How to Import American Express Transactions into QuickBooks?

American Express Open Business Cards can be connected directly with QuickBooks so that all your transactions are automatically imported into your accounting software. As one of the core features of QuickBooks online, online banking helps users efficiently record data and easily organize it for the purposes of reconciliation.

In this post, you’ll learn how to Import American Express Transactions into QuickBooks.

🔰 Use an American Express Account

Before you begin with the integration, you need to create an account that will record and track all the transactions made with the American Express card.

To create an account to track and record your American Express transactions, follow the steps provided below:

1. From the Accounting menu, choose the Chart of Accounts.
2. Click on New. This gives you the option to create a new account in your chart of accounts.
3. After clicking on the dropdown menu titled Account Type, choose Credit Card.
4. Enter the Name of the account. (American Express Business account)
5. Choose the Detail type and enter any description to easily identify the account details later.
6. Click on Save and Close.

🔰 Connect Business Account from American Express with QuickBooks Account

Let’s get to the main steps here. We’re going to link the bank account with the QuickBooks account so that data is automatically synced from the former to the latter.

To connect your American Express business account with the QuickBooks account you created, follow the steps provided below:

1. From the Banking menu, click on Connect. You can also go to the Transactions menu which provides the same option.
2. If the Connect option doesn’t show up, then you probably have connected a bank account with QuickBooks online in the past. In this case, click on Add Account.
3. Click on the search bar and enter the American Express Business Credit Card. Choose Continue.
4. A pop-up window will appear which will enable you to authenticate the connection by authorizing it via your American express account. Simply enter the User ID and Password so that you can quickly authenticate the connection. 
5. Choose the account associated with the credit card that you want to connect with QuickBooks online.
6. As you can choose multiple accounts here, you need to select the Account Type for each one from the adjacent dropdown menu.
7. Enter the Date Range.
8. Click on Connect.

You’ve successfully connected your American Express credit card account with the QuickBooks online account. All transactions made via this credit card will automatically be imported into your accounting software.

To view these transactions, you can go to the Transactions or Banking menu.

Note:

While only one American Express Business login can be connected with QuickBooks online company file, users can still choose multiple accounts and credit cards to sync data easily. So a single login can easily manage all your cards and accounts.

🔰 Switch From Multiple Accounts to a Single Parent Account

Let’s say you’ve got multiple American Express accounts linked with QuickBooks online. As having multiple accounts can be cumbersome to manage, you can create a single parent account that can easily manage all the accounts connected to the American Express business online.

To begin with this, you can start by disconnecting individual American Express accounts:

1. Log into QuickBooks Online.
2. From the Banking or Transactions menu, choose one of your American Express accounts by selecting the blue square adjacent to it.
3. To open the Account window, click on the Pencil icon.
4. Choose Disconnect this account on save.
5. Click on Save and Close.

The account that you selected will be automatically disconnected from QuickBooks online. Do this for all the accounts or select all the accounts at once and disconnect them.

Once you’ve disconnected these accounts from QuickBooks online, you can move on to connecting the Parent Account which can keep track of all the other American Express business online accounts that you want to sync with QuickBooks Online.

To do so, follow the steps provided below:

1. Go to the Banking /Transactions menu.
2. Click on Add Accounts.
3. Input “American Express Credit Card (US) – Parent Accounts” in the search field and select the Parent Account.
4. Follow instructions provided by quickBooks online to download past transactions directly from the bank account.

When you import past transactions from the American Express Parent account, you have two options to handle these transactions in QuickBooks Online.

🔰 Downloading Transactions from all Accounts

If you’re planning to download transactions from all accounts, you can do so with the steps and tips provided below:

• Choose the date range for which you want to record the past transactions.
• Follow the on screen instructions provided by the accounting software to connect to the parent account.
• Till the last reconciliation, all transactions will be imported into QuickBooks.
• While all the past transactions will be tracked by the individual accounts, the parent account will track all the new transactions that are made via any of the connected accounts.

🔰 Download Past Transactions into Parent Account

If you want to selectively download transactions from individual bank accounts, then you need to get in touch with your accountant because things can get really complicated during this process. You’ll have to create individual journal entries to adjust the transactions and then import the transactions into the parent account connected to QuickBooks Online. 

Further, there’s a risk that a transaction may end up being recorded two or more times, leading to inaccuracies that are very difficult to identify.

🔰 Disabled American Access Accounts

While in QuickBooks online, you may find that some of the American Express accounts that you linked are grayed out. Here are the two primary reasons for these accounts being disabled:

• You’ve already connected the account to another company file in QuickBooks online. An American Express Account can only be linked to one company file at a time.
• The connection hasn’t been approved yet. Various errors leading to the network can interfere with the connection, so you get an error automatically because of this.

Users who’re going through the first situation first need to disconnect their American Express account from the other company file to link it with the current one. You can follow the disconnection steps provided above in this post to get started with QuickBooks.

Even in the second scenario, users should disconnect the grayed-out account because a network error must have occurred during the authentication process. So if you’re facing this problem, then you can simply disconnect the grayed-out account and then reconnect it to QuickBooks Online.

Also Read: QuickBooks Add/No Customer Address Verification – AVS for ACH Transactions

🔰 Conclusion

Several errors can occur while connecting American Express Credit Cards to QuickBooks online. Further, things can get complicated if you choose to import the past transactions into one parent account. In this post, we’re provided the steps for each so that you can easily get through the process and start working with your American Express transactions data in QuickBooks Online.

Note:

Connecting bank accounts, and importing and reconciling transactions can be a difficult process. If you need help during this, you can get in touch with our accounting experts via live chat or call.

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🔔 Frequently Asked Questions