Online banking is the bread and butter to my efficiency in QuickBooks. I'm always asking myself how I can make the most of the online banking feature in QuickBooks with every client I help take care of. What really blows me away though is the amount of people that aren't even aware of this feature! You can download data for your credit cards and bank accounts in a matter of minutes. So let's get started with the 101 and work our way to the advance features rather quick...
1.) Downloading a QBO File - This is the first step and it's rather simple. Login into your bank, find the downloads feature, and locate the QuickBooks (QBO) file download. The QBO file stores transaction information. You then input the dates of the statement you're downloading for. You'll find below at the end of the article a list common banks and how to download them. If
you're bank doesn't have a QBO download you can alternatively download a CSV file and purchase a CSV to QBO converter on the web.your credit cards and bank accounts in a matter of minutes. So let's get started with the 101 and work our way to the advance features rather quick...
2.) Importing a QBO File into QuickBooks - The next step is importing the QBO into QuickBooks. Open the QuickBooks file for the company you've downloaded the QBO file for and just double click the QBO file that was saved. QuickBooks will process the data and then present you with an option to select the account for which it is associated for. Select the account and voile, it's now in QuickBooks.
3.) QuickBooks Online Banking Import Fails - If the import is failing
because of this nutty message 'Your data was not imported in to QuickBooks' ask yourself how old your QuickBooks is. QuickBooks discontinues the online banking feature after 3 years to give you reason for upgrading. For instance, the QuickBooks 2009 online banking import was disabled on May 31st, 2012.
4.) Matching Transactions - If you have already entered transactions correctly in the bank or credit card register for which you've download for then QuickBooks will match this transaction to avoid duplicating it. Some times though this can create a false positive as to which you tell QuickBooks that this is not a match. Be careful with this feature and don't accept every transaction QuickBooks says as matched. Use your brain, you're smarter then this program!
5.) Renamed Transactions - QuickBooks creates renaming rules every time you assign a vendor and an account to a transaction. For instance if you see QUESTAR 31231AS (a gas company) as the memo in online banking I would put in Questar as the Vendor and the expense account as utilities. Next month when QuickBooks sees the memo QUESTAR 31231AS it will automatically input Questar in the vendor field and Utilities in the account field. As above this can create false positives. The most common is hand written checks that automatically get renamed to the assigned vendor and account that was provided last month for a given check number. We can make QuickBooks smarter though to make this process more efficient
6.) Renaming Rules - This is the most overlooked feature in Online Banking and quite frankly the biggest time saver if you take some time to go through it. Click 'Renaming Rules' on the right hand corner. This list is what makes QuickBooks intelligent, these are the brains of the program. If you have a vendor you buy multiple items from, such as FedEx for shipping charges, or a chain restaurant, the vendor usually has a different memo line on your statement to differentiate the restaurant location or shipping charge date. Instead of having to tell QuickBooks every time that FedEx-312312412312 and FedEx-213124124124 are shipping charges, go to the FedEx vendor in the Renaming Rules list and delete all of the lines except for one. Type 'fedex' in one line just to identify the vendor.
7.) Assigning Vendors and Accounts in Online Banking - If the vendor wasn't matched to an existing transaction or it was renamed based on renaming rules, then you need to manually input the information. Provide a vendor in the appropriate field, then associate a proper account in QuickBooks.
If the transaction is a payment, you need to specify the account to which it came from. No vendor is needed for this sort of transaction as you just treat it as a transfer of funds.
8.) Deleting Transactions in Online Banking - In certain cases where transactions will not match up or you would rather manually input other transactions as you do job costing you can delete these transactions.
Click 'Select Items to Delete' then delete away... be careful because once the item has been delete you won't be able to upload it again unless you manually disable online banking.
9.) QuickBooks Won't Upload a QBO - Some times when you try to upload a QBO file to QuickBooks it will send you the message 'There are no new transaction available'. I'm never a fan of this message but it's easily fixed and appears because QuickBooks does not allow you to upload data that you've already uploaded. Go into your Chart of Accounts, right click and edit the account. A window will pop up which will allow you to disable online banking. Restart QuickBooks and then upload the QBO again. Good to go...
