# How to Manually Add a Transaction in QuickBooks Online

- Author: SimpleBankConvert (https://simplebankconvert.com)
- Published: 2026-10-16
- Category: QuickBooks Online imports
- Canonical: https://simplebankconvert.com/blog/how-to-manually-add-a-transaction-in-quickbooks-online

> How to manually add a transaction in QuickBooks Online when one payment is missing: choose expense, deposit or transfer, then match it to the bank later.
To manually add a transaction in QuickBooks Online, open the + New menu, pick the form that fits the money movement (Expense, Bank deposit or Transfer), fill in the date, account, amount and payee, then save. QuickBooks then holds the entry until the matching bank line arrives and you match the two.

## Expense, deposit or transfer: which manual transaction form?

Pick the form by asking what happened to the money. Money that left your account to pay someone is an expense. Money that arrived from a customer or any outside source is a deposit. Money that moved between two accounts you own is a transfer. The wrong form puts the amount in the wrong place on your reports.

The table below maps each kind of transaction to its form. The examples are made up.

| What happened | Form to use | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Paid a supplier or a bill from the bank account | Expense | $84.20 to Example Office Supply, paid by debit card |
| Money came in from a customer or other source | Bank deposit | $1,250.00 from Example Design Co |
| Money moved between your own accounts | Transfer | $500.00 from checking to savings |

### The edge cases people trip on

A credit card payment looks like an expense on the bank statement, but it is a transfer. The money left checking and went to your credit card account, so no new cost was created. Recording it as an expense counts the same spending twice, once when you bought things on the card and again when you paid the card.

A refund from a supplier is not a deposit from a customer. Many people enter it as a deposit and pick the original expense account, which reduces that expense. Ask your bookkeeper if you are unsure which account to use.

A loan payment often has two parts, interest and principal. A single expense form can hold both if you split the lines.

## Entering a manual transaction from the plus menu

To enter one, use the + New button and complete the form. This section walks through an expense, since it is the most common missing item. The deposit and transfer forms follow the same pattern with different field names.

Here is how to add one expense. The values are examples.

1. Select **+ New** at the top of the left menu.
2. Under Vendors, choose **Expense**.
3. In the payee field, choose or type the vendor, for example Example Office Supply.
4. In the payment account field, choose the bank or card account that paid. This must be the account whose statement shows the charge.
5. Set the payment date to the date on your statement.
6. In the category line, choose the account that describes the cost, such as Office supplies, and enter the amount: 84.20.
7. Add a short memo if you want to find it later, such as "Printer paper".
8. Select **Save and close**.

Two fields cause most mistakes. The payment account decides which register the entry lands in, so choose the account that actually paid. The date matters because matching to the bank is easier when the dates agree. Use the date your bank shows, not the date on the receipt, if the two differ.

For a deposit, choose **Bank deposit** in the + New menu, pick the account that received the money, and add a line for the source and amount. For a transfer, choose **Transfer**, pick the account the money left and the account it entered, then enter the amount and date.

## Will the manual transaction duplicate a later bank import?

It can, but only if you leave both copies unmatched. A manual entry sits in your books as a recorded transaction. When the same payment later arrives from the bank, by feed or by file, QuickBooks looks for an existing entry that agrees and suggests a match. If you accept it, the two become one.

The risk shows up when the match fails. A date that is several days out, an amount that differs by a few cents, or a different payment account can all stop QuickBooks from suggesting the pair. You then see the bank line as new, and adding it creates a second entry for the same payment.

Do these three things to stay clear of duplicates:

- Enter the amount to the cent, exactly as the bank shows it.
- Pick the same bank or card account the statement belongs to.
- When the bank line appears for review, check the suggested match before you add it as new.

Intuit's own guidance on file uploads warns about duplicate transactions in the same way: its [manual upload help page](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/import-transactions/manually-upload-transactions-quickbooks-online/L0rE9OXBz_US_en_US) tells you to start a file the day after the last transaction already in the account, so it does not repeat what is there. The same care applies to a hand entry.

If you find a duplicate after the fact, delete the copy that is not matched to a bank line and keep the one that is.

## When manual transaction entry is the wrong fix

Manual entry is the wrong fix when more than a handful of items are missing, when you would be retyping a statement line by line, or when the missing items are of a special kind such as checks, Stripe payouts or journal entries. Typing is slow, and every typed amount is a chance for a mistake.

As a rough guide, one or two items are fine to type. Ten or more should come in as a file. Typing a month of statement lines also leaves you with no clean way to prove the total, since you have no file to compare against.

Choose a different route in these cases:

- **A run of missing days or weeks.** Import a file trimmed to the gap. [Trimming the import file to the missing dates only](/blog/import-missing-bank-transactions-into-quickbooks-online#trimming-the-import-file-to-the-missing-dates-only) shows how to do this without bringing in lines you already have.
- **Checks listed by number.** A check line carries a number but no payee, and hand entry loses the link to the check you wrote. See [importing checks with their check numbers](/blog/import-checks-into-quickbooks-online).
- **Adjustments between accounts that no bank ever reports.** Opening balances, depreciation and corrections belong in a journal entry. See [importing journal entries instead of bank transactions](/blog/import-journal-entries-into-quickbooks-online).

If all you have is a PDF statement, import it rather than typing it: the same help page says the upload also takes a PDF statement, which QuickBooks reads and shows you to check. [SimpleBankConvert](/) is built to turn a PDF statement into a CSV you can check first, and the [get started page](/get-started) takes your email for when accounts open.