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Why does QuickBooks Online show bank transactions that aren't on my bank statement?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
October 16, 2023
5 replies
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I have four transactions as below showing in my Quickbooks online as "Spent" however when I go to look for them in my bank statements there are no debt/withdrawal entries that match.

9/11 - $7.00

9/11 - $33.00

9/11 - $3.00

9/11 - $10.00

To resolve the imbalance of $53 dollars between the two systems I excluded them from Quickbooks.

The question is why are those showing in Quickbooks as entries being spent when there is no such entries at the bank level?

Thank you in advance.

QuickBooks Online

Best answer by cody_a

If QuickBooks Online shows a transaction as "Spent" but it doesn't appear on your bank statement, don't worry. It's usually just a duplicate download or an outdated entry rather than money leaving your account. Excluding those transactions, as you've done, is the right way to fix it.

Why this can happen

A couple of things in how QuickBooks downloads bank data can cause this:

Duplicate downloads. Duplicates can happen when transactions automatically update from your bank after you've already entered or uploaded them another way. QuickBooks ends up with two versions of the same activity, and the extra one never actually clears your bank.
Only posted transactions should download. QuickBooks Online is designed to download transactions only after your bank has fully posted them, not while they're still pending or processing. If a transaction shows up in your For review tab without ever posting at the bank, it's a sign the download picked up something that shouldn't have been there.

How to confirm before you exclude anything

Before removing a transaction, it's worth a quick check so you're not excluding something real by mistake:

Compare the amount, date, and description of the QuickBooks entry against your actual bank statement line by line. Even small differences, like a date that's off by a day, can make a real transaction look unmatched.
Check whether the same amount appears twice in QuickBooks, once from a manual entry and once from the bank download. That's the classic sign of a duplicate.

How to exclude a transaction that doesn't belong

Go to Transactions, then Bank transactions.
On the For review tab, select the checkbox next to each transaction you want to remove.
Select Exclude.

Excluded transactions move to the Excluded tab. They won't be added to your books or downloaded again. If you ever exclude something by accident, open the Excluded tab, find the transaction, and select Undo to bring it back for review.

Keeping this from happening again

If you're entering transactions manually and also have a bank connected for automatic downloads, that combination is exactly what tends to create duplicates. Going forward, picking one method, either manual entry or the bank download, for a given account cuts down on the chance of QuickBooks showing two versions of the same charge.

Check out these articles for more:

Got another transaction that's not lining up? Just share the details and I can help you get it sorted.

C

Candice14

Level 8

Hey there, @ss_2019.

It's great to see you back in the Community!

The reason why you may not have been able to match the banking transactions are due to the amount, date, and other details not being the same as the other transaction. Review this guide for additional details: Match online bank transactions.

If this isn't the case, please provide us with some more information and screenshots of the problem.

I'll be waiting for your response!

S

ss_2019Author

Hello,

I looked over the link that you sent however I still cannot locate the problem. I have attached a screenshot of what I am seeing in QB. I went back three months of bank transactions in Wells Fargo and there are no withdrawals or debits related to what Quickbooks says it spent. All transactions match except for the attached ones.

For now the account balances because I have excluded them but I would still like to understand why these four showed up in the first place.

Thank you

Z

ZackE_

Moderator

Thanks for getting back with the Community, ss_2019.

The transaction records shown on your Bank transactions screen come directly from the financial institution you have connected with QuickBooks. If you're curious why some are showing up that aren't displayed on your account's statement, I'd recommend getting in touch with their support team to discuss the situation.

If you'd like to try manually importing transactions from your bank, you can check to see if the unrecognized transactions show up there as well. First you'll need to exclude everything that was already imported through online banking, this is done to avoid duplicates.

After you've excluded everything necessary, you can pick a start date to avoid entering duplicates during the manual upload.

Here's how:

Use your Gear icon, then go to Chart of accounts.
Find the account you want to upload transactions into.
Select View register.
Find and write down your date for the accounts oldest transaction. Usually, your oldest transaction will be the opening balance.

Next, you'll need to get transactions from your bank:

Go to their website and sign it to the account.
Follow your financial institution's instructions for downloading CSV files of transactions.
Check the date range for your download. It should be at least one day before the date of your oldest transaction.
Download the file and save it somewhere you can easily find it, like your computer's desktop.

After downloading the transactions, you'll want to review the file's format and size (maximum size is 350 KB). If a file's size is too large, you can try shortening your date range and downloading transactions in smaller batches. Afterwards, you can upload them into QuickBooks.

Please don't hesitate to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have an awesome Monday!

cody_a

Answer

Community Manager