Bank Feed FAQ
▸ Where are my AI suggestions?
When QuickBooks has enough info to go on, it makes suggestions to help you decide how to manage a transaction. Wherever QuickBooks has a suggestion, you’ll see the “Suggested by AI” icon — click it for more details.
Suggestions get better over time. Even if you don’t see many at first, keep working: as QuickBooks learns how you handle things, it will start filling in more details in your table when it has high confidence. You can always override or edit directly in the table — QuickBooks learns from those changes too.
▸ How do AI suggestions work?
When you have Pending bank transactions, QuickBooks can:
- Suggest a match to something already in your books, or
- Suggest a category based on your history and the full bank description
If there’s no clear match, it will focus on helping you categorize. Suggestions look at:
- The bank description
- Your past transactions with that customer/supplier
- How you’ve categorized similar amounts before
Example:
If “ABC Marketing” shows up in the bank description and you usually code that to “Advertising & Promotion,” QuickBooks will suggest that category and show a little history snapshot so you can confirm.
▸ How do you match transactions?
Match is selected automatically when QuickBooks thinks it has found the same transaction already in your books (for example, a payment that matches an invoice, or a bank charge that matches an expense).
You can:
- Keep it on Match to connect the downloaded bank transaction to the existing one, or
- Switch the toggle to Categorize if the match is wrong and you’d rather code it as a new transaction
Matching matters because it:
- Prevents duplicates
- Links related items
If QuickBooks finds partial or combined matches, it’ll flag that — click into the row to see the details.
▸ How do you categorize transactions?
If there’s no match suggestion for a transaction, the toggle sits on Categorize by default.
QuickBooks will often pre-fill a category for you based on your history and the description from the bank. You can:
- Hit Post if the suggestion looks right, or
- Change the category in the list or expanded view before posting
You’ll also see the “Suggested by AI” icon next to AI-driven suggestions — click it to understand why it picked that category.
What is categorizing?
Categorizing is where you choose the account or category that a transaction belongs to. This controls:
- Where it shows up on your reports
- How it lands on your tax forms
- Whether it’s treated as income, expense, asset, liability, capital, etc.
If you’re unsure, this is where we (or a QB Live expert) can help you decide. As you make consistent choices, QuickBooks will keep suggesting those patterns.
▸ What are the Rule and Pair badges?
If you see a Rule badge, it means:
- A bank rule you created has been applied, and it takes priority over the AI suggestion
- The transaction followed that rule for category, payee, etc.
If you see a Pair badge, it means:
- QuickBooks found the same transaction in another connected account
- It’s likely a transfer or card payment between your accounts, not new income/expense
When you Post a paired transaction, QuickBooks automatically posts the counterpart in the other feed too. That saves you from doing the same thing twice and prevents transfers from being treated as revenue or costs. You can unpair if you need to.
▸ How do you split a transaction?
If you want to split a single bank line into multiple categories (or mix categories + products/services):
- In Bank Transactions, on the Pending tab, find the transaction.
- Click the Settings icon next to the Post button.
- Select Split.
You can then allocate amounts to different categories or items.
▸ How can you customize the table (add or remove columns)?
Above your transaction list in Bank Transactions, click the Settings icon.
From there, you can:
- Add or remove columns
- Decide which fields show directly in the table vs. only in the expanded row
- Resize things so you see what actually matters at a glance
This is where you can choose to show/hide fields like Products/Services, From/To, etc.
▸ Where is categorization history?
Categorization history shows how you’ve coded transactions for a specific customer or supplier in the past — a quick way to stay consistent.
To use it:
- Make sure the From/To column is filled in on your transactions.
- Go to a transaction in the Pending tab.
- Click the icon next to the Post button.
- Choose Categorization history.
If you don’t see the option, it means QuickBooks doesn’t have history yet under that exact From/To name. Start using a consistent customer/supplier name and it will build over time.
Note: From/To is separate from Bank description (which is not used directly for history because it can include all sorts of extra info).
▸ How do you track items (products/services) on expenses?
If you track inventory or services in QuickBooks:
- You’ll see Products/Services as a field on your banking page.
- You can show it as a column in the list or only in the expanded view via table Settings.
If you select a product/service, QuickBooks clears the category field (and vice versa). To use both for one transaction, split the transaction and assign part to an item and part to a category.
▸ How do you create Sales Receipts from the bank feed?
- Go to Bank Transactions → Pending tab.
- Select a money-in transaction (Sales Receipt isn’t available for credit card accounts or money-out).
- In the expanded view, open the Transaction type menu and select Sales receipt.
QuickBooks will treat that bank line as money received and post it as a sales receipt instead of a generic deposit.
▸ What do Pending and Posted mean?
- Pending: downloaded from your bank, but not yet matched or categorized in QuickBooks. These have cleared the bank but are waiting for your review.
- Posted: transactions you’ve already matched or categorized and posted. These now show up on your reports.
In the Posted tab, you can also choose “All accounts” in the account selector to see one combined list across all connected bank accounts.
▸ Tips and where to find common items
Here are some tips for getting the most out of your new transactions table:
- Match or Categorize:
- Use the toggle on each transaction. Match prevents duplicates; Categorize creates new entries. Need to change a category? Click the category directly in the list.
- Resize or customize your list:
- Use the Settings icon above the transaction list to add columns or free up space if it’s too wide.
- Split transactions & see category history:
- Use the dropdown in the Action column to access *Split or Categorization history for a transaction’s customer/supplier.
- *Transfers or card payments:
- Look for the Pair badge. To adjust, expand the transaction and use Transaction type.
- Edit right in the list:
- Click into editable fields to quickly add attachments or update info without expanding the row.
- Use AI-powered suggestions:
- When you see the Suggested by AI icon, click it to understand the recommended category, match, or customer/supplier.