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Categorize online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online

SOLVED•by QuickBooks•4080•Updated 12 hours ago

Learn how to categorize transactions uploaded to QuickBooks Online.

Review categories for automatically downloaded transactions when you connect your bank to QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks suggests categories based on how you categorize similar transactions.

Note: QuickBooks Online won’t download pending transactions.

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To watch more how-to videos, visit our video section.

Download the latest bank and credit card transactions

For most banks, we try to refresh transactions every 24 hours. You can also manually update your accounts anytime:

  1. Go to Transactions, then Bank transactions (Take me there).
  2. Select Update.

This updates the transactions on all of your accounts.

Tip: If you see a message about additional authentication, follow the prompts to continue the update.

If you have trouble downloading your transactions, you can try other options.

Note: QuickBooks recognizes common vendors from your bank transactions, and will automatically add new vendors into your account. Turn this option off if you don’t want new vendors added. In Bank transactions, go to Settings ⚙ and turn off Add new vendors.

Review and categorize downloaded transactions

  1. Go to Transactions, then Bank transactions (Take me there).
  2. Select the account you want to review.
  3. Select the For review tab.

QuickBooks sends downloaded transactions to the For review tab, and suggests categories for each transaction. Review them one by one:

  • If the transaction says Add:
    1. Select Add if the suggested category is correct.
    2. Change the category by choosing one from the dropdown or adding a new one.
  • If the transaction says Review:
    1. Select Review, then select  a category, or add a new one.
    2. Select Confirm.
  • If the transaction already exists in QuickBooks, you may have the option to match or view multiple matches.

Note: You can create a bank rule that automatically categorizes transactions for you. You can also turn suggestions off if you want to manually categorize your transactions. In Bank transactions, go to Settings ⚙ and uncheck Enable suggested categorization.

Choose the right category

Categorize income

Money paid to you from:

  • sales 
  • customer payments 
  • refunds 
  • fixed assets sold 
  • bank loans received 
  • money invested

Categorize expenses

Money paid to others. For example, money spent on:

  • Office supplies 
  • Meals
  • Payroll 
  • Taxes
  • Fixed assets

Note: If you pay yourself (called an Owner pay or Owner draw), this “equity transaction” is also considered an expense for the business.

Other categorization actions

You can split transactions between multiple categories for better tracking.

  1. Go to Transactions, then select Bank transactions.
  2. In the For review tab, select the transaction you want to split.

    Note: If the option is Match, change it to Categorize.
  3. Select Split (Accountant view) or Split transaction next to Category (Business view), which opens the Split transaction window. 
  4. From Category▼, select the categories you want to split the transaction into.
  5. Enter an Amount for each split so the Difference shows $0.
  6. Select a Vendor or Customer name for each split.
    Note: The fieldname may vary depending on the transaction.
  7. Select Apply and accept.

Duplicates may sometimes occur when transactions automatically update from your bank after you’ve manually uploaded them. In these cases, you might want to exclude them.

  1. Go to Transactions, then select Bank transactions.
  2. In the For review tab, select the checkbox for each transaction you want to exclude.
  3. Select Exclude.

Excluded transactions move to the Excluded tab. They won’t be added to QuickBooks or downloaded again. If you excluded a transaction by mistake, from the Excluded tab, find the transaction and select Undo.

If you spend money on a personal transaction using a business account, that’s an owner’s draw. If you add personal money to a business account, that’s an owner's investment.

QuickBooks has partnered with selected banks to include check images for check transactions.

To view the check images:

  1. Go to Transactions, then select Bank transactions.
  2. In the For review tab, select the transaction you want to view the check image for.
    Note: Transactions with an attached image will have a number in the AttachmentsAttachments paper clip iconcolumn.
  3. Select the image name, then view the check image in the Explore sidebar.

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