9b. Match and Add Transactions in the Bank Feed

Now that we’ve done all the prep work, it’s finally time to actually use the bank feed!

Matching and Adding transactions in the Bank Feed

Matching Transactions

• If the transaction in the bank feed is toggled to Match in the Match/Categorize column, that means QBO thinks it has found a match for that transaction. This will show up in that column as green text either showing the matching transaction information or a message showing the number of potential matches.
• Confirm the match that it finds is accurate. If it is, you can click Post
• If there are multiple potential matches, click on the transaction information to view more matches. If you know you already entered the transaction but it is not showing up as a match in the bank feed, you can also toggle Match on and view potential matches.
• Troubleshooting: If you know there’s a matching transaction in QBO, but it’s not coming up as a match in the bank feed or as an option when you view more matches, check for these possibilities:
  • It was already matched to the wrong transaction in the bank feed. If that happened, go to Posted, find the transaction, and click Undo.
  • The date is wrong. You can search for the transaction you entered and update it, or you can extend the date range to look for older or later transactions in the ‘find more matches’ screen. Extending the date range is especially useful for finding older checks that didn’t get cashed within a timely manner.
  • The bank account is wrong. When you entered the transaction you chose the wrong bank account. Find the original transaction and update the bank account.

Adding Transactions

• Expenses
  • Add, or update as needed, the Vendor, Category, Class, Customer (if tracking restricted funds) and Memo. Click Post.
• Bill Payments
  • To enter a bill payment from the bank feed, the open bill will need to appear as a match to the bank transaction. Confirm the match is correct, click Post, and QBO will automatically create the Bill Payment transaction.
• Sales receipts
  • Add, or update as needed, the Customer in the to/from field, Product / Service, Class, and Memo. Click Post.
    • Make sure you are using the Product / Service field and not the Category field when entering a Sales Receipt. If you use the Category field, even if you choose Sales Receipt as the transaction type, the system will enter a Deposit instead of a Sales Receipt.
• Deposits
  • To enter revenue as a deposit, update the same fields as the Sales Receipts, but use the Category field instead of the Product / Service field.
• Receive Payment
  • Like the bill payments, to record a Receive Payment transaction, the open pledge will need to show up as a match to the bank transaction. Confirm the match is correct, click Post, and QBO will automatically create the Receive Payment transaction.
• Checks
  • To enter checks correctly, you’ll need to turn on the check number and editable date fields in the settings
  • Update the date to when the check was written.
    • If you’ve found an older check in the bank feed, be aware of what prior periods have already been closed when choosing a date. If the check was written in a closed period, then your org’s polices may dictate that you either open the prior period, update it, and run new reports, or record the check dated in the current open period. This is why it’s generally best to make sure you’re recording checks when they’re written rather than when they show up in the bank feed, so you can avoid this problem.
• Transfers
  • If both bank accounts involved in the transfer are connected in the bank feed, these will say “Paired to another transaction.” Confirm that it paired to the correct transaction, then click Post.
  • If one of the bank accounts is not connected to the bank feed, you can choose “Transfer” in the Transaction Type field, choose the applicable bank account, then click Post.
• Credit card payments
  • If the credit card is connected to the bank feed, these will say “Paired to another transaction.” Confirm that it paired to the correct transaction in the other bank feed, then click Post.
  • If the credit card is not connected, you can choose “credit card payment” in the Transaction Type field, choose the applicable credit card account, then click Post.

Creating Rules

Bank rules allow you to pre-determine the transaction information for recurring transactions. When you set up a rule, the bank feed will recognize the transaction based on your directions, and then it will pre-fill whatever information you tell it to. Then when the transaction comes through the bank feed, it will already have the information filled in and you just need to confirm and post.

To create a rule, go to Rules at the top of the Bank Feed screen then click New Rule. That will open up the form pictured below. Alternatively, you can click one of the transactions in the bank feed and choose the ‘Create Rule’ option. This will prefill the form with some of the information specific to that transaction. This is the method I usually use because it adds in a condition that already matches the transaction. If you create a rule this way, make sure to update the information as needed.

• What do you want to name this rule?
  • Choose a descriptive name so that you can find it if you need to edit it later.
• Apply this to transactions that are…
  • Choose whether this rule applies to money coming into the account or money going out.
  • Choose which bank account(s) the rule applies to.
• and include the following:
  • This is where you tell QBO which transactions the rule will be applied to.
    • Choose whether the conditions apply only if all of them or if any of them are found in the transaction.
    • Choose whether the condition is based on the Description, Bank Text, or Amount.
    • Enter the specific text or amount that needs to match for the rule to apply.
  • You can add multiple conditions.
  • in my experience, most rules are based on text from the bank feed and I prefer to use the Bank Text option because it is more consistent than the description, which is generated by QBO.
• Test Rule
  • This allows you to test the rule on transactions currently in the bank feed. This lets you make sure that the conditions you chose match up to the transaction you’re trying create a rule for.
• Then Assign
  • This is where you tell the system what categorization information to automatically assign to any transactions that match the conditions. Make sure to click ‘Assign more’ to bring up the Class option.
• Auto-add
  • If you toggle this on, QBO will automatically create the transaction from the bank feed when it comes through. I don’t generally recommend this because I like to review the rules in the bank feed before adding them to make sure they’re not accidentally picking up anything extra. But if you trust your rule and know that those transactions will always go to the same account and class, then you can choose this to automate it.

Once you have your rules set up, and if you didn’t turn on Auto-add, then you will start to see some transactions in the bank feed marked as a Rule. This tells you that the information has already been filled in based on a rule you set up. you then just have to confirm it is accurate and click Post.