How to Keep Your Sanity With Chase Credit Card QuickBooks Bank Feeds

One of our previous posts was about credit card bank feeds and how to make sure you set them up correctly. We are here now to expand on that topic a bit since the last post was more of a high-level summary of what it should look like.

This all came about as we were cleaning up a bank feed that had multiple credit cards that often changed attached to a single account. That cleanup inspired this guide: How to Keep Your Sanity With Chase Credit Card QuickBooks Bank Feeds

Chase credit card bank feeds send information differently than other banks in our experience. Their bank feeds allow you to have an account for each card holder instead of just a single account. This can be a great thing if you wish to easily know who a transaction is related to directly with QuickBooks Online. You still have to reconcile your account though at the end of each month, and that can cause problems when the bank statement you receive is consolidated if you don't have it set up properly.

Setting Up Parent and Subaccount

First thing's first. If you have more than one credit card attached to your account, you need to setup what we call a parent account in QuickBooks Online with a subaccount for each individual credit card. We suggest using the last 4 digits of your account number in the parent account name. Then, use the last 4 digits of each card number in the sub accounts along with the cardholder's name. See example below:

Credit Card 2000

Debbie Doubleentry 2001

Sally Spreadsheet 2002

Nate Netincome 2003

Wendy Writeoff 2004

Connecting Chase to QuickBooks Online

Next, navigate to your bank transactions screen and select link account in the top right corner. From there, you'll need to log in to your Chase credit card account. Once logged in, you'll go through a series of questions. Eventually, you'll arrive at a screen where you need to assign each credit card to your chart of accounts (the accounts we created earlier). After completing this, you can submit, and it will transfer all your banking information into each account.

Reconciling the Right Way

With your accounts connected, you can start using the bank transaction screen to add all your transactions. You might think, "Great! We're all set, right?" Unfortunately, not quite. You'll need to reconcile all those transactions with your monthly bank statement from Chase. For example, if you select Debbie Doubleentry's account to reconcile first, you enter the ending statement balance and date. Expecting a neat green check mark and a $0 reconciled balance, you discover your numbers are way off. Any ideas why? If we enter the entire statement balance against Debbie Doubleentry's account, it's bound to be incorrect because we're only considering one specific credit card holder's charges. This is where the parent account we created earlier becomes important. When reconciling in QuickBooks Online, ensure you select the parent account. This captures all transactions within those sub-accounts when reconciling against the statement. By doing so, you'll have everything reconciled in no time.

Managing Cardholder Changes

Another aspect to consider is any changes to cardholders. If your company experiences multiple changes monthly, it's important to update this information regularly. This involves ensuring that new cardholders are linked in the QuickBooks Online bank feed and that former cardholders are correctly deactivated. Furthermore, existing cardholders may receive new cards with different numbers. Keeping this information updated is always beneficial for easy reference during reconciliation.

Keeping Your Bank Feed Fresh

Don't forget to make sure your bank feed is updating every day in QuickBooks Online. If it hasn't updated, hit that update button in the top right hand side of the bank transactions screen. This ensure's your data is feeding over from your bank and staying up to date on a daily basis. We have found when these feeds are disconnected for a period of time, it misses transactions when it eventually reconnects. Therefore, keeping them updated on a daily basis allows errors to be quickly identified.

Final Thoughts on Chase credit card bank feeds in QuickBooks

Chase credit card feeds in QuickBooks Online (or any feed, really) can feel like a maze—but with the right setup and a little maintenance, you can keep your books clean and your sanity intact. Whether you're managing multiple cardholders or just trying to avoid reconciliation headaches, a solid structure and daily feed checks go a long way. If things ever get tangled, we’re here to help you sort it out and get back to business.

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