In QuickBooks Online, go to Banking in the left menu, click Link Account, then search for your bank by name. QuickBooks uses a service called Plaid to connect to most financial institutions. You’ll enter your online banking login credentials and may need to complete multi-factor authentication through your bank’s security process.

Before you start, make sure you have online banking access set up with your financial institution. QuickBooks can’t connect to accounts that don’t have online access enabled on the bank’s side.

After connecting, QuickBooks imports your recent transactions, typically 90 days of history. This is where people often make mistakes. Imported transactions show up in the Banking tab for review, not directly in your accounts. You need to categorize and accept each one to add it to your books. If you already entered the same transactions manually, match them to the existing entries instead of adding them or you’ll create duplicates that throw off your balances.

Some banks connect more reliably than others. Large national banks usually work well. Smaller credit unions or local banks sometimes have connection issues or require frequent re-authentication. If your bank doesn’t appear in the search or the connection keeps failing, you can import transactions manually using CSV or QFX files downloaded from your bank’s website.

Multi-factor authentication can cause ongoing friction. Some banks send a verification code every time QuickBooks refreshes the connection, which means logging into QuickBooks regularly to complete the verification. Check your bank’s security settings if disconnection becomes a recurring problem.

Connect every account you use for business purposes, including credit cards. Having bank feeds for all accounts makes reconciliation faster and reduces the chance of missing transactions. If you’re configuring QuickBooks for the first time, QBO setup and training covers bank connections along with your chart of accounts, opening balances, and category rules so everything works together from the start.

Once your accounts are connected, the real work is staying on top of the imported transactions. Letting them pile up for months defeats the purpose of having bank feeds. A San Diego bookkeeper can handle the ongoing categorization and reconciliation if you’d rather not deal with it yourself.