Setting up the Banking center

Adding automated accuracy

To keep their books accurate, clients must capture all their day-to-day transactions. They also need to make
sure their bank and credit card accounts match the associated accounts in QuickBooks Online—especially
when reconciling accounts at period end.

Managing day-to-day transactions can be cumbersome for any business owner. Busy clients will have busy
books and little time to manage their bank feeds.

How can QuickBooks Online help?

The bank feed function in QuickBooks Online automatically imports money-in and money-out payments
into the Banking center, so your clients always have up-to-date information about their bank balances.

QuickBooks Online then helps to keep the clients’ books accurate by matching these payments to sales and
expense transactions they’ve already logged. The bank feed also allows clients to add transactions to
QuickBooks Online that they haven’t yet recorded.

The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.

Learning outcomes

In this lesson, we’ll cover:

 Connecting bank accounts to QuickBooks Online

Topics

 How QuickBooks Online works with bank data

 Opening the Banking center
 Connecting bank accounts
 Additional guidance on connecting bank accounts
 Overview of the Banking center

How QuickBooks Online works with bank data

The bank feed functionality in QuickBooks Online is one of its most dynamic features.

The bank feed links to the clients’ connected online bank and credit card accounts to provide a direct feed
that automatically imports bank transactions directly into the Banking center. As the transactions are
imported into the Banking center, QuickBooks Online sees if any of them look like they match existing
sales and expense transactions that the client recorded. All your clients have to do is review the matches
that QuickBooks Online suggests, approving ones that are good to go and tweaking any that aren’t quite
right. Clients can also add payment transactions from the bank feed to their books, categorizing them as
they go.

This allows your clients to stay in control of the data that’s added to QuickBooks Online.

Watch the video to see how QuickBooks Online’s bank feed functionality works.

ProAdvisor tip

The QuickBooks Online mobile app allows your clients to perform most of their banking through their
mobile devices. They can record expenses and receipt images on the go. This is a great tool when they’re
on the move or short on time.

Opening the Banking center

To open the Banking center in QuickBooks Online, select Transactions from the left-hand navigation,
followed by Bank transactions.

What the client sees here depends on whether they’ve already connected a bank account to QuickBooks
Online or not.

If this is the first time a client is connecting a bank account, they’ll see a Connect account button, as
shown here:
If the client has already connected one or more bank accounts to QuickBooks Online, the Banking center
will look similar to the example below. In this case, the client can add a new bank account by selecting
Link account.

We’ll explore the Banking center in more detail later in the lesson. First, let’s see how to connect a bank
account.

Connecting bank accounts

Let’s see how clients can connect their bank or credit card accounts to QuickBooks Online.

Watch the video to see how it’s done. The individual steps are below for you to follow.

1. Go to the Transactions center and select the Bank transactions tab

2. If it’s the first time there, select Connect account, otherwise select Link account
3. Select the bank from the options or use the search bar to find it
4. Follow the on-screen steps to sign in to the online bank and complete the authorization

You’ll want to do this with your client so they sign in to their bank and preserve the confidentiality
of their banking password.

It might take a couple of minutes for the bank’s database to connect to QuickBooks Online.
5. Select the accounts to connect with the bank feed
6. Use the dropdown to select the bank account from the chart of accounts that corresponds to the
account listed by the bank

If there isn’t a QuickBooks Online account that matches the bank account, select + Add new from
the dropdown and add more details about the account.
7. Use the date range dropdown to choose how far back to pull the transactions from the bank
accounts
8. Then select Connect

QuickBooks Online then connects to the selected bank or credit card account and downloads all the
transactions for the specified period.

Use the last screen to review the categories or set a reminder for later.

That’s it.

Additional guidance on connecting bank accounts

When a client first connects a bank or credit card account, QuickBooks Online enters an opening balance
equal to the bank/credit card account balance as of the oldest date the client asked it to pull in transactions.

This isn’t a problem if the client hasn’t yet recorded any activity in the account. However, if the client
already entered a beginning balance or has been adding transactions to the account, they should delete the
opening balance that QuickBooks Online automatically created.

You can discover how to edit an account opening balance in this article on entering and managing opening
balances in QuickBooks Online.

Overview of the Banking center

The Banking center contains all the information related to the bank and credit card accounts your client has
connected to QuickBooks Online, as well as the bank feed.
Once your client has connected a bank account, the bank feed starts to populate with transactions
automatically.

From here, clients can review their income and expense payments and add them to their books.

Let’s take a closer look at the Banking center.

Select each of the highlighted areas to find out more.

ProAdvisor tip

You can learn more about reviewing and actioning bank feed transactions in the lessons on matching and
adding transactions from the bank feed and excluding bank transactions.

Knowledge check
What are the benefits of connecting bank and credit card accounts to QuickBooks
Online? Select all that apply.

 All bank transactions can be checked, categorized, and approved to make sure they’re correct
 All bank and credit card transactions are categorized in QuickBooks Online automatically
 All connected bank and credit card transactions sync with QuickBooks Online
 It cuts down on the amount of data that needs to be entered manually, saving time

 Personalized path Banking Beginner skills

 Personalized path Banking Beginner skills

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Matching and adding transactions from the bank
feed
Joining the dots

The bank feed in QuickBooks Online automatically imports transactions from your clients’ connected bank
accounts directly into the Banking center, saving them time.

However, clients need to sort through these money-in and money-out transactions and accurately record
them in QuickBooks Online.

How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

QuickBooks Online analyzes the money-in and money-out transactions that come into the bank feed and
suggests matches to existing sales and expenses recorded by the client. Clients can then decide whether or
not to accept each suggestion and record the payment accordingly. This makes it easier for them to
categorize transactions accurately.

If QuickBooks Online can’t find a suitable match, clients can easily add a new sale or expense transaction
directly from the bank feed.

The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.

Learning outcomes

In this lesson, we’ll cover:

 Matching and adding transactions from the bank feed

Topics

 How QuickBooks Online works with bank transactions

 Accepting matches in the bank feed
 What if QuickBooks Online can’t find a match?
 Adding transactions from the bank feed
 Take our ProAdvisor challenge

How QuickBooks Online works with bank

transactions
When a client creates a sales or expense transaction, such as an invoice or a bill, QuickBooks Online
records it as income or expense. However, clients still need to record the corresponding payment to or from
their bank.

This is where QuickBooks Online gets clever. If it recognizes that a money-in or money-out payment has
the same characteristics (such as the amount or payee) as a recorded sales or expense transaction, it
suggests a match.

This allows your clients to tie out their accounts as they go, speeding up reconciliation at month end. By
adding transactions to their books as they come in, your clients have a clearer picture of their finances
because they know exactly how much money they have day to day, and can act more quickly to stop fraud
if they see an unfamiliar transaction come through the bank feed.

ProAdvisor tip

Sometimes, QuickBooks Online suggests more than one potential match for a transaction. Or it may
suggest a match that isn’t accurate.

Whenever matching or adding transactions, your client must double-check the details before proceeding.

Reviewing bank transactions in the bank feed

All transactions from a client’s connected bank and credit card accounts appear in the For review tab of
the bank feed.

To access the bank feed, navigate to the Banking center by selecting Transactions from the left-hand
navigation, followed by Bank transactions.
Next, choose which bank or credit card transactions you wish to review by selecting the relevant tile in the
Banking center.

The bank feed for the selected account can be seen underneath the tiles. The bank feed defaults to the For
review tab. From here, clients can review all of their transactions. If QuickBooks Online identifies
potential matches for a bank transaction, it will also be flagged here. Clients can then review these
suggestions before matching them.

We’ll look at matching in more detail next.

Accepting matches in the bank feed

Let’s see how clients can accept a match from the For review tab of the bank feed.

Watch the video to see how it’s done. The individual steps are below for you to follow.

1. To accept matches that QuickBooks Online has identified, select Match in the Action column
2. Select the Categorized tab to see that it’s been matched

Note that there’s an option here to unmatch the transaction if necessary. To see details of a specific
payment, select the link under the Added Or Matched column
3. To review more transactions, return to the For review tab
4. When QuickBooks Online finds multiple potential matches for an entry, it flags them up. Select View from
the Action column
5. Review the suggested matches, including the date, the amount, and the description, and choose the right
matching record, then select Match
6. It’s also possible to accept transactions in batches. To do this, select the All transactions dropdown then
select Recognized to filter transactions that have matches
7. Check the boxes next to the transactions to accept
8. Then, from the bar, select Accept

Note that clients can also update or exclude transactions in batches.

All these transactions now appear in the Categorized tab.

What if QuickBooks Online can’t find a match?

Sometimes, a client may not have recorded a transaction in QuickBooks Online before a payment appears
in their bank feed.

For example, a client may run out of batteries for one of their devices and quickly go to a hardware store to
buy replacements with their debit card.

The client doesn’t have time to record the expense in QuickBooks Online straight away, and by the time
they sign in later, the payment is already in their bank feed.

In this case, the client can immediately add the corresponding expense transaction to QuickBooks Online
from the For review tab.

ProAdvisor tip

Adding an income transaction from the bank feed creates a deposit transaction that doesn’t show up in the
Customers center or on sales reports. This is fine for minor transactions and things like bank interest, but
other income should be recorded using sales forms, to benefit from the full functionality of QuickBooks
Online.
Adding transactions from the bank feed
Let’s take a look at the process for manually adding transactions from the For review tab of the bank feed.

Watch the video to see how it’s done. The individual steps are below for you to follow.

1. To manually add a transaction that has no match, just select Add from the Action column or select the
transaction line to see more details about it

Note that by selecting the transaction line, you can choose to categorize, find a match, or record as transfer
or as a credit card payment.
2. To categorize it, leave the Categorize option selected
3. Assign the right Vendor/Customer
4. Then choose the right Category from the chart of accounts
5. When done, select Add

That’s it!

Knowledge check
Where in the bank feed can you match or add transactions?

 The For review tab

 The Update button
 The Categorized tab
 The Explore button