How to create a bank rule in QuickBooks

Bank rules save you categorising the same downloaded transactions by hand, so they reach the right accounts without you picking a category each time. Intuit says QuickBooks gets better at this the more your rules are used, and after a while starts filling in details by itself.

Look at a handful of the transactions you want the rule to catch and note what they have in common. A rule works on either money in or money out, for one bank account or all of them, and each condition looks at the Description, the Bank text or the Amount. You'll also choose whether a transaction has to meet all of the conditions or any one of them.

Decide what the rule should fill in. The choices include the Transaction type, the Category, a Product/service, the Payee and a Customer. Intuit notes the list you see depends on which company settings are turned on. Which category a transaction belongs in depends on your business, so check with your accountant if you're unsure.

Already built rules in another QuickBooks Online company file? You can move them across instead of starting again. Sign in to that file, go to Rules, open the dropdown next to New rule and choose Export rules, then save the Excel file. Sign in to the other company file, choose Import rules from the same dropdown, select the file you saved, pick the rules and details to bring in, and follow the prompts.

1. Go to All apps, select Accounting, then select Rules.
2. Open the Bank rules tab and select New rule. If this is your first rule, select Go to rules first.
3. Type a name in the What do you want to call this rule? field.
4. In the Apply this to transactions that are dropdown, choose Money in or Money out.
5. In the in dropdown, choose one bank account, or All bank accounts.
6. In the and include the following dropdown, choose All if every condition must be met, or Any if one is enough.
7. Select + Add a condition. Pick Description, Bank text or Amount, then Contains, Doesn't contain or Is exactly, and type the value or text to look for. Repeat for each condition, up to 5.
8. Set what the rule applies to matching transactions, such as the Transaction type, Category, Product/service, Payee and Customer.
9. If you want matching transactions added to your books without accepting each one, turn on Auto-post under For transactions that meet these criteria...
10. Select Save.
11. To change the rule's priority, select the reorder icon on the Rules page and drag the rule up or down. QuickBooks applies the rule with the highest priority first.

QuickBooks applies your rules to the transactions on the Pending tab of the Bank transactions page, the ones Intuit suggests checking every day. A transaction a rule has filled in shows a RULE badge in its Match/Categorise column, ready for you to check and accept.

An auto-post rule goes a step further and adds matching Pending transactions for you. Those show an AUTO badge in the Transaction Posted column on the Posted tab. Auto-post rules run when you sign in, when you upload a file, and when you create or change an auto-post rule. Intuit suggests starting with simple transactions that look the same every time, such as rent or fuel, before widening a rule's reach.

To see which transactions your rules have handled, go to All apps, select Accounting, then Bank transactions, open the All transactions dropdown and choose Rules. On the Posted tab the same dropdown offers Rules, No rules and Auto-post (rule).

If a rule isn't being applied, check which text it tests. The Bank text is exactly what your bank sends, as it appears on your statement or in your internet banking. The Description is QuickBooks' tidied-up version of it, which might show only the supplier's name. A condition written for one can miss when the transaction only matches the other.

Transaction lists show the Description unless you change it. To see the bank text instead, go to All apps, select Accounting, then Bank transactions, select the settings icon in the Bank transactions section and tick Show full bank description.

Auto-post only works while the Pending tab holds fewer than 300 transactions. With more than that, categorise some of them to bring the number down, then start auto-post again. And if the Also keep existing bank memo box won't stay ticked, that's expected while the memo text field is empty.