How to Import Bank and Credit Card Transactions into QuickBooks Online from a CSV File

QuickBooks Online works best when your bank and credit card accounts are connected and bringing transactions in automatically. For most businesses, the bank feed handles day-to-day bookkeeping without much effort.

But sometimes things don’t go as planned.

Your bank may not connect to QuickBooks Online, or a connection may drop for a period of time, leaving you with missing transactions. When that happens, importing transactions from a CSV file is the fastest and most accurate way to catch up.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to import bank or credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online using a CSV file, what to watch out for before importing, and how to avoid common mistakes that can cause issues later.

When You Need to Import Transactions from a CSV File

There are a few common situations where importing transactions makes sense:

• Your bank or credit card does not connect to QuickBooks Online
• A bank feed disconnects temporarily and misses several days or weeks
• You are catching up historical transactions
• You receive transaction data from a financial institution that doesn’t support live feeds
  

If your bank offers a QBO download option, always choose that first. QBO files are designed specifically for QuickBooks Online and import with minimal setup. CSV files require a bit more attention, but they work well when prepared correctly.

Step 1: Download Your Transactions from the Bank

Every bank and credit union formats downloads differently, but most will allow you to export transactions as a CSV file.

Once downloaded, open the file before importing and review it carefully.

Look for the following columns:

• Date
• Description
• Amounts (either one column with positives and negatives, or two columns for charges and payments)
  

Pay close attention to the date format. QuickBooks Online needs to know whether the date uses slashes or dashes, and whether it follows a month-day-year or day-month-year structure. This is one of the most common causes of import errors.

If the column headers are unclear, this is a good time to rename them so they’re easier to recognize during the import process.

Save the file somewhere easy to find before moving on.

Step 2: Start the Import in QuickBooks Online

In QuickBooks Online, go to Transactions and open the bank or credit card account where you want the transactions to appear.

Select Upload from file and choose your CSV file.

Make sure the account selected at the top of the screen matches the account you’re importing into. This is especially important if you manage multiple bank or credit card accounts.

If you’re importing transactions for a brand-new account that hasn’t been set up yet, you can create the account during this step.

Step 3: Map the Columns Correctly

QuickBooks will now ask you to map the columns from your CSV file.

You’ll confirm:

• Whether the first row contains headers
• Whether your file has one amount column or separate charge and payment columns
• The date format used in the file
• Which columns represent money spent and money received
  

Take your time here. Correct mapping ensures transactions import with the right signs and dates.

QuickBooks will show a preview so you can confirm whether expenses appear as negatives and income appears as positives. If something looks off, go back and adjust before continuing.

Step 4: Select Transactions to Import

Before finalizing the import, QuickBooks allows you to select or deselect individual transactions.

This is helpful if:

• You want to overlap dates slightly to avoid missing transactions
• Some transactions already exist in QuickBooks
• You only need part of the file
  

Once you’re confident, proceed with the import.

Step 5: Review Imported Transactions in the Bank Feed

After importing, your transactions will appear in the Bank Transactions screen, just like transactions from a live bank feed.

From here, you can:

• Categorize expenses and income
• Create bank rules for repeating transactions
• Match transfers or payments
• Review for duplicates or errors
  

At this stage, importing behaves exactly like normal bank feed activity.

When Not to Import Transactions

CSV imports are best used for bulk transactions.

If you’re missing only one or two transactions, it’s usually faster and cleaner to enter them manually using an Expense or Deposit form. Imports are most useful when you’re filling a larger gap or working with historical data.

Importing transactions from a CSV file can feel intimidating at first, but once you understand the steps, it becomes a reliable backup option when bank feeds don’t cooperate.

The key is preparation. Review the file, confirm the date format, map the columns carefully, and double-check the preview before importing. Done correctly, this method keeps your books complete and accurate without unnecessary manual entry.

If you’d like help categorizing transactions after importing, creating bank rules, or reviewing your books to make sure everything is clean, check out the resources below.

Helpful Resources

Compare QuickBooks Online Plans

https://www.mycloudbookkeeping.org/quickbooks-plan-comparison

Download the Free Month-End Checklist for Small Business

https://learn.mycloudbookkeeping.org/small-business-month-end-checklist

Book a Free Consultation

https://www.mycloudbookkeeping.org/consultation

If you have questions about importing transactions or something looks different in your file, leave a comment or reach out. Chances are, your question will help someone else too.

Hi, Kerry here from My Cloud Bookkeeping. I work with small businesses and entrepreneurs to help them get useful financial information out of QuickBooks Online so they can make decisions in real time.

If you’re maximizing QuickBooks Online, you likely have your bank and credit card accounts connected to your bank or credit union and bringing in transactions for review on a regular basis.

But what do you do if your particular bank does not connect to QuickBooks Online, or if that bank connection drops out and you’re missing a bunch of transactions?

Most banks and credit unions will give you the option to download transactions. I can’t show you what that looks like because it’s different in every financial institution, but I can show you how to import a file when you need to.

One quick note before we start: if you ever have the option to download a QBO file, take it. If it’s a QBO file, QuickBooks will already know what to do with all the fields and you won’t need to map anything.

Here we are in one of my files that isn’t real. I use it when what I’m doing may not work in the sample company. Today, because we’re importing transactions from a CSV file, I’m not sure that would work in the sample company, so we’re going to work in this messy file instead.

I’m currently on the Bank Transactions page. You can see that we have the new bank feed interface, even though some people may still be transitioning. For what we’re doing today, this view works perfectly.

You’ll notice there are some really old transactions sitting here. This was from the last time I did an import. What could happen is that your credit card bank feed connection drops out for a bit. That’s what we’re going to assume happened here.

I’ve gone to the bank and downloaded a CSV file. Let’s take a look at what that file looks like.

Here it is. Across the top, we have four columns: the date, the description, the charge, and the payment.

It’s really important to pay attention to this before you start the import. The date format matters a lot. In this case, we’re using month, day, and a four-digit year. You may need to tell QuickBooks what format your file uses.

Next, take a look at the charge and payment columns. You’ll need to decide whether your file uses one column with positives and negatives, or two separate columns. Pay attention to the headers as well. Sometimes renaming them before importing makes the process much easier.

Once you’ve reviewed the file, save it somewhere easy to find.

Now let’s pop back to QuickBooks.

I’m on the credit card account where I want to import these transactions. I’m going to choose Upload from file.

Here I can drag the file in or browse to select it. I’ll select the file now.

This next part is really important. Make sure the account you’re importing into is correct. Even though we selected the credit card earlier, always double-check this step.

If this were a brand-new credit card account, you could add it here and set it up during the import process.

Now we’ll click Continue.

QuickBooks asks if the first row is a header. Yes, it is. It also asks how many columns contain amounts. We know this file has two columns.

Next, we select the date format. This is why it’s important to review your file beforehand. Once that’s set, we map the fields. The date maps to Date, the description maps to Description, money received maps to Payment, and money spent maps to Charge.

Now we click Continue.

QuickBooks asks us to confirm that income transactions are positive and expense transactions are negative. We’ll review a few lines to make sure this looks right.

If you’re ever unsure, pause here and double-check. If something doesn’t look correct, go back and adjust before importing.

Next, we choose which transactions we want to import. You can select everything or deselect certain dates if you’re overlapping transactions to avoid missing anything.

Now we click Continue and import the transactions.

Once the import is complete, we go back to the Bank Transactions page.

You can see all the imported transactions sitting here, ready for review, just like transactions from a live bank feed.

If you ever need to import a CSV file, you can see that the process is quite manageable when you take it step by step.

If you’re missing only a couple of transactions, it’s usually easier to enter them manually. Imports are best used for bulk transactions.

Check out my other videos on how to categorize transactions and create bank rules to make this process even faster.

If this helped, leave a note below. And if anything looked different in your file, also mention it, because it might help someone else.

Be sure to like, subscribe, and I’ll see you in my next video. Cheers.

‍