QuickBooks Online Bank Feed Rules Part 4

Part 3

In the final section of our QuickBooks Online Bank Feed Rules Series we will highlight the following sections

Part 1
Part 2

Bank Feed Rule Creation

Categorizing the Uncatergorized

This step is pretty self explanitory but there are a couple business rules to be aware of when assigning a category.  For example, you cannot create a rule that assigns transactions to:

  • Uncategorized Income
  • Uncategorized Expense

While these may seem like silly accounts to create a rule for, they actually come in pretty handy at times, Check out or tips and tricks section at the end for more details.

Bank Feed Rules for QuickBooks Online

Memos for Future Filtering

Memo:The memo section of QuickBooks Online can be used throughout most reporting for filtering. This makes this a very powerful field when trying to research historical information.

Accounts Payable Matching Example:  In a perfect accounting world, every time a person creates a Purchase order, they would remember to generate a bill that matches the charge that will be comming through the bank feed. Unfortunately it is not a perfect world yet, so we utilize bank rules for our clients vendors that they actively create P.O.’s that sends all bank charges to Accounts Payable with “AP Review” in the memo.  At the end of the month, we run a report that shows all transactions with the custom memo for our client to help us review and match up the information.

To Auto Add or Not To Add

By selecting “Automatically add to my books,” they will be moved to your books before you ever get the chance to see them.  This is a powerful option to help keep the banking area cleared out but should be used very wisely and reviewed often.  If you start to find transactions where you do not expect them, review your auto add rules. If you do need to review which transactions have been entered by the rule, they appear in the In QuickBooks tab with an Auto-add icon next to “RULE.”

QuickBooks Online Bank Feeds explained

Exporting & Importing Banking Rules

QuickBooks Online bank rules make it simple to transfer rules from one company over to another.  If you have clients with similar vendors, follow the instructions below to export your rules and then import them into a new company file.

Exporting Rules:

Before exporting your bank feed rules, quickly review all of the reviews for any changes that may be required to update broken rules or under performing rules.  Broken rules occur when vendors or accounts have been made inactive over time. These errors will be highlighted within the list.

  • From the side navigation bar, select Banking
  • At the top of the Banking window select Bank Rules
  • On the Rules page, click the arrow next to New rule and select Export rules.
  • If your browser prompts you to save or open the file, select the option to save it. (Some browsers download the file without prompting.)
QuickBooks ONline Bank Feeds

Importing Rules:

Now that you have saved a copy of the bank rules, switch over to the new company that you wish to import into

  • From the side navigation bar, select Banking
  • At the top of the Banking window select Bank Rules
  • On the Rules page, click the arrow next to New rule and select Import rules.
  • Switch to the company that you want to import the rules to.
  • Browse to locate the rules you exported from your other company, and then click Next.

The file is saved to your Downloads folder; the file type is an Excel file (.xls).

  • If the company you’re importing bank rules to doesn’t have the right payees and categories set up, set the rule details one by one.
  • Click Import, and then click Finish.

Download a set of our Universal Bank Rules

Importing QuickBooks Online Bank Feed Rules

Helpful Tips & Tricks

Common Errors:

The two most common errors I come across with rules not working has to do with the Any / All setting being setup incorrectly, and money in / money out not being selected at the top for deposit type items.

Finally, it is really important to remember that rules go in order, and when you add a new rule they automatically go to the bottom of the stack. When ever you have an issue with a rule not working, try to drag it up to the top closer to the # 1 position and then check to see if you get the proper outcome you wanted.

Searching Rules by Name:

If you have a lot of rules and are not certain if you already made a rule that could be causing an issue, try using the browser search function to quickly find the rule or the account. Take a look at the second picture and you will see how the Google Chrome search function (Ctrl + F) was able to pull the word postage from the different sections of the rule. Usually we add the vendor as part of our name structure.

PBS.Category.Vendor  = PBS.Auto Fuel.Arco

Checkout our Youtube Video that demonstrates the Ctrl+F trick in action

Checkout our Process Street Checklist for Bank Feed Rules

Print a copy of the checklist

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