Checking vs credit card transaction imports

Checking and savings

For a checking or savings file, money leaving the account should be negative and money entering it should be positive. Examples include negative card purchases, checks, fees, and transfers out; positive customer receipts, interest, and transfers in.

Select Checking or Savings to match the destination register. A transfer between two accounts will appear on both statements, but each side belongs in its own account file.

Credit cards and lines of credit

For a card feed, purchases and fees are normally negative transaction amounts, while payments and merchant refunds are positive. Bank2QBO does not create credit-card QBO Web Connect files. Normalize the card export as CSV, then use a current QuickBooks manual-upload workflow that accepts CSV and verify its preview before importing.

Do not combine the payment from the checking export with the payment shown on the card export in one file. They are two sides of a transfer between separate registers, even when their descriptions and dates look similar.

Avoid sign assumptions

Some bank exports display all values as positive and use a separate transaction-type column. Bank2QBO requires a signed Amount column or separate Debit and Credit columns; it does not guess direction from every bank’s custom type labels. Choose another export layout or prepare a working copy with separate direction columns.

Spot-check a purchase and a payment in the preview. If the two directions are wrong, correct the source layout or mapping before downloading.

Test and reconcile separately

Import a short period into each intended register and reconcile each account against its own statement. The bank account may use a supported QBO Web Connect file or normalized CSV; the card account should use normalized CSV through a current manual-upload workflow that accepts it. A card payment should be categorized consistently as a transfer rather than an unrelated expense when both sides are already represented. Consult your accountant or bookkeeping policy for the correct treatment in your books.

Worked transfer example

A fictional business pays $600 from Operating Checking to its Business Card. The checking export shows -600.00; the card export shows +600.00. Prepare the checking rows as a supported bank-account QBO file or normalized CSV, and prepare the card rows as normalized CSV. Do not combine them merely because the descriptions and date match.

After both imports, the bookkeeping system may offer a transfer-matching or categorization workflow. Bank2QBO does not choose that treatment. Review it according to your bookkeeping policy so the card payment is not mistaken for a second expense.