WSW podcast Bank Feed Enhancements Statement Fetching And Other Bank Feed Improvements
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[00:00:00]
Dan DeLong: Welcome to another Workshop Wednesday, where it's all about casual conversations for serious workflows brought to you by the School of Bookkeeping, which I just changed the slogan here while that while that intro video was going on, I was like, cause it's really not allowing you to be the best bookkeeper you can be [00:01:00] because, there's other things that, that take Take a factor in making, you don't just have to be, you're not going to get that from school, just school bookkeeping, but you will learn QuickBooks your way.
And because we have three different, membership levels and actually four cause we have the core, which is all about school book. I'm sorry. We have the core, which is all about small businesses focused on small business. So if you have some clients that need some extra learnings, like maybe you're not doing, maybe that's not part of your engagement.
Maybe they're in their books doing their things and want something complimentary to the services that you offer as a bookkeeper, you can have them sign up for the core, which those courses that are in school bookkeeping will just focus on. Things that a small business owner might be needing.
And
Rachel D: [00:02:00] that's super helpful because a lot of them do are in there doing a lot of things.
Dan DeLong: And you can, there's lots of ways to engage with us at school bookkeeping while you're taking those courses, right? Cause they're small. Bite size lessons each of them has a, comments or where you can ask questions or if you, if something just didn't make sense there, you can ask a question there and we can answer it.
And then there's other ways to reach out to us directly to get some quick answers, right?
Membership Levels Explained
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Dan DeLong: Which is that's elite, right? So we're talking about elite, membership level. And then somewhere in between is premium, which we. We managed that, the types of memberships mirrored that off of the QuickBooks, payroll service offerings, a core premium and elite.
So the premium is really focused on accountants, right? [00:03:00] Accountants and bookkeepers. So that will have additional courses that you don't have in the core that will allow for, those, types of things should I be a pro advisor, right? All the cool tools that are in the QBOA obviously a small business in the core wouldn't necessarily be concerned about wanting, to know that, so those are the three membership options that we have. And then we have just every other streaming service has a plus at the end of it, we have elite plus, which is
intro: Right.
Dan DeLong: So elite gives you the quick answers, which is our online chat option. You can reach out. You've used it before Rachel and your team as well.
The elite plus gives you an hour session that you can book with us so that. If you have some want to see, do some screen sharing or things like that's [00:04:00] included in the membership, right? So those, are our membership options and that's. That's a long answer of why I wanted to change the little slogan there of you can learn QuickBooks your way, right?
So if you need help, we're here to help you with that. If you're more of a do it yourselfer you can just watch the courses and get your learnings on that way.
Rachel D: Yeah. And for anybody that's, waited. For over an hour for QuickBooks support.
Yeah,
Dan DeLong: and that's the whole idea of of quick answers and get your answer, get back to work. Do what you do to do what you love best. And don't be waiting on hold for somebody to, let me research that for you.
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: All right.
QuickBooks Online Bank Feeds
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Dan DeLong: So one of the things that we have in the. In all of our [00:05:00] offerings is a course on bank feeds, right?
So QuickBooks Online bank feeds, is, a very powerful I think if you had to stack up the things that make QuickBooks Online cool, bank feeds will be pretty high on the list. Would you agree, Rachel?
Rachel D: Yeah, for me, it's the number one feature.
Dan DeLong: What do you like most about the bank feeds?
What is it? How does it help you as a, as an accounting professional or or your clients using it as a
Rachel D: tool? It just brings in all of the transactions for you to. Do what you need to do. So instead of having to maybe go, convert PDF statements and upload them into QuickBooks online or, manually key them in one by one which is, I know a [00:06:00] lot of people used to do, it just basically pulls the transaction straight from the either bank or credit card.
What other financial institution that's grabbing all of your transactions, both money in and money out. It just brings them into a dashboard for you to either deal with if they're transferring back and forth to each other or, being needing to be categorized onto your financial. So it's really, great.
It's a huge time saver.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And it's, it. When you compare that to QuickBooks desktop I think one of the cool things about what sets QuickBooks online is because it is a, it's already in the cloud, right? Once you make that connection to your bank the automatic, at least the [00:07:00] theory, right?
The automatic.
intro: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: We all, deal with things when they don't work. But.
intro: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: The idea is that once you connect it, it will nightly go out and check the bank's website, grab new transactions. And the following morning there, they're just waiting there for you to,
Rachel D: yeah with a few specific exceptions here and there maybe a connection will break here and there, depending on the bank.
I think we all know the ones that we love, maybe the ones that give us more trouble, but for the most part. If it's working correctly, I never have issues.
Dan DeLong: Yeah nothing is more, frustrating, right? When it doesn't work, right?
intro: Because
Dan DeLong: you rely so much on it.
And
intro: then it doesn't work.
Dan DeLong: It's, like when a YouTube video buffers. Oh, the [00:08:00] humanity on that. Yeah. But another
Rachel D: thing. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead.
Dan DeLong: No, I was just saying that there is, even if it doesn't grab, nightly, there is a button there to click update. It updates all of them.
You really don't get that experience in QuickBooks Desktop. It's more of, I gotta go out to the website, gotta Download those transactions, or I pay the bank for the, luxury of clicking that button, right? Yeah. For books online it's, all included, right?
Rachel D: Yeah, I was going to say for me, one thing that I really have decided about the bank feeds as it pertains to my team, and what they're doing with the bank feeds is it taken, the technicians role from keying in financial transactions [00:09:00] with potential human error to everything is coming in and their skillset is.
been able to develop into, and I, again, this is really more from the perspective of the bookkeeping, team as opposed to the business owner. I'm sure they're able to learn a lot more too when the financial information is there and you don't have to. spend all the time keying it in, but their role has really gone from data entry to really understanding the whole accounting equation and the accounting cycle and really becoming actually more skilled about the flow of financial information.
And I couldn't be happier because they're really getting into the nitty gritty of really what's going on in the financial statement versus, Oh, I'm just going to spend all my time keying it in. And for me, that's. I think one of the biggest changes I've seen throughout the [00:10:00] year.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Yeah. They, where they actually can get into the nitty gritty of those types of things because they can see money in, money out in, in that bank feed. So I did put in the link directly to the QuickBooks online bank feeds course that we have at school of bookkeeping in the comments and up in the right here is a QR code.
So you need. to be able to to do that to be able to access it. So if you're not a member or subscriber, you can sign up for a 30 day free trial take a look at those courses. And see what you think. Let us know. Feedback is always a gift. That's why it's, a gift, right?
Rachel D: I don't know if that made sense entirely. No I turned into a Feedback is a gift. That's why it's a
Dan DeLong: gift. Yeah, I pulled like a grandpa [00:11:00] on
Rachel D: combining what you meant.
Navigating QuickBooks Online Updates
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Dan DeLong: We appreciate yeah I was thinking two different things at the same time, but what I was doing is I was I wanted to do something on, on statement fetching, which is a brand new or relatively new feature of, the, bank feed.
So I went and I started looking at the course that we have, and I I immediately was smacked in the face and because a little, there's a little overview where I do a little navigational overview of the bank feeds and on the. On the screenshot that I was or the screen that I was working on, there were three options in the banking menu.
And now today there's seven. So I'm like, Oh my God,
Rachel D: I have to look right now.
Dan DeLong: We need to we need to, do an update. So this is [00:12:00]
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: a
Dan DeLong: good a good. A good thing to to, to refresh what it is that we're, we're doing because there's, the good thing about QuickBooks online is it updates regularly.
The bad thing about QuickBooks online is that it updates regularly. Keeping up. Oh my gosh. It looks
Rachel D: like they added reconcile chart of accounts and recurring transactions.
Dan DeLong: Let me share my screen so we QBOA. I don't know.
Rachel D: Yeah, you share your screen.
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: Yeah.
Rachel D: Yeah. I'm curious to know if maybe this is in.
Yeah, it is. I don't think they have business view and accountant view anymore. So I, don't think I can tell, but, yeah, so you're saying it is in if I were a business owner and I was looking at my plus subscription, I that's what I would see too.
Dan DeLong: Yes. And the naming has changed, right? So instead of it saying banking, like it used to say, it now says transactions.[00:13:00]
bank transactions, right? It just depends on whether you're in your books or your client's books. This is just a demo account. So not really, not a real, we're not going to see real stuff here, but whoops, I'm in the wrong one. So we've got bank transactions, app transactions, receipts, reconcile rules, chart of accounts, and recurring transactions are now available from the transactions menu.
By clicking on transactions, it takes you to the bank feed, right? Which, again, has those seven options at the top.
Rachel D: Interesting.
Dan DeLong: Reconcile chart of accounts, recurring transactions, those three. There's nothing new there, right? It's So don't get excited that, oh, there was three in the There was originally three, now there's seven.
There's really just Those are just access points, right? So
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Recurring transactions is going to take you to recurring transactions, just like going [00:14:00] up here to the gear. Yeah, you used to have to go
Rachel D: to the gear wheel or
Dan DeLong: transactions, right? So nothing changed. I accessed mine
Rachel D: through right tool.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel D: Thanks. I went to it. I really appreciate it.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Because, when I, worked there discovery was always sometimes a challenge, right? Yeah, if you only put one way to get to a certain feature or function inside of QuickBooks, If you didn't happen to stumble upon it, you wouldn't get there.
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: That's what they're trying to do there with putting multiple different ways to get to the same
Rachel D: place. Yes. And I made a comment about business view versus accountant view. And yeah, that was a thing for a while. It was like you either loved it or you hated it, but I think they got rid of it at some point.
Dan DeLong: And we appreciate you saying that we are the gift. Ah,
Rachel D: I love [00:15:00] Mariette.
Dan DeLong: She's awesome. She is
Rachel D: one of my favorite people.
Dan DeLong: But yes, the, they're just those additional four options. Three of them are just different ways to get to the same place.
App Transactions Overview
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Dan DeLong: One thing that is that I want to talk about a little bit is app transactions, because that is something that is new ish than when we created the original course.
And I was trying to look for a resource that's out there that talks about is app transactions. And this is one of those things that is, it's terrible. It's a terrible experience because app transactions, like if you try to search for app transactions in the bank feed, you're going to get all things about different apps or transactions.
So it's it's one of those general search terms that. [00:16:00] Is going to give you lots of different rabbit holes to go down
Rachel D: name. I don't know if it represents exactly what it is.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. It's like the word deposit, right? If you search for deposit, what are you talking about? Deposit customer deposits or bank deposits or something else, right?
Invoices is these are terms that are they have multiple meanings. Searching for those answers tends to be. Overwhelming when when the search engine doesn't really know the difference and people call them the same thing interchangeably, right? So the Intuit forums and community boards and all those things just gets, it adds a lot of noise, right?
With app transactions the whole idea is I think, the [00:17:00] easiest way to to, sum it up and, I try to make things simple, understandable and memorable, right? And it's not lost on me that spells sum.
So I'm really geeking out here on math, when it comes to words and math. But. I think the easiest way to describe what shows up in app transactions is you're only going to see things that are created by Intuit, right? You're not going to see anything in app transactions that's not made by Intuit, right?
So
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: this is
Dan DeLong: not a complete list, right? So I'm this, is why it's bonkering, right? This is why it's so maddening is that where's square, square, the square connector that, Intuit makes is not listed here. I know [00:18:00] it's not, it's just not listed here. It'll show up here, right? So if you've got it connected, it shows up here.
Rachel D: Oh, now I see what you're saying. Yeah. Cause I have some clients where I access their square that way. That's weird that it's not showing up. So you're saying it's only going to be visible if it's an Intuit developed connector.
Dan DeLong: And that doesn't mean that all Intuit developed app apps are going to show up in app connections, but there will be, like PayPal, the PayPal connector, Which I it's that we talked about PayPal.
Yeah pretty ad nauseam before it's one of those hybrid ish type of things, right? It could be a sales channel. It could be a payment method.
Rachel D: Yeah, it's hard to tell if that one right there is. The same one that you find when you go to connect. [00:19:00] I wonder if it is, or if it's maybe slightly different, but it is,
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: yeah, so
Rachel D: it's, it can be wonky.
And then that actually, I like that there's the Amazon seller central now because it used to only be Amazon business. So what's interesting about this is what it means is that. Oh boy. I was going to say, it seems like it's bringing in all of the sales data. If maybe you've got Amazon sellers or Shopify or eBay, but not necessarily with PayPal or Amazon business, because it's also going to record purchasing.
So it's money in and money out.
Dan DeLong: Exactly. The and. Amazon business is not a sales channel as it's no pointing to it. Here, sync your sales channel data with QuickBooks. Then why is Amazon business showing up in there? That's, yeah,
Rachel D: it's super. Those are for purchases. Super confusing. . Yeah, it's super confusing.
It's if your business uses Amazon [00:20:00] business, it'll connect to it and it'll bring in the backup. Which is really nice. I even use it for my firm. It's really cool. But I was going to ask you, it's one of those things where it's like every single time I have to explain to somebody, looking at transactions or we're discussing app transactions.
I usually always have to say, cause the word app transactions, it's confusing. So like you were saying, so I just have to say, it's that one. To the right of big transactions and then you click on there and then you go in there and you look for that one thing. It's always, it always takes a ton of extra explaining, but I wonder if there's like a, they can come up with a better way of naming it or something.
I feel like I'm always explaining this.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, because you've got this app transactions, then you've got apps over here and those are completely separate things. Oh my goodness. We've gone down that rabbit hole, but when you do that,
Rachel D: they always like [00:21:00] name two things the same name. It's very strange.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. We talked about it pretty pretty well yesterday on the power hour when,
Rachel D: yeah, you guys.
Dan DeLong: Intuit Enterprise Suite versus QuickBooks Enterprise. They're not the same enterprise, right? It's like the Captain Kirk Enterprise versus the Picard Enterprise, right? So two same ship, different.
So yeah,
Rachel D: and there's QBOA and QBOA. So yeah, it's it's very weird that they do that. It always requires some translation, but but that is pretty cool that they've got the Amazon seller. Now I'm guessing it's probably only one, one store. If you've got one Amazon store, I don't think you can
Dan DeLong: connect.
The eBay, the Shopify and the Amazon seller central. That's the commerce stuff, right? So yeah, those sales channels that that, you can connect, into, QuickBooks and, we'll probably need to [00:22:00] table a separate workshop for just those things. But that's where app transactions shows up here.
So the the other thing, so there's so there's the bank transactions, which in essence says the. The navigation has changed or the overview or the way, it looks, we'll, change over time. But the functionality is, essentially the same. You've got your banks and you've got your work cut out for you.
Cause I've got 314 transactions sitting in here. That's why this is a demo and not a real one. But, you've got your bank accounts listed there. And the way I think ways that you can interface with the bank feeds linking a new account uploading files and why ordering checks shows up in here, but guess what?
[00:23:00] There's another way to discover that you can order, ordering checks.
Rachel D: Oh yeah, that is new because I haven't seen that there before. And it's on mine. I just looked
Dan DeLong: the, option of, ordering checks is not new, but. The discovery of where it is. Yeah,
Rachel D: that's what I mean. In that drop down. Yeah.
Dan DeLong: And then the update button to update these accounts.
Now the, what has changed quite a bit is this little baby gear, I don't know is that, smaller? They call this the baby gear as opposed to the gear. I don't know why. Again, there's two gears, right? So there's another. Another.
Rachel D: I don't, I haven't ever heard it called baby gear, but yeah, I just, I always call it, I guess the smaller gear.
The sub
Dan DeLong: gear. What do you call it?
Rachel D: The other gear. Gear 2. 0. I don't know.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. I ended up calling it no, not that gear. Because [00:24:00] that's what people tend to do. They, go to this gear, which is, I don't know. And then you're like,
Rachel D: on mine, it looks like it's the same size.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, it does seem, but on some other pages the gear, this, that gear is smaller.
New Features in QuickBooks
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intro: Yeah,
Dan DeLong: this is relatively new or new ish at least from the time that I created the, course is the options that you have this year, being able to add additional columns. That were their business, by the way, is my naming convention for location. So just by the way that like, wait, I don't have business in mind.
But you can add
Rachel D: to your labels.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel D: I'm sorry. Sorry. For location or class and you renamed it to be business to say business, not class or location. Yeah.
Grouping Transactions for Easier Management
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Dan DeLong: And then there's this option for grouping, right? So you can group. [00:25:00] transactions by doing that, by turning that on or off, which will just make it a little easier to manage.
If you've got 314 transactions to deal with, you you can group them.
Automation and Transaction Details
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Dan DeLong: And then this automation of adding new vendors We add common vendors to your transactions and vendor list only applies to future
Rachel D: transactions. And
Dan DeLong: then you've got some options with the transaction details. So show amounts in one column, right?
So rather than having the spent versus received you can show amounts in one column and it just has one column. Again, if you're just needing to save on real estate, right? So if you only have so much so much screen area to work with showing the tags field, but don't get too excited. The tags are going away, right?
Editable Date Field and Suggested Categorization
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Dan DeLong: I think in March, I [00:26:00] think they're, getting discontinued the an editable date field, which is cool. You can change the date. Wait, can you, did I, what happened? Let's see here. I guess you can change the date. Let's just double check here. So if it's if I turn it off, go into a transaction, yeah.
I cannot change the date feed, change the, so that's what that is.
Rachel D: And I I feel like if I were helping a client manage bank feeds, then I might. Turn that off. I don't want them changing dates.
Dan DeLong: Because that's the date from the bank. Yeah. I guess when you're
Rachel D: I feel like that's opening up a door of total pandemonium.
Change those
Dan DeLong: dates. Yeah. And if you have a concern about the dates, enter the transaction into QuickBooks first and then just have it [00:27:00] match. So if it's a, you have a little bit more control over, over the date there and then enabling suggested categorization.
The Double-Edged Sword of Bank Feeds
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Dan DeLong: This is more of, this is the double edged sword, I think, of the bank feed, right?
This is
Rachel D: when the smart rules are sometimes stupid. I always explain that to people, I'm like, they're like, oh no it says, office supplies, that's what it is.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, that's, not always, the case, there's only so much information that the bank will be able to provide in the bank feed.
Just because the name of the company is one thing does not determine what they actually sell.
Funny Side Story: Guessing Business Names
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Dan DeLong: I used to, it's an interesting or funny side story that we're, I used to work in the point of sale department when people call in Retail [00:28:00] businesses would call in, and I had a little game with myself that was, I would try to guess what they sold from the name of the business.
So when the the the name, the screen would pop, and I would just see the name of the company we do the a little small talk at the beginning and at some point I would try to figure out. You know what they, sold all the company calls in and, the person on the other end she said said her name and the name of the company was Our Lady of the Lake.
And and I, so immediately I just spit out, Oh, what do you do? Distribute swords?
And there was a silence on the other end of the phone. As she explained to me, no, we are a Christian bookstore.
Rachel D: Oh, yeah, because I think like that was maybe like a King Arthur [00:29:00] reference or something, right?
Dan DeLong: Yeah, it was,
Rachel D: Yeah, I was going to say, maybe not all businesses are as As
Dan DeLong: punny as me.
Clear as
Rachel D: toilet bowls are us or something like that. Lady of the Lake. Oh, a Christian store. Okay. Yeah, so they
Dan DeLong: were by a lake, they, Oh, okay. Yeah. Our lady. Yeah. Of the lake. And that's what sent me down that that rabbit hole there of.
Rachel D: Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Of the. Yeah.
And
Rachel D: it's weird.
Challenges with Bank Feeds
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Rachel D: Cause it really it, I would probably say the bank feeds are, while we think they're the greatest thing since life spread. They're also the biggest point of confusion for. Newer people using QuickBooks or maybe people that don't necessarily know. It can wreak a lot of havoc.
So a lot of times it's because of these [00:30:00] suggestions based on maybe what the, sometimes I was, I would See that it's oftentimes like if you're going top to bottom and you've manually put in one thing above it, it might fill it in beneath it. You know what I mean? So it's not even necessarily just based on whatever the name is, it's based on what you're doing.
So you have to be really careful. It wants to pop something in there and it's often wrong. You really can't trust what it's suggesting.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And part of that is, is this rules, right? And to your point, we know what you, what we're talking about with Suggesting this is, all part of the bigger AI picture of when we talked about this kind of stuff with with Ted last time is that, this is where you're teaching the machines to learn, right?
And it's not just you that's teaching the [00:31:00] machines. It is. Everybody that's using these things, right? So sometimes the machine gets it wrong, right? Because people are getting it wrong as well. And they're telling, you have a, and most of us have, business and clientele because they're not managing this stuff.
Correct. This is where it's going to get better as Good data gets, entered in, but this is where QuickBooks starts to learn how you interact with, these transactions. And as you interact with these transactions. It's going to make suggestions like, Hey, you the last five times that something's come in from Home Depot, you've put it to jobs and supplies.
Would you like me to do that for you? This is the machine talking to
intro: me. [00:32:00]
Dan DeLong: All right. So that's where the, suggestion comes in. And if you say yes. Then it's going to create a rule, and you'll see that here in the rules, and there will be a little I don't know what this icon is where it's the it looks like an atom or something like, where it tells you, Hey, you didn't do this.
QuickBooks did yeah. Suggested this thing and where and that in of itself, the suggestions isn't, such a bad thing. It's when they choose the option to automatically add it, right? Yeah. So this, that's this guy here. Love that auto ad. Don't love
Rachel D: the auto ad,
Dan DeLong: right? So this is saying this rule is lemme just take a look at the rule here.
So when money is coming out for all bank accounts and the description [00:33:00] contains the DeLong savings, it's going to create an expense to uncategorized expense, and it's going to automatically add it. That is a horrible rule, right? Because you will never see this transaction again in the bank feed to work with it.
You'll see it when you go. To reconcile, right? Or when you run your reports at the end of the, at the end of the month and wonder why is there all this stuff in uncategorized expense, and then you go and delete that transaction, the rule kicks back in and it shows back up on the register. So it's what's that Greek Greek guy that kept pushing the rock up the hill, right?
Oh Sisyphus, right? Oh yeah, Sisyphus,
Rachel D: yeah. Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Gesundheit.
Rachel D: Yeah, that, that's rough. [00:34:00] and and it's hard because again sometimes if I'm going in and doing cleanup or looking at somebody's QuickBooks, they think that that's saving them time and it's making it easier, but.
Sadly, it's actually causing a lot of problems, but I will say the one thing that I do love are the, the obvious, the telephone expense, or things like that different utilities rent, maybe, things like that, whereas I find the Home Depots and the Amazons and the, what's, I was trying to think of some other one where it's could be cost goods sold, could be job supplies, could be this, I'm not even necessarily against a rule.
If, it could be either cost goods sold or supplies, then I still, I'm reviewing it, but I don't want it auto adding,
Dan DeLong: [00:35:00] right? Yeah. All do I add, is it's. It's, a double edged sword, right? Our lady of the lake would not agree.
Rachel D: Yeah. It's not, that is not meant for control freaks like me. I need to see it.
I need to review it. I need to make sure I'm seeing the vendor. I'm seeing the amount. I'm seeing the date. I'm seeing the things.
Dan DeLong: Now, if you're a hundred percent sure all the time. Go ahead, right? Yeah exactly.
Rachel D: If AT&T Will all is Yeah.
Dan DeLong: Wow. We were synced up there, .
Rachel D: Yeah, because we were using the same
Dan DeLong: example.
Rachel D: Yeah. Or waste management or some of these things that are always gonna be the same thing all the time. I then, fine, that's auto,
Dan DeLong: but it's to to, to a lot of people's, credit, right? Or to in their defense, a lot of people don't see that auto ad already selected [00:36:00] and that's what tends to get people into trouble.
Statement Fetching: A Game Changer
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Dan DeLong: So what we really wanted to talk about today is statement fetching, which is a brand new ish feature, where it's always been quite a challenge to get your statements. Now there is a, what is your Struggle sometimes been in the, in, in statements like how you work with your clients, did they.
Prior to the anything like this, but do they do they send you the statements or do you get the statements or how does getting the statements so that you can actually do the bank reconciliation play out in your business?
Rachel D: Yes. First I have to say when I first started, like maybe five years ago, I had no idea how to get the statements.
It's one of those things [00:37:00] where I just didn't know I didn't realize that, that I could be added onto my client's account as well. Like a admin user, a read only user and it took me like a good few months to like, ask other people, what do you guys do? How do you do it? The fact that the statements are being added now is really nice for people that might not know, right?
It that's why I, like some of these added features, because I, it makes me realize, oh yeah, I remember when I was trying to do that, and it took me like months to figure out, what the heck should I do?
Managing Client Statements
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Rachel D: But What we do is for 90 percent of our clients, we usually will have them add us to their checking account, credit card account.
For Amazon, not Amazon, for Amex, it's a little different. We, I'm, I have one, Amex, like master user, [00:38:00] and then we'll we can connect to our various clients under that one user. So Amex is a little bit different. Other credit cards are fairly straightforward and simple. You can go in and you can add, administrative user banks are also very similar. You can add read only administrative users. You could also request them from your client. I know some people that do that. Maybe we might have one. older client maybe that we still do it that way. I can't even really remember. Jamie would know.
But so that's an option. If you're, if you have a secure portal you could have your clients submit their statements through a secure portal. Do email them over. You have attachments and email or anything like that. That is a very unsecure thing to do. [00:39:00] Secure portals are definitely safer for that kind of thing.
So I know that there are some firms that do that. They rely on their clients uploading statements to a portal at the end of the month. For the most part, we, like I said, we'll go in and grab them. There are, we've seen in the last. couple of years that there are several banks that now comply with QuickBooks and we can find them now attached like you're probably going to show.
I think it was B of A for a while, maybe not now. Chase, yes. And what that, that means is I just go in to reconcile the checking account and the, lo and behold, the statements are there. They've fetched them and they're ready to go. Yeah.
Dan DeLong: So there's this button here that says view statements and then you click on it and anything that's unreconciled will be listed.
intro: Yeah. Or
Dan DeLong: downloaded. Anything that's been reconciled will be, there. Now. [00:40:00]
Rachel D: And that's Chase, I can see that you've got, so yeah, that's when clients tell, when a new client tells me they bank with Chase, and a lot of them do, and I really love that because I, and I don't even have to deal with the headache of it.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. Cause they just show up inside of QuickBooks now. There's a article here and I shared it in the comments here. It's got a link in here of the list of supportive banks, right? So you can open this up. It's a PDF and see by scroll. Yeah, that's
Rachel D: a lot.
Dan DeLong: If you're getting them, all, of you speed readers who happen to be watching me just scroll through.
Rachel D: I can't even see it, let alone read it. But you're saying those will, fetch statements you're saying.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, wow. Those will fetch statements and show up in your in your bank or in your in the reconcile screen when [00:41:00] you when you do that.
Reconciling with Fetched Statements
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Dan DeLong: Now, when they're downloaded, the really cool part.
Is that when you do reconcile it will automatically attach that downloaded statement to the reconciliation report and you're done, right? Now there and one of the other things that I was gonna demonstrate or show here is that when it's downloaded the last time that I did this when it's downloaded and you're reconciling it would have.
The last time I saw this, it would automatically pre fill
intro: the
Dan DeLong: statement, ending balance in the statement, ending date from from the statement. Now it's not doing it today. I don't know why, but
Rachel D: yeah, it does it. Sometimes it does it. Sometimes it doesn't, but I know what you're saying. It's really cool.
It'll pop it in there and then you hit start reconciling. And if you've done your bookkeeping correctly and it's matched when it should be, then instant. Zero and everything is [00:42:00] reconciled. This is the greatest thing on the planet. I love it.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, it's and this is one of those things where it's just like end to end, process inside of QuickBooks.
So you don't have to manage those those secure portals trying to, hunt down the source documentation, whatever that might be, whether it's the statement or the check stubs or whatever, so it's, yeah.
Rachel D: And One thing that Jamie just mentioned in the chat is that's not the worst part of that whole system.
The worst part of that whole system is the two factor authentication. That is by far the biggest pain in the you know what, because even if we do Even if we do have access, it is still oftentimes wanting to request a code. Oh yeah, that's true. I, sometimes yeah I don't always check the pre fill and check the [00:43:00] statement anyway too, but a lot of times I'll just let it do it first and just we'll see.
But yeah it's that two factor authentication that it's just sometimes I find myself just doing that all day, just checking code, sending codes. It's really time consuming. And so if you can, Find out a way to get them to switch to chase. No, I'm just kidding. You think that's not really your job, but if they happen to be with chase and then when it will bring the statements over, man, that's really great.
Dan DeLong: That's one of the reasons that I like some of the FinTech or the online banks especially things like relay especially, and if you're partnered with relay you can basically have access to all of your clients. Accounts right there.
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: Of
Dan DeLong: course, you can grant different access and whatnot.
The check [00:44:00] images, and the statements are, all right there for you in your banking portal, as opposed to. Maybe, it's not in QuickBooks.
Rachel D: Yeah, that is a really good point, and I am a Relay partner also and I've had some clients that have signed up through me, and so I have access to their, statement information.
For some reason, though, I, it won't bring the statements into QBO. I don't know why, but maybe it's a work in progress, but yeah that's another great option, is those smart banks that don't really have a branch, but they exist online that you can get into theirs too, which is really nice.
Yeah,
Dan DeLong: so That kind of encapsulates the the biggest changes that we've that I was noticing let me just check my notes here to make sure that I covered everything. Small gear statement fetch. Okay. [00:45:00] Yes. I want to make sure I covered it.
Rachel D: I should probably add let me just say this.
If you are doing your bank feeds regularly, you're not causing any duplication. You're doing everything correctly, you're matching when you've got transfers and everything is being done timely at that month end, if they bank with chase and that statement has fetched and it pops in the number for you, it's already reconciled and it takes you a second, it is six
Dan DeLong: months worth of statements, on my own books with in less than a minute.
Yeah. It's
Rachel D: just like next month. It could be a tick of six, like six button clicks.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
Rachel D: One, two, three, four, five, six, six months in a row. Just like that.
Dan DeLong: Yeah.
The Importance of Proper Bank Feed Management
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Dan DeLong: I think the the biggest concern though is that [00:46:00] because the bank feed is so cool people tend to try to manage their business from the bank feed.
And that's, where people get themselves into, trouble. Where they're trying to do all sorts of additional workflows. Cause the original intention of online banking in general is to match in the bank fee, in the bank register what the bank has, to assist in that reconciliation process, so if the bank. And I was going to ask my, son, I don't think, I don't think he's ever reconciled the bank. Cause they don't teach that stuff in school anymore, is the whole idea of the check register and then getting in the bank, the paper statement, checking off in the paper register.
And it's [00:47:00] always. Turns. Yeah. Turns out. Turns out to be, yeah. Actually they, to call that a mixed up number.
Rachel D: Yeah. They used to call that balancing the checkbook. Remember that? Yeah. Yeah,
Dan DeLong: exactly. Yeah. And
Rachel D: yeah. And it's but that's what the,
Dan DeLong: that's what it was designed to, to solve for, is Yeah.
Bridging the gap between what the bank, what's in QuickBooks and what is from what the bank knows.
Rachel D: Yeah.
What
should be in QuickBook.
Dan DeLong: Yeah. And then making reconciliation. So that's the goal. So when people because the bank feed now allows you to connect a deposit to an open invoice, which is now connecting workflows in your bank feed, people get a little bit anxious about that and, start to go a little crazy with what they're doing in the bank fee.
And they go I can just manage my whole business.
[00:48:00] Then
they put in deposits to, to income when the invoice is doing that and not tying those workflows all together.
Rachel D: Yeah. Can get a little murky.
Dan DeLong: Again, the double edged sword of Our Lady of the Lake.
Rachel D: Yeah like what I said before about it, it can cause horrible issues when done wrong.
So that's That can cause duplication if you've got something posting already from somewhere else and then you're depositing things to income. Yeah, it can cause a lot of problems. I usually like to use this terminology. Because when I first started using QBO, I was led down the wrong path a couple different times.
And I thought I could do more things in the bank feeds. Then I probably should have now I've swung the other direction. I like to tell QuickBooks the things first and let QBO match. And that isn't really the [00:49:00] way I first learned. And but now I'm a, let's tell it first. And I just like that way of putting it where it's we just want to tell QuickBooks, this is what happened.
What comes in after the fact through the bank feed will match. And so that's really like the way I like to. Explain it to my clients.
Dan DeLong: Yeah, that's If I allow them to do it, I don't. No touch.
bank_feed_enhancements_statement_fetching_and_other_bank_feed_improvements_ 5_Feb_2025_restream: You
Dan DeLong: should be like a Rachel smack of a wrist. Don't get your knuckles wrapped by that. All right. That's the thing
Rachel D: is I okay, I could talk about that forever, but I'll,
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Dan DeLong: yeah, we're almost, our half hour discussion turned into 50 minutes.
I wanted to wrap up the workshop today. We appreciate you joining us. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and we'll see you next time on the workshop Wednesday. Everybody have a great day. . [00:50:00] [00:51:00]
