How to Categorize Transactions in QuickBooks Online (2026)

About this video

David, in a video sponsored by QuickBooks, explains how to categorize transactions in QuickBooks Online so reports are accurate at tax time. He starts in All Apps > Accounting > Bank Transactions, linking bank and credit card accounts or manually uploading a CSV with at least vendor, date, and money in/out, and distinguishes Pending, Posted, and Excluded transactions. He explains the AI categorizer icons: blue info icons for medium-confidence suggestions, orange exclamation marks for best guesses to verify carefully, and green check marks for strong patterns from your own history, and shows posting transactions individually or in bulk with Shift-select. He covers special cases that should not be double-counted: credit card payments and transfers between owned accounts, both marked with a pair badge, and invoice payments marked with a match badge. He demonstrates splitting a transaction across categories, bulk-editing personal expenses on a company card into a new Owner’s Personal Expenses equity account, and suggests pasting the category list into ChatGPT for help choosing a fit while noting it is not financial advice. He then creates bank rules, using a Joe’s Landscaping example for a twice-a-month service, with a naming formula based on match and action and Auto-post initially off, adds receipts by drag-and-drop, email forwarding, or the QuickBooks app, and finishes by checking the Profit and Loss report for the month.

Key takeaways

• Import transactions by linking bank and credit card accounts, or manually uploading a CSV with vendor, date, and money in/out; work from Pending, review Posted, and check Excluded.
• Interpret the AI icons before posting: blue means medium confidence, orange exclamation is a best guess to verify, and green check marks reflect a strong pattern from your history.
• Do not categorize credit card payments or transfers between your own accounts as expenses or income; QuickBooks marks these with a pair badge to avoid double-counting, while invoice payments use a match badge.
• Use Split for a transaction spanning multiple categories, and create bank rules for repetitive transactions, starting with Auto-post off until you trust the rule over a couple of months.
• Attach receipts by dragging a file onto the transaction row, forwarding them to the receipts email address, or photographing paper receipts in the QuickBooks app, then review the Profit and Loss report for anything out of the ordinary.

Episode details: published October 9, 2026 · 12:56 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Kevin Stratvert’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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