Online Operation

Most of online banking or XE "online banking:operation" payment is done within the Write Checks or Pay Bills functions, by checking Online payment. Actual online connected periods are very brief, with no banking information displayed. After disconnecting, results are displayed.

NOTE

Communication with the bank’s computer occurs only during the connected portion of an online session. Marking a payment as Online does nothing at the bank until you successfully run an online session, and tell the bank. The view below shows a payment order, ready to send to the bank. This bank requires a four-day lead time on the payment, and will not accept a payment with an earlier payment date. The payment begins to move on the payment date, but results after have been found not predictable.

Online BankingCenter? displays a financial institution name (a choice, if more than one is set up) and any waiting online actions with that institution. If your access is to a bank, a request for a QuickStatement will be provided in the ItemstoSend area. Usually, only one of these should be called for on any one day. Many banks are still slow about updating your records, and a second report would duplicate the first.

Go Online sets the automatic system in motion. QuickBooks dials the bank, and sends the requested actions in ItemstoSend.

After completion of the communication with the bank, the OnlineBankingCenter window shows the results. (The view used is a composite.) The Items Received section was filled during the online session, downloading the QuickStatement. XE "QuickStatement" Clicking View opens the screen shown below. The upper portion is the QuickStatement? and displays the transactions downloaded. The lower part of the display is part of the check register.

Match is done automatically. Downloaded transactions are compared to those already in the account. If a downloaded transaction has the same date and same amount as a transaction already in the account, it is matched. The download transaction is taken as being the transaction previously recorded.

Add is used if transactions downloaded are not matched, and you wish to have copies of them transferred into the register. This process takes place one at a time as the entries are highlighted.

The lightning bugs in the Number field indicate payments initiated as online transactions, after the payment order is successfully transferred. In the Cleared field ( b ) they indicate a transaction added from downloading .

Vendor names XE "vendor names:online banking" require some care. Note the conflict from buying gas with an ATM card (4/17/97). The QuickStatement? shows the name returned through the bank. The register has the name I used before online banking. Three solutions are possible, and the choice depends on your situation.

1. Keep track of your receipts from ATM transactions, and enter them before going online. If the date and the amount match, the payee name will be ignored, and the transaction will be matched, as in the example.

2. Transfer these transactions in with Add. If the name does not exist, you can add the name to agree with the downloaded transaction. If careful identification of vendors is needed, the two names can be merged. Just change the old name to be the same as the downloaded name. Future transactions from this vendor will come in with no problem.

3. Transfer these transactions in with Add, but stop the Add new name process with Cancel. Then select the vendor from the list. The name field could be left blank, but that is not good business practice.

An expense (or asset) account must be entered if Add is used.

The example shows another problem that proved more tedious to deal with. Checks 2001 and 2002 would not match, apparently because they were downloaded after they were reconciled. The solution started with re -numbering the real checks. Next, the duplicated checks were brought in with Add. That got them out of the QuickStatement? . Being duplicates, they were then deleted from the register. Finally, the real checks were renumbered to the correct series.

NOTE

Matched does not mean reconciled. The account must still be reconciled.