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. Select Credit card / line of credit for the generated file. 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.

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. 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. Convert the checking rows in a Checking file and the card rows in a Credit card / line of credit file. 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.