Using QB 3005 Pro to download credit card charges

QB obtains the vendor name from the financial institution. The names rarely match what you would enter as a vendor name.... they are often truncated, or contain information specific to WHICH Staples, Shell Oil or whatever location you visited. There is an opportunity to assign an 'alias' to the downloaded name, so that if you have a CC charge that went to "19 PET. - NEPTUNE Q39 NEPTUNE NJ" you could assign it as an alias to "19 Petroleum Inc.".

After you download the transactions for your CC, QB will attempt to match the transaction to ones already in your register. The help section for online banking has a detailed explanation under 'matching transactions'. If the transaction is in the register but hasn't been matched, you have the opportunity to manually match it. If the transaction has not been entered into the register, you can enter it. It is in the matching/entering stage that you can create aliases, assign accounts, etc.

The real time savings come after you have downloaded and recorded transactions for a couple of months. QB has the option to 'add multiple' and it will bring up a screen, with transactions that match the vendor names/aliases previously entered, and the accounts previously assigned. You have the option AT ANY TIME to change vendor names or accounts (say your purchase at Staples was not for 'office supplies' but instead for 'office furnishings' or whatever... you can select the proper expense account from the screen BEFORE the transaction is entered).

Thanks for such a detailed and helpful explanation