Using QuickBooks' "Banking" screen can significantly decrease the amount of data entry for an association's accounting team. Lessening data entry decreases the chance for mistakes and increases the security of an accounting system as a whole.
An overview can be found at the bottom of this article, but here are a couple of pointers:
#1: Don't Make the Mistake of Adding instead of Matching
If you have manually entered a transaction ahead of time (ie: Entering a credit card charge at the time of purchase and before it has posted to your account), then it is important that you match that transaction to records that show up in your bank feeds. QuickBooks will try to do this automatically for you, and most times, the system will get it right.
If you do not see an automatic match for a transaction that you have already entered, check the following:
Assist QuickBooks in finding the match. To do this, click on the transaction. This will open up a dialogue with options to Add, Find Match, or Transfer. Select Find match, and work within the system to try to identify the transaction you already created.
Often the reason a transaction doesn't match is because the actual amount is off. Check your work on the original transaction to make sure that the final amount matches the amount in your bank feed.
#2: Make Sure that Your Bank Reconciliation is Perfect
Reconciliations should match - every month. When they don't match, it's an indication that you have a problem somewhere. Ensuring that your reconciliation is completed without an adjustment will serve to double-check your work processing your bank and credit card feeds.
#3: Split Expenses when the Situation Calls for It
If a single transaction should be split into multiple GL accounts, then make sure to manually add that level of detail. For a quick tutorial, follow this link.
Categorizing & Matching Transactions
For users new to Categorizing & Matching transactions in QuickBooks Online, the following video should bring you up to speed. It's only 4 minutes, but it could quite possibly save you 40 hours over the next year.
Step by step instructions can be found in the QuickBooks tutorial here: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/tutorials/lessons/categorize-transactions/