Work bank and card transactions

Use Bank feeds to work through a client’s bank or credit-card activity. Your assistant proposes the coding; you review the lines and decide what should reach QuickBooks Online.

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Before the first line arrives

Check that the correct company is connected and synced. Under Settings → Bank connections, map the feed account to its bank or credit-card account in QuickBooks. Transactions cannot be staged until that mapping is set. Also check whether the same account uses QuickBooks’ own bank feed. Decide where you will work the transactions before importing a first statement or connecting the bank.

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Getting transactions in

Choose a downloaded statement or a live bank connection. Both put transactions in the same queue, and neither posts them to QuickBooks.

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From a statement file

Open Bank feeds → Import statement and select a CSV, OFX, QFX, or .qbo file from your bank. You can also ask your assistant:

Preview this March statement for Ridgeline’s Amex account. Show the column mapping, date range, and skipped rows. Wait for me to check it before importing.

An overlapping import checks bank transaction identifiers, content, and reference details against the queue. Checking for entries already in QuickBooks is a separate step below.

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From a live bank connection

Under Settings → Bank connections, choose Connect a bank. The person with banking access opens the returned link and completes the bank’s sign-in. Zeno does not receive the banking credentials. Select and map the accounts you intend to work on. Discovered accounts stay disabled until mapped. New posted transactions then arrive automatically; Sync now requests an immediate sync. Pending authorizations are not staged. If the feed is unexpectedly empty, check its connection status. A lapsed login may return an empty sync without an error. Reconnect when Zeno flags the connection; reconnecting keeps its cursor and history. Disconnecting stops future syncing. It does not remove transactions already staged or posted.

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Working the queue

Start with candidates for existing transactions, then work through lines that need a category. Ask your assistant to explain uncertain decisions:

Work Ridgeline’s March Amex lines. Check for entries already in QuickBooks, use our saved rules, and show me anything uncertain. Do not post yet.

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What a person does here

Use the console to Build plan, Exclude, Restore, Link, or review a submitted claim. Shift-click selects a range of lines. For changes, tell your assistant what should change; the console shows the category but does not provide manual account, class, payee, or memo entry. Each line reads Description, Account, Payee, Category, Class, Amount. A value that is only suggested shows greyed in its column with a suggested tag; it is not set and will not post. The Category column also shows a ledger match, with Link, and which rule filled the line. A rule badge tells you that a saved rule supplied the category. Changing the line clears that badge. Exclude a line only when your firm’s accounting policy says it needs no posting, and record the reason.

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What should not post at all

Zeno looks for transactions already in the register and for transfers between fed accounts. Read each candidate before accepting it.

• An existing transaction: compare the account, amount, date, and payee. Choose Link when it is the same transaction. This keeps the bank line from producing another entry.
• A transfer pair: two mirrored bank lines may represent one transfer. Check both accounts so the movement is recorded once.
• A less obvious match: ask your assistant to investigate. Several checks may add up to one deposit, or a check may have cleared much later than its entry date.

The automatic match search uses a narrow date and amount range. An absent candidate does not prove the transaction is new. Your assistant can search more broadly and inspect groups of register entries.

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Posting what is left

Select the coded lines and choose Build plan, or ask your assistant to prepare the plan for the company, account, and date range you specify. Check the entries in the plan, including coding, warnings, and transfers. Hold back lines that need an answer. Then follow review and approve work to approve and apply the plan. By default, a feed plan includes pending lines with coded accounts. Select lines explicitly when you want a smaller batch. If your firm’s workflow uses a holding account for unresolved coding, your assistant can prepare that separately for review.

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Check the result

Read the run’s posted, failed, and skipped entries. Confirm the approved transactions in the QuickBooks register and follow up on failures before retrying. Each posted entry keeps a link to its original feed line. A line linked, excluded, or posted elsewhere after a plan was prepared is skipped when that plan applies. The run records why. A plan whose lines have all been accounted for elsewhere is shown as stalled.

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What reaches QuickBooks, and what does not

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Posting

Money out of a bank account posts as a check; money in posts as a deposit. Credit-card activity posts as a charge or credit. Mirrored lines across two fed accounts can become a single transfer. Review the proposed transaction types before approving the plan. See reversing work if an entry needs to be undone.

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Linking

A linked line shows the existing transaction’s type, date, name, accounts, and amount. If several register entries make up a match, they are listed together. The line appears in Linked and will not create a new posting. QuickBooks receives no cleared flag, note, or reference from this action.

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Cleared and reconciled

Reconcile the account in QuickBooks Online. Zeno cannot read or set its cleared status or operate its Banking review queue through the accounting API. Linking a line in Zeno does not complete either of those steps. The Desktop edition has different cleared-status capabilities.

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The bank’s balance beside the books

Use the balance panel to investigate differences. It separates pending feed work, intentionally excluded lines, and differences the feed cannot explain, such as outstanding checks or activity before its start date. Check the timestamps: the bank figure is a snapshot from the last sync, while the QuickBooks figure is read when you open the panel. The bank’s current balance differs from its available balance, which includes holds and pending activity. Card balances are compared as amounts owed. Finish the reconciliation in QuickBooks after checking the remaining gap.

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Use one feed, not two

Decide where your firm will code and accept the transactions for each account. Zeno cannot work lines waiting in QuickBooks Online’s For Review queue. It can see them only after they have been accepted into the register.

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What staging here buys

Importing or connecting the account in Zeno lets your assistant work the unposted lines, use saved coding rules, compare register history, and prepare a plan you can review. Each resulting posting retains its source and run history.

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Running both

If both products download the same account, QuickBooks still has its own review queue after Zeno posts. Match those downloaded lines to the entries Zeno created rather than accepting them as new transactions.

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Teaching it as you go

When a coding decision should recur, ask your assistant to test a rule against the pending lines before saving it:

Show which pending Ridgeline Supply charges would match a rule for Repairs & Maintenance. Let me check the matches before you save the rule.

Review saved rules on Rules. A correct rule saves categorizing on the next import; proposed postings still go through review. An auto rule fills the category on arrival. A suggest rule proposes a category for review; use it when the descriptor needs a judgment call.

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Cards that are somebody’s expenses

A fed card account can be configured for expense claims. Each charge then needs the cardholder’s supporting information and submission, plus a reviewer’s claim approval, before it is eligible for a posting plan. Claim approval and plan approval are separate steps. Follow expense claims for that workflow.

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Tool reference

Tools your assistant uses for this workflow

Job	Tools
Preview and import a statement	qb_preview_statement, qb_import_statement
Inspect or change coding	qb_suggest_coding, qb_code_feed_lines
Investigate possible matches	qb_match_options
Prepare a feed plan	qb_plan_feed
Compare balances	qb_bank_balance
Test and save a coding rule	qb_test_rule, qb_learn_rule

The queue tool reference describes the full workflow available to a connected AI client.