This article continues the discussion (from Part 1) of some basic tasks of working within the bank feeds module in QuickBooks Online.

As a reminder, the bank feeds module, also known as the “Banking Transactions” module, in QuickBooks Online is a very convenient bookkeeping tool to post transactions in your bookkeeping software. You can also use this function to post credit card, Paypal, loan and lines of credit transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Not all banking institutions will be able to fully integrate with QuickBooks Online, but you can always try manually importing transactions (from a spreadsheet) as well if need be, into the same bank feeds (banking transactions) module.

In any case, once you have gotten your banking activity into the bank feeds module, ready to post, then you can manually proceed to work them in.

One of the most convenient tools in this module is simply utilizing the column sort function to sort your transactions, say by “Full Bank Description.” Sorting transactions by description can be a very efficient way of batch posting multiple transactions to one expense account (and one vendor) in one fell swoop.

Not all the times do you have to post transactions to a P&L or Balance Sheet account from the bank feeds module. Sometimes you can just “Exclude” certain transactions from posting this way. Excluding transactions from the bank feeds module simply removes them from this module, but not from your books. Excluding a transaction here can be convenient if you already know for sure that this transaction was already posted in your books. Popular examples of already-posted transactions are deposits and vendor bill payments.  

Always be careful when matching transactions to already-posted transactions in your books. Sometimes, you can inadvertently match similar, but not exact transactions. For example, if you posted a vendor bill payment in the amount of $400 in your books, but you also purchased another item (say from Amazon) for, coincidentally, this same amount very close to this time as well, then, if you don’t look at the description carefully, you may accidentally match this other Amazon item purchase to the vendor bill payment already posted in your books. You will notice something is wrong later with your reconciliation work as you will not be able to reconcile to the closing balance. In this example, you will always be off by $400.

Lastly, always be sure to check out the settings in the bank feeds module simply by clicking on the gear icon on the right side at the stop of the list of downloaded transactions. Especially important here are the “Add New Vendor” option and the page size options. Be careful of what vendor names your bookkeeping software will automatically create for everything. Also, for the page size, I look to view everything on one screen for purposes of easier sorting and knowing exactly what work I still need to finish without being surprised of yet another page of transactions.

Note: AccuraBooks is a bookkeeping firm only, so please consult with your C.P.A. for verification and clarification about the contents of this article.