Import Transactions to QuickBooks Online

Sometimes your bank feed disconnects. Or you have a historical CSV from an old account. Or you use a niche bank that QuickBooks doesn't support.

You need to manually upload those transactions via CSV.

The 3-Column vs 4-Column Format

QuickBooks Online (QBO) is flexible, but it prefers one of these formats:

3-Column Format:

Date,Description,Amount
01/01/2024,Starbucks,-5.00
01/02/2024,Client Payment,100.00

Note: Money out is negative, money in is positive.

4-Column Format:

Date,Description,Credit,Debit
01/01/2024,Starbucks,,5.00
01/02/2024,Client Payment,100.00,

Step-by-Step Import

1. Go to Banking:

   • Click Transactions > Bank Transactions.

2. Upload File:

   • Click the arrow next to "Link account" and select Upload from file.
   • (Or "Manually upload transactions" if you see that).

3. Select File:

   • Drag and drop your CSV.

4. Select Account:

   • Choose which QuickBooks account these transactions belong to (e.g., "Checking 1234").

5. Map Columns:

   • Tell QBO which column is Date, Description, and Amount.
   • Date Format: Crucial! Select the format that matches your CSV (e.g., MM/DD/YYYY vs DD/MM/YYYY).

6. Review & Finish:

   • Select the transactions to import (usually "All").
   • Click Yes to confirm.

Common Errors

1. Date Format Mismatch

You selected MM/DD/YYYY but your file is DD/MM/YYYY. QBO will reject lines where the "Month" is > 12. Fix: Check your CSV. If unsure, use HappyCSV to standardize dates to ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD).

2. "Amount" Column Issues

QBO expects numbers. If your CSV has $1,200.00, it might fail. Fix: Remove currency symbols ($) and thousands separators (,) before uploading.

3. Header Rows

If your CSV has 5 lines of bank info before the actual header row, QBO gets confused. Fix: Delete all rows above the header row. The header should be Row 1.

4. Duplicates

If you import a date range that overlaps with existing transactions, QBO usually detects duplicates. But not always. Fix: Be precise with your date ranges. Delete rows from the CSV that you know are already in QBO.

Tips

• Limit: Max 350KB file size (approx 3,000 lines). If larger, split the file.
• Description: Combine columns if needed. If your bank gives "Payee" and "Memo" in separate columns, merge them into one "Description" column before import, as QBO only maps one description field.

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Bank export messy? Use HappyCSV to clean headers, format dates, and merge description columns before uploading to QuickBooks.