Tips for working in QuickBooks Online’s bank feeds: Matching transactions

In this 4-part series, I’m reviewing some of my favorite tips for helping your clients work with bank and credit card feeds in QuickBooks® Online. This article is part four in the series.

As mentioned in part three, after connecting your bank and credit card accounts, QuickBooks will scan your bank data looking for matches, rules and recognized transactions. As you review the data, you can match the bank feed transactions against existing transactions in QuickBooks.

Here are five tips for matching transactions and my advice for making sure you avoid duplicates.

Tip #1: Open your register in another window or tab

It may be helpful to have the bank register open in another window or tab so that you can refer to transactions already in the books as you review the bank feed. If QuickBooks doesn’t recognize that a transaction has a match, you can easily research why not.

Be sure to refresh the page to reflect changes made in another window or tab. Transactions added or matched are automatically marked “cleared” in the register after you accept them in the bank feed.

Tip #2: View “Similar Records Found” to see potential matches

When QuickBooks looks for matches, it reviews the books for recorded transactions that might be a match. These transactions will show as “# similar records found.”

Click to expand the details and click the link(s) to the transaction(s) in QuickBooks to take a closer look. If the match is correct, click Match to accept the transaction. If it’s not, you can change the selection to Add or Transfer or click the “find other records” button.

Tip #3: Use the find match tool to manually match, as needed

There are several reasons QuickBooks may not recognize a match. Often, it’s because the transaction is not in the books. But if it is in the books, you can typically use the Find Match tool to resolve manually.

Here are a few reasons the match may not have been recognized:

• The transaction is older than 180 days
• The dollar amount in QuickBooks is different than what cleared the bank.
• The transaction type is different in QuickBooks than at the bank. QuickBooks wants to match a check with a check and an expense with an ACH or debit/credit card swipe.
• The transaction was recorded in a different bank account (see Tip #4)
• The transaction from the bank is a payment/ deposit of two or more open transactions in QuickBooks.

In the Find Match tool, turn on Suggested Matches to see options that might match. Or, you can use filters/ search to locate transactions.

Tip #4: Use search to find transactions in QuickBooks

If you suspect a transaction is recorded in QuickBooks, but a match is still not found using the tool, use the search in the upper right corner of QuickBooks to help locate the transaction. Remember to use a dollar sign or decimal point when searching for dollar amounts.

Often, the transaction was recorded to the wrong bank account in QuickBooks. Sometimes, the match is not located with the Find Match tool because the dollar amount in QuickBooks is higher than the bank transaction. If this is the case, edit the original transaction and refresh the Bank feed window.

Tip #5: Exclude, as needed (and with caution!)

If you have transactions that cannot be matched and you are confident that they are recorded in the books, there is an option to exclude them in the bank feed. It’s located under Batch Actions.

Common reasons to exclude transactions:

• Two transactions in the bank feed are a match against one transaction in the register (in this scenario, you would exclude both items).
• The transaction(s) is already reconciled in QuickBooks.

Use Exclude with caution to avoid difficulty reconciling bank accounts, as these transactions will not record into QuickBooks. When in doubt, work with an expert to avoid missing or duplicated transactions.

Good luck!