# Import POS Sales into QuickBooks Online

- Author: SimpleBankConvert (https://www.simplebankconvert.com)
- Published: 2025-06-11
- Updated: 2025-06-11
- Category: Invoices, bills and lists
- Canonical: https://www.simplebankconvert.com/blog/import-pos-sales-into-quickbooks-online

> How to import POS sales into QuickBooks Online from a point-of-sale end-of-day report, with card sales, cash and fees matched to bank deposits.
To import POS sales into QuickBooks Online, take each day's end-of-day report from your point-of-sale system and record its totals as one daily entry: sales by category, sales tax, tips, and payments split into card and cash. Send card and cash to holding accounts, then match each bank deposit against them, with card fees recorded as the difference.

## What an end-of-day POS report holds for QuickBooks Online

An end-of-day report, often called a Z report or daily summary, is the point-of-sale system's total for one trading day. It splits the day two ways: what was sold, and how customers paid. QuickBooks Online needs both halves, because sales drive income and payment methods drive the bank deposits that follow.

The sales half usually shows gross sales by department or category, discounts, refunds, sales tax collected and tips. The payment half shows card payments, cash, gift card redemptions and any other tender your register accepts. On a correct report the two halves agree: net sales plus tax and tips equals total payments taken.

### Numbers to copy out each day

Before you record a day, note these from the report:

- The trading date, not the date you print the report.
- Net sales for each category you report on.
- Discounts and refunds, if the report shows them apart from net sales.
- Sales tax collected.
- Tips added by customers.
- Card payments, cash payments and gift card redemptions.

If your system only shows gross sales with discounts already removed, use what it shows. The goal is a set of figures that adds up on both sides, not the most detail possible.

### Reports that don't balance

Sometimes the payment total doesn't equal sales plus tax and tips. A common reason is a sale left open at closing time, or a refund paid in cash that never went through the register. Fix it in the POS if you can and print the report again. If you can't, record the difference in a clearly named over-and-short account so it doesn't disappear into sales.

## Daily sales receipt or daily journal entry for POS totals?

Both a daily sales receipt and a daily journal entry can carry POS totals into QuickBooks Online. A sales receipt uses products and services for each sales category and suits shops that want sales-by-item reports. A journal entry posts straight to accounts and suits shops that only need totals. Pick one and use it every day.

Intuit's [common questions about importing data](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/common-questions-importing-data-quickbooks-online/L4OYJRFdj_US_en_US) lists both sales receipts and journal entries among the information QuickBooks Online can import, and caps a spreadsheet at fewer than 1,000 rows. A month of daily entries fits easily inside that limit.

### Why not an invoice per day

An invoice records money a customer owes you later. POS sales are paid at the counter, so an invoice is the wrong record and would leave a receivable to clear every day. If you also bill some customers on account, keep those as invoices; the guide to [uploading invoices to QuickBooks Online](/blog/upload-invoices-to-quickbooks-online) covers that file.

### Choosing for a business with several registers

A business with several registers can record one entry per register per day, or combine them. Separate entries make a cash shortage easy to trace to a drawer. Combined entries are fewer to check. If your POS deposits card money for all registers together, combining the card side keeps the bank match simple.

## A day of POS totals laid out as import rows

A daily POS journal entry has one row per account, all sharing the same journal number and date. Sales, sales tax and tips are credits. Card and cash are debits to holding accounts. Intuit's guide to [importing journal entries into QuickBooks Online](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/import-journal-entries-quickbooks-online/L4tQBwbs7_US_en_US) names the columns: journal number, journal date, account name, description, debits and credits.

Here is an example day for a small café. The figures are made up for illustration.

| Journal No. | Journal Date | Account Name | Description | Debits | Credits |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| POS-0612 | 06/12/2026 | Card Clearing | POS 06/12 card payments | 1,384.60 | |
| POS-0612 | 06/12/2026 | Undeposited Funds | POS 06/12 cash | 296.40 | |
| POS-0612 | 06/12/2026 | Food Sales | POS 06/12 food | | 912.00 |
| POS-0612 | 06/12/2026 | Beverage Sales | POS 06/12 drinks | | 548.00 |
| POS-0612 | 06/12/2026 | Sales Tax Payable | POS 06/12 tax | | 116.80 |
| POS-0612 | 06/12/2026 | Tips Payable | POS 06/12 card tips | | 104.20 |

The two debits total 1,681.00, and so do the four credits. Each day gets the next journal number, which makes it easy to find a single day later. Intuit notes that sub-accounts must be written with their parent account, so if Food Sales sits under Sales, write it the way QuickBooks shows it.

### A month in one file

A month of daily entries is about 180 rows for this café, well inside the row cap. Build the month in a spreadsheet as the days pass, then import it once at month end. Check that each journal number balances before you save the CSV; a quick subtotal of debits minus credits by number shows any day that doesn't.

## Why don't POS card deposits match the day's card sales?

POS card deposits rarely equal a day's card sales because the processor takes its fees before paying out, and because a deposit can cover more than one day. A Monday deposit might hold Friday, Saturday and Sunday together. The gap between card sales and the deposit is mostly processing fees, plus any refunds or chargebacks taken from the batch.

That is why card payments go to a clearing account first. The daily entry puts the full card amount in Card Clearing. When the deposit lands, you categorize it to Card Clearing and record the fee as an expense from the same account. The clearing balance then returns to zero, or to the amount of card sales not yet paid out.

### A card deposit worked through

Here is an example using illustrative figures. Card sales were 1,384.60 on Friday and 1,512.30 on Saturday. On Monday the bank shows one deposit of 2,812.10.

| Line | Amount |
| --- | --- |
| Friday card payments in Card Clearing | 1,384.60 |
| Saturday card payments in Card Clearing | 1,512.30 |
| Total waiting in Card Clearing | 2,896.90 |
| Monday bank deposit | 2,812.10 |
| Difference: processing fees | 84.80 |

Record the 2,812.10 deposit against Card Clearing and an 84.80 fee from Card Clearing to a processing fees expense account. Card Clearing drops by 2,896.90 and returns to zero. Your processor's own payout report confirms the fee figure.

## Cash from the POS drawer and the deposit slip

Cash taken at the register sits in the drawer until someone takes it to the bank. In QuickBooks Online that waiting money belongs in Undeposited Funds, which Intuit describes as [a holding account for payments you combine before a bank deposit](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/bank-deposits/whats-undeposited-funds-account/L6Jan3iRK_US_en_US). The bank deposit then moves the cash out of Undeposited Funds to match the bank line.

Many shops bank cash every few days. Three days of cash go into one deposit, and the bank shows one line. Create a bank deposit in QuickBooks, include the three daily cash amounts from Undeposited Funds, and save it for the total on the deposit slip. It matches the bank line when that arrives.

### Cash kept back for the float

Most drawers start the day with a float, a fixed amount of change. The float isn't a sale and shouldn't be in the daily cash figure. Use the report's cash sales, not the count of the drawer, as the amount sent to Undeposited Funds. If the count and the report disagree, the difference goes to over-and-short, not to sales.

## Tips, gift cards and sales tax lines on a POS summary

Tips, gift cards and sales tax look like sales on a POS report, but none of them is your income. Card tips belong to staff and are owed to them through payroll. Sales tax belongs to the state. Gift cards sold are a promise of future goods. Each needs its own liability account, not a sales account.

A few rules for these lines:

- **Tips.** Credit card tips go to a tips liability account. The payroll run that pays them out clears it. Cash tips handed straight to staff often never touch the register.
- **Sales tax.** Credit the sales tax payable account that QuickBooks uses for your filings, so the liability report shows the full amount.
- **Gift cards sold.** Credit a gift card liability account. The sale happens when the card is spent, not when it is bought.
- **Gift cards redeemed.** On the payment side, a redemption reduces the gift card liability instead of adding to cash or card.

### When the POS already connects to QuickBooks

Some POS systems offer their own link to QuickBooks Online. If yours does, check what it posts before adding manual entries, or you will record the same day twice. If you are moving off a connector, or comparing records with a Desktop file, the guide to [importing invoices into QuickBooks Desktop from Excel](/blog/import-invoices-into-quickbooks-desktop-from-excel) shows how the Desktop side handles sales data.

### Reviewing the bank side

At month end, export the bank account's transactions and compare them with your clearing accounts; the guide to [exporting bank transactions from QuickBooks Online](/blog/export-bank-transactions-from-quickbooks-online) covers that download. If the bank side is missing because you only have PDF statements, [SimpleBankConvert](/get-started) is being built to turn them into an upload file.