The process to import bank transactions into QuickBooks Online looks straightforward at first glance. Simply log in to QuickBooks Online to see your bank or credit card account details. However, import limitations and complications are possible while using QuickBooks Online.
To help you get the most of your business accounting software, this article will introduce you to QuickBooks Online Banking and provide in-depth instructions on how to integrate your bank transactions.
The Bank Feed Function for QuickBooks Online Banking
Using Banking (sometimes known as a bank feed), financial data may be automatically integrated into QuickBooks Online. Besides easing data entry, this function also aids in reconciliation.
Reconciliation
With Banking, you can instantly compare your company’s financial data with that held by your bank. Depending on the method through which your bank interacts with QuickBooks Online, there might be a delay of up to 24 hours before an update is made. Despite this delay, utilizing Banking to reconcile daily — or every few days — is still faster than the conventional technique of waiting for your bank or credit card statement to arrive in the mail. By reconciling your accounts more frequently, rather than waiting until the end of the month when your bank or credit card bills come, you can see possible issues, such as an unexpected overdraft or fraud, much earlier.
Keep in mind that while the Banking function allows you to quickly reconcile your books with your bank’s records every day, this rapid reconciliation does not replace the necessity to reconcile your books against the statements generated by your financial institutions on a monthly basis. Even if the totals in your bank account and QuickBooks agree after you’ve accepted or matched transactions, you should still reconcile your accounts every month to ensure everything is in order.
Punctuation and capitalization errors
There are plenty of people that utilize QuickBooks Online’s Banking function as their only means of keeping financial records. Because of this, your books may contain serious inaccuracies.
Banking is QuickBooks’ method for importing bank transactions.
Keeping your books online can save you time by reducing the amount of data entry you have to do, especially for routine, automated operations. Keep in mind, though, that this is only a reconciliation tool for comparing your records to those kept by your banking institution.
Transactions like checks made, payments received from consumers, and acquisitions of assets should always be recorded as soon as possible after they occur and “matched” to the transaction in the bank feed as soon as the transaction clears the bank. This will keep your books in order and allow you to keep track of your actual cash on hand, which is especially useful for cheques that have not yet passed the bank.
However, this doesn’t imply that you’ll be back to entering every single transaction by hand. Receipt Bank and Bill.com are just two examples of the many available applications that can be used to integrate with QuickBooks Online and automatically import “late” transactions.
Use the Banking tool to save time entering data, but don’t let imported bank transactions replace your own record-keeping.
Importing transactions into QuickBooks Online: some considerations
However, there are a few things you should know before you begin the process to import bank transactions into QuickBooks Online.
Preexisting financial dealings are replaced
Manual imports from Excel need acceptance of any pending transactions on the Banking screen. If you don’t do this, the import will overwrite your previous transactions, and you’ll have to complete another import by hand to replace them before you can accept or match them.
Expense duplication
You may see duplicate transactions while importing your bank data into QuickBooks Online. Easily filter out duplicate purchases from your bank feed if you find you’ve imported them.
Initially, there was an equal and open account
The Opening Balance Equity account is updated with the account balance as of the first day of import when you connect to your financial institution and begin importing transactions. You won’t notice any change to your bank or credit card reconciliations after making this entry if you didn’t already have any related data in QuickBooks Online. In fact, doing so will facilitate your initial effort at making peace.
The Opening Balance Equity input will affect the following bank reconciliation if transactions have been entered manually or imported.
If you’re having trouble reconciling your accounts for the first time after establishing a connection with your financial institution, look for an account called “Opening Balance Equity” in your chart of accounts. To check the account’s recent transactions, select the “View register” option. Locate the transaction that was recorded as the account’s opening balance and “unreconcile” it by clicking the “R” until the corresponding field is empty.
Have another go at reconciling now, and see if you can. If you’ve managed to settle your accounts, you can get rid of the Equity – Opening Balance entry. Contact your bookkeeper or accountant for assistance if you are still having problems reconciling.
Conclusion
Quick Books Online’s integration with online banking is a major time-saver. Once you link QuickBooks to your bank or credit card, it will download all of your transactions from that account up to a certain date automatically.
You may still manually import bank transactions into QuickBooks Online if you need to input older transactions or if your bank or credit card company doesn’t support the QuickBooks Connector.