QuickBooks online banking is a great way to enter transactions and keep tabs on all activity in bank and credit card accounts. It is especially useful if you use an ATM card or credit card often and don't want to take the time to manually enter each individual purchase. Frequent, even daily, downloads will help keep your account balances current and accurate in QuickBooks.

In order for this feature to work efficiently for you, it is important to learn how online banking with QuickBooks works. If you understand how it works, you can avoid problems later. Follow these tips to make certain that each QuickBooks online banking session goes smoothly:

1. Correct set-up. When entering account information for the first time, do not include dashes or spaces in any box that asks for the account or routing number. They will "confuse" the program, and you will have to remove them before continuing.

2. Make a backup. Don't neglect this step, particularly if you are new to the online banking process. Backup the file immediately before downloading. This ensures that if you wind up with a lot of work to clean up, you can instead restore the backup.

3. Download before reconciling. One problem QuickBooks users encounter is to find that there are unmatched transactions in the Online Banking Center that were previously entered into QuickBooks and then reconciled. QuickBooks will not match a downloaded transaction to a reconciled one, even if it is the same transaction. Reduce the likelihood of this happening by downloading immediately before you reconcile.

4. Understand your connection. There are two ways QuickBooks downloads transactions: either through a direct connection, or a "web-connect." A direct connection asks for your password, then downloads transactions directly, without using the QuickBooks internal web browser. A "web-connect" opens the QuickBooks web browser, then takes you to the financial institution's website. Sign in to your account, navigate to the account you wish to download, then find a link that says something like, "Download transactions." Follow the instructions to complete the download.

5. Correct dates for download. If your financial institution uses the "web-connect" described above, it may or may not keep track of the last date you downloaded. If yours does not, keep a log somewhere of each and every date you download; refer to it each time before a new download. If you accidentally overlap dates, you will download transactions twice, creating unmatchable transactions.

6. Match and/or enter transactions correctly. For example, if you previously invoiced a customer, and are now trying to enter their payment as an individual deposit via your online banking session, make sure you use the "Receive Payments" option when entering the payment into QuickBooks. This will record that your customer no longer owes that money. Similarly, if you previously entered a bill to be paid, and are now recording the check written for it via your online banking session, make sure you use the "Pay Bills" option. This will record that you no longer owe the vendor the money. In both of these examples the transaction should have been assigned the "Unmatched" status initially. If the transaction was assigned the "Matched" status, do nothing. It means you already recorded it correctly in QuickBooks.

7. Add all information. When adding any type of transaction to the register, make certain you enter all information: the correct payee, date, and check number. This is true no matter which option you select for adding it: the Add to Register, the Pay Bills, or any other option. Neglecting to add any of this information may result in a transaction remaining unmatched.

8. Be careful about deleting the QuickStatement. If the QuickStatement gets filled with unmatchable transactions, you can simply delete it, and this is very handy. However, before you ever delete one, make absolutely certain that every transaction that can be matched, is matched. If matchable transactions remain on a deleted QuickStatement, you will probably have to enter them manually.

9. Upgrade before sunset. Intuit cannot support its products forever. Once your version of QuickBooks is sunsetted, online features are no longer available. To keep online banking flowing smoothly, make sure you upgrade your software before it's sunsetted.

10. It can't do everything. Intuit has done an excellent job creating a great program, but like anything else in life, online banking with QuickBooks simply cannot do every single thing that every single business owner needs. You may have a unique need, requiring a unique work-around. Contact an experienced QuickBooks professional who can develop an acceptable alternative for you.

Follow these ten steps to make each online banking session with QuickBooks the time saver it was designed to be.