Credit Card Downloads in Quickbooks

You might be better off having your client manually enter the transactions into QB rather than using the download process. Many people have reported that the download process does not always work well. There seems to be something different with the credit card downloading process that makes it error prone. As a result, transactions don't always download or worse, duplicate transactions happen. Unless you are talking a massive amount of transactions then entering the data manually is usually safer.

Banks are also starting to discontinue supporting downloads into QB or are now charging a fee to do so.

Some of our individual cards have 50+ transactions per month, and to re-enter it all by hand is hours of work by someone who makes $35/hour and is error prone as well. So paying a bank $20 to $30/month for a

Take a look at Baystate Consulting's 01 Transaction Pro Import Wizard which uses the QuickBooks SDK (software development kit) and not IIF files at

Real time integration for downloads is available through QB Online. It's not available w/desktop versions of QB.

For me, I rarely, if ever, have problems with downloading cc data. One important tip is to always make a backup of the QB file before importing data into it. This way, if the import goes haywire for some reason, you can restore the backup to get the file back to where it was. But in all honesty I almost never need to restore the backup because the downloads go just fine. Also, transfering through a csv file is cumbersome. Try to get a .qbo. If you can't get one of those, try to get a .iif.

And, like I mentioned, backup the QB file before importing the data, especially when working with .iif files.

Jennifer Signup for my free QB newsletter at

Then there is the issue of designing a business process to prevent the same transactions getting entered twice.

Then there is the issue of where do you store files when the transactions have been entered.

Then there is the issue of how do you determine when transactions have been missed.

Using any form of intermediate file always means more hassle and more potential for errors.

Good morning Will,

I have a few thoughts:

1. Backups are .qbb files. The regular file that you work in from day to day is a .qbw. So it's not possible to overwrite the .qbw with a .qbb. So there are no worries on that particular point.

1. *Restoring* the backup is another issue and requires specific steps in order to be done correctly.

2. Perhaps you can develop a clearly worded procedureal document for each procedure. Since clearly defined steps must be followed, you can include screen shots of what each step looks like in the document. This is probably a good idea anyway, since backups should be made regularly, and at some point you (or somebody at your business) might need to restore one due to some emergency with the .qbw.

1. You mentioned a Platinum Plus and a Citibank card......... Are they both QB credit cards? Just thinking out loud, but if they are both QB credit cards, then I suspect that is why they have real time integration. I work with a lot of different clients' credit card companies, and if you have a card, that is:

~not a QB credit card ~offers *real time* credit card integration (w/no intermediary file such as a qbo or iif) ~NOT via QB online, but via a QB destop version

then this is brand new information to me.

OK, ok ok....... I have a CitiBusiness account and I just signed into it to see what you mean. And I see that we have a confusion of terms. What you call "real time", I call, "online download"

Regardless of the terminology, we've been talking about two different things, which is why I couldn't understand your question!

The answer to your question is Yes. There are other credit card issuers that offer the type of download you prefer. However, I haven't worked with one for a while. Try Chase or Wells Fargo.

1. However, if you eventually find you need to first download a file to your desktop, then import it to QB:

Develop a specific, written, step by step, process including screen shots that your employees will follow each and every time. Doing the downloads is not difficult... I do it all the time and it's simply a matter of following each step in it's proper order. It's very logical and does not involve any decision-making if done correctly.

I hope this helps. Take care and write again if you have any questions about what I've shared.

Jennifer

As suddenly as it broke, today the Citibank Quickbooks downloads started to work again.

Very frustrating that there doesn't seem to be a person you can actually talk to at either Intuit or Quickbooks to get support on that.