attached to it now.
You’ll see the transaction for Svc Fee has been categorized according to the rule just set up!
- Select Add to add the transaction to QuickBooks Online
A tip from an Advanced Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor
On the rules screen, select Automatically add to my books if you want the rule to automatically record transactions that meet the defined criteria without having to select the button in the For Review tab. Transactions that have been automatically added by a rule will have a green Rule icon next to them in the In QuickBooks tab.
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