How to Record a Deposit in QuickBooks Online & Desktop

To record a deposit in QuickBooks Online, select + New, then Bank Deposit, choose the account the money landed in, and scroll to the Add funds to this deposit section to enter the payer, the account it should be categorized to, and the amount, then Save. In QuickBooks Desktop, open the Banking menu and select Make Deposits. This works for income that has no invoice behind it, such as a refund, a loan, owner cash put into the business, or a one-off customer payment.

Recording deposits the right way keeps your income accurate and your reconciliation clean, because every deposit you enter has to line up with a single line on the bank statement. The most common mistakes are booking a loan or an owner contribution as income, and entering each customer payment as its own deposit when the bank shows them combined on one slip. If older deposits never came through the bank feed, convert the statement PDF to a .qbo file with the tool above and import them so each one can be matched. Here is how to record every type of deposit in both versions of QuickBooks.

How do I record a deposit in QuickBooks Online?

Select + New, then Bank Deposit. Pick the bank account in the Account field at the top, then scroll to the Add funds to this deposit section. Enter who the money came from, the account to categorize it to, the payment method, and the amount, then Save and close. QuickBooks posts the deposit straight to the bank account you chose.

How do I record a deposit in QuickBooks Desktop?

In QuickBooks Desktop, open the Banking menu and select Make Deposits. If the Payments to Deposit window appears, choose any payments to include or select Cancel to skip it. Pick the Deposit To account, add each line with a Received From name, an account, and an amount, then select Save and Close.

How do I record a deposit without an invoice in QuickBooks?

Use + New, then Bank Deposit, and enter the money directly in the Add funds to this deposit section without creating an invoice first. Choose the income or other account it belongs to on that line. This is the right path for income you were paid for outright, refunds, rebates, interest, or any money that was never billed on an invoice.

How do I record a customer payment that has no invoice?

Create a Sales Receipt instead of an invoice: select + New, then Sales Receipt, choose the customer, list what they paid for, and save. A sales receipt records the sale and the payment in one step, so you do not need an open invoice. If you only want the money in the bank, a Bank Deposit line works too, but a sales receipt keeps the sales detail.

What is the Undeposited Funds account for?

Undeposited Funds is a holding account for payments you have received but not yet combined into a real bank deposit. When you take several customer payments to the bank on one slip, record each payment to Undeposited Funds, then use Bank Deposit to group them into one deposit that equals the bank's total. That single deposit then matches the one line in your bank feed.

Why should I group payments into one deposit?

Group payments because the bank records them as a single deposit, not as separate transactions. If you enter three checks as three deposits but the bank shows one combined deposit, the bank feed will not match and reconciliation breaks. Hold the payments in Undeposited Funds, then create one Bank Deposit that totals the same amount the bank received.

How do I record a loan deposit in QuickBooks?

Record loan money as a deposit to a liability account, not income. Set up a long-term or other current liability account for the loan, then use Bank Deposit and, on the Add funds line, choose that loan liability account. This increases your cash and your loan balance at the same time, and keeps the borrowed money off your profit and loss.

How do I record an owner deposit or capital contribution?

When an owner puts personal money into the business, record it as a deposit to an owner's equity or owner's investment account. Use + New, then Bank Deposit, and on the Add funds line select the equity account. This is not income, so categorizing it to sales would overstate your revenue and could inflate your taxes.

How do I record a cash deposit in QuickBooks?

Record cash the same way as any other deposit: + New, then Bank Deposit, with Cash selected as the payment method on the Add funds line and the correct income or other account chosen. If the cash came from sales you already recorded to Undeposited Funds, select those payments at the top of the deposit instead of adding a new line.

What is the difference between a deposit and a transfer in QuickBooks?

A deposit records money coming into the business from an outside source, like a customer or a lender, and often affects income or a liability. A transfer moves money between two accounts you already own, such as savings to checking, and never touches income or expenses. Using a deposit when you mean a transfer double-counts the cash.

How do I record a deposit from the bank feed?

When a deposit downloads in the For Review tab, open it and select Find match if you already recorded the deposit or its payments, so QuickBooks links them instead of duplicating. If nothing matches, categorize the line to the right income, liability, or equity account and select Add. Matching is preferred whenever the deposit already exists in your books.

How do I delete or edit a deposit in QuickBooks?

Open the bank register or the Chart of Accounts, find the deposit, and select it to edit the amount, account, or date, then Save. To remove it, open the deposit and select More, then Delete. Be careful deleting a deposit that was already reconciled, because it will throw off your beginning balance the next time you reconcile.

How do I record an old deposit QuickBooks never downloaded?

Bank feeds usually reach back only about 90 days, so deposits from earlier months may be missing. Convert the bank statement PDF to a .qbo file with the converter above, import the transactions, then match or categorize each deposit. This backfills the income you need so prior months reconcile to the penny.

A deposit that was booked as income when it was really a loan or an owner contribution is one of the quiet reasons your numbers drift, so if a balance looks wrong, start with why your bank balance doesn't match QuickBooks and the full reconcile bank statements in QuickBooks workflow. Deposits and transfers are easy to confuse, so it helps to see how to record a bank transfer in QuickBooks too. If older deposits never came through the feed, import old bank statements into QuickBooks or follow the general steps to import bank statements into QuickBooks. To check every deposit against the statement line by line, a bank statement to Excel converter lays each one out in a spreadsheet, a CSV to QBO converter handles accounts that only export CSV, and when the deposits trace back to customer invoices, pulling those into a sheet with an invoice to Excel converter makes the match faster.