Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

When you record a credit card payment for your business, you are keeping track of all your business financial expenses and maintain good report as well. Its importance can’t be overemphasized, and this article will help you with the steps you need to follow to achieve it.

How to Record a Credit Card Payment in Quickbooks

As for Quickbooks credit card payment how to record, please follow the steps below!

  • Enter your QuickBooks and choose "banking" from the menu bar on the left.
  • From the top side of the screen, click on banking and select the bank account you want to use.
  • Select the desired credit card transaction from the options and click on the radio button to change it from add to transfer.
  • Then proceed to click on account and select "other account" from the drop-down list. For instance, choose where the payment came if you are editing a transfer on the credit card account.
  • Click on transfer and select the other account to display the transaction details.
  • Click on the "recognize button and find the desired transaction".
  • From the action column, click on "match" and save.

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How to Apply for Credit from an Overpayment

In instances where your customer made an overpayment to your account, QuickBooks automatically set up credit. It is left for you choose how you want to apply the credit and below are some ways you can do that in QuickBooks.

  • Apply the credit to an existing invoice; you can do that by following the instructions below.
    • Enter your QuickBooks and find the invoice to want to apply the credit to.
    • Then click on receive payment once you have found it.
    • From the outstanding transactions menu, choose all the invoices you wish to apply the credit to and then proceed to select the credit as well.
    • Click on save then close.
  • Apply the credit to a new invoice.
    • Go to preference and turn the "automatically apply credits" on.
    • Access the gear icon and choose "account and settings".
    • Click on the advanced tab and then select edit (pencil icon) under the automation section.
    • Tick the box beside "automatically apply credits".
    • Click on save and then close.
    • Then proceed to create the invoice and the credits will be applied automatically.
  • Apply credit as a tip
    • Follow the instructions as mentioned above to create your invoice and add the tip item.
    • If you don’t have a tip revenue income account, then create one.
    • This will automatically apply the credit as a tip once you save the invoice.

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Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

Some of its notable features include,

  • Invoice customization.
  • Ability to accept payments from credit cards.

That and many more is what made FreshBooks one of the best alternatives to QuickBooks in the marketplace.

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Step 1: Navigate to the Banking Center

Navigate to the Banking Center by hovering over Banking (formerly Transactions) in the left menu bar and then clicking on the Banking drop-down menu, as shown below.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

Navigate to the Banking Center


Step 2: Review Downloaded Transactions

The top portion of the Banking Center displays each checking and credit card account that you have connected to your QuickBooks account. If you haven’t connected your credit card account, follow the steps in our tutorial on how to import credit card transactions. Once connected, click on the balance summary at the top of the Banking Center.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

Select your credit card account in the Banking Center

The summary box displays the account balance reported by your bank and the balance from your QuickBooks account register. Transactions that are downloaded into QuickBooks are already reflected in the bank balance. However, downloaded transactions don’t affect your QuickBooks balance until you review and accept them.

Don’t forget to reconcile.

The bank balance and QuickBooks balance should be the same once all your transactions are reviewed. If there’s a difference, you should be able to find it when you reconcile your credit card account at the end of the month.

The orange number in the bottom-right corner of the credit card account summary box is the number of transactions downloaded from your bank account that haven’t yet been reviewed and accepted, matched, or excluded. A list of transactions to review will appear in the lower half of the Banking Center under the For review tab, as shown below.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

Credit card transactions to review are found in the For review tab

Advanced settings:

You can specify which columns will appear under the For review tab by clicking on the settings cogwheel directly above the last column.


Step 3: Compare Downloaded Transactions to Existing QuickBooks Transactions

To avoid duplicate transactions and incorrect credit card balances, match downloaded credit card transactions with those you’ve already entered in QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks searches for existing transactions that match the imported transaction automatically. If any are found, the word “match” will appear in the Action column on the far right.

Clicking on Match will connect the transactions immediately, so we suggest refraining from doing so until you review the match, which you can do by clicking anywhere on the transaction screen—except in the Action column.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

View downloaded transaction detail in QuickBooks Online

Matching Existing Transactions

The example above (equipment purchase) is a match found with an existing transaction. This match occurred because the credit card charge was entered manually into QuickBooks at the time it was made. By clicking the green Match button, the credit card transaction will move from the For review tab to the Categorized tab, but no transaction will be created in the QuickBooks register since the transaction already exists.

Matching Unpaid Bills

To determine if your downloaded credit card transaction is likely a bill payment, QuickBooks will scan the list of unpaid bills you’ve entered. In the example below, Paul’s Plumbing entered a bill for an equipment purchase for $394.06 on March 7, 2022. The bill was paid with a credit card, but the payment wasn’t recorded in QuickBooks.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

Match credit card transactions to unpaid bills in QuickBooks Online

Clicking the green Confirm button allows QuickBooks to create a new transaction in your QuickBooks register, recording the credit card charge and offsetting the unpaid bill or accounts payable (A/P).

Finding Other Matches

If you made a partial payment on an outstanding bill, QuickBooks won’t suggest a match automatically since the amount of the charge is different from the bill. Click Find other matches in the transaction detail to provide a list of outstanding bills and indicate which bill the credit card will be applied to.

You might also have to use the Find other matches button for matching transactions where the amounts are, in error, slightly different. You’ll need to correct the QuickBooks transaction amount to match the actual credit card charge before you can match the transactions.


Step 4: Create New Credit Card Transactions

You’ll need to create a new transaction if the credit card transaction hasn’t been recorded manually in QuickBooks and isn’t a payment of an outstanding bill.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

View QuickBooks suggested credit card transaction

In the above example, QuickBooks suggests that the credit card charge is categorized as “Utility Expense.” We highly recommend you complete all fields for the transaction as if you were recording the transaction manually.

You’ll want to fill in the Vendor/Customer field so that every transaction with that vendor or customer is grouped accordingly in QuickBooks. You’ll also need to tick the “Billable” box and add to the Customer field if you’ll bill the customer for the expense; skipping this means you’ll be unable to add their payment to your invoice.

Create a Rule

Click on Create a rule at the bottom of the transaction detail to create a rule based on the information you entered in this transaction.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

Create a rule to memorize credit card transactions

The “Create rule” form is similar to the one you learned about in our tutorial on how to manage QuickBooks Online bank feeds.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

Setting automatic rule details in QuickBooks Online (screen 1 of 2).

Scroll to the bottom of the form to specify other fields, such as payee, class, location, and memo.

Recording credit card payments in quickbooks online

Setting automatic rule details in QuickBooks Online (screen 2 of 2)


Why It’s Important To Manage Downloaded Credit Card Transactions in QuickBooks Online

After you import credit card transactions into QuickBooks Online, you must tell the platform how to classify the transactions. Imported credit card transactions don’t transfer into your account register automatically. Instead, they appear as transactions awaiting review in the Banking Center. Using the Banking Center, you must do one of the following for each credit card transaction:

  1. Match the transaction to an existing QuickBooks transaction.
  2. Apply the transaction against an unpaid bill in QuickBooks.
  3. Create a new expense transaction and provide an expense category.

Don’t Exclude Transactions

While the option exists in QuickBooks, you shouldn’t exclude transactions imported from your credit card account. Every transaction, including personal transactions of the owner, must be recorded in QuickBooks Online for the credit card account to reconcile and your books to be complete. Read our bookkeeping tips if you need help handling personal transactions.

Wrap Up

You successfully learned how to manage downloaded credit card transactions in QuickBooks Online and how to match them to existing transactions and apply them against unpaid bills. You also learned to create a rule so that QuickBooks can provide greater detail when suggesting new transactions. The next guide in our QuickBooks Online Training Course is how to enter a credit card refund for when you receive one from vendors.

How do you record a credit card payment in QuickBooks online?

This is the main way to record your credit card payments in QuickBooks..
Select + New..
Under Other, select Pay down credit card..
Select the credit card you made the payment to..
Enter the payment amount..
Enter the date of the payment..
Select the bank account you used to make the payment..

How do you record journal entry for credit card transactions?

In your journal entry, you must: Debit your Cash account in the amount of your Sale – Fees. Debit your Credit Card Expense account the amount of your fees. Credit your Sales account the total amount of the sale.

What is the journal entry for credit card payment?

The total of the journal entry should be the amount of all new purchases plus the finance charge, for example $1,000. Offset the new purchases and finance charges by showing an INCREASE in your Credit Card Liability account of the same amount, say $1,000.

How do I manually enter credit card transactions in QuickBooks online?

Here's how:.
Select the Plus icon..
Click Expense..
Choose the credit card account in the Bank/Credit account drop-down..
Enter the additional information about the transaction..
Click Save..