Imported Transactions: The Needs Review Workflow

BeeKeeper connects to your bank account and automatically imports transactions so you don’t have to enter them by hand. The Needs Review tab is where you review those imported transactions and turn them into proper accounting entries. This is one of the most important parts of your job as treasurer.

The Needs Review Tab

The Needs Review tab lives on each bank account in BeeKeeper. It shows all transactions imported from your connected bank that still need your attention.

How to access it:

Go to Bookkeeping from the sidebar
Click on a bank account (e.g., “Checking Account”)
Click the Needs Review tab

You will see a list of imported transactions pulled from your bank, sorted by date. Each transaction shows the date, amount, description (payee), and reference number. Transactions that BeeKeeper has already matched will appear with a preselected account ready for your review.

Understanding Transaction Status

Every imported transaction has a status that tells you where it is in the review process:

Pending — The transaction was just imported and has not been reviewed yet. It may carry a low-confidence AI suggestion, but you haven’t confirmed anything.
Matched — BeeKeeper (or you) has identified which expense or income account this transaction belongs to, and possibly which vendor. A matching rule moves a transaction directly to Matched. It is ready to be accepted.
Journaled — You have accepted the transaction and BeeKeeper created a journal entry for it. This transaction is now part of your official books.

Your goal is to move every transaction from Pending to Journaled.

Reviewing Transactions

The review workflow is straightforward. For each imported transaction, you decide what to do with it:

Open the Needs Review tab on your bank account.
Look at the list of pending transactions.
For each transaction, check the suggested account and vendor. BeeKeeper often pre-fills these using rules or AI.
Set the payee/vendor and account as needed, then add the transaction to create its journal entry.
If you don’t recognize the transaction or it doesn’t belong in your books, delete it from the transaction’s menu.
If the transaction is a transfer between two of your bank accounts (e.g., moving money from checking to savings), handle it as a transfer.

Work through transactions from oldest to newest. This keeps your books in chronological order.

Accepting Transactions

When you accept a transaction, BeeKeeper creates a journal entry in your books. This is the core action of the Needs Review tab.

To accept a single transaction:

Find the transaction in the Needs Review tab.
Under Add as new transaction, set the payee/vendor (if applicable).
Optionally choose an activity.
Select the correct account (expense or income category).
Click Add (under “Add as new transaction”).
BeeKeeper creates a journal entry that debits and credits the appropriate accounts.

What happens behind the scenes:

A journal entry is created with the transaction date, amount, and description.
The bank account is credited or debited (depending on whether money came in or went out).
The matched expense or income account gets the offsetting entry.
The vendor, if set, is recorded on the journal entry.
The imported transaction status changes to Journaled.

Once accepted, the transaction appears in your account’s Transactions tab and is included in all financial reports (P&L, Balance Sheet, etc.).

Payee sibling categorization: When you add a transaction, BeeKeeper looks for other pending transactions on the same account with the same payee name. It automatically applies the same account and vendor to those transactions, moving them to Matched. For example, if you set one “AMAZON.COM” transaction to Office Supplies, other Amazon transactions on that account will pick up the same suggestion. You still review and accept each one individually.

Handling Transfers

Transfers happen when money moves between two of your bank accounts — for example, transferring funds from checking to savings. These show up as two separate imported transactions: a withdrawal on one account and a deposit on the other.

BeeKeeper automatically suggests potential transfers by looking for an opposite-sign matching amount on a different account within a 30-day window.

To accept a transfer:

Find a transaction that BeeKeeper has flagged under the Possible transfer heading. It will show a suggested matching transaction on another account.
Verify that the two transactions are truly the same transfer (check dates and amounts).
Click Accept as Transfer.
BeeKeeper creates a single journal entry that links both accounts, recording the money moving from one to the other.

Why transfers are handled differently:

A transfer is not income or an expense. It is just money moving between your own accounts.
If you accepted each side separately as a regular transaction, you would double-count the money.
The transfer action ensures only one journal entry is created for the pair.

If BeeKeeper doesn’t detect the transfer automatically:

The amounts may not match exactly (e.g., a bank fee was applied).
The dates may be more than 30 days apart.
In these cases, you may need to accept one side as a regular transaction and manually create a journal entry for the transfer.

Matching to Existing Entries

Sometimes you have already recorded a journal entry by hand, and then the same transaction shows up from your bank import. Instead of creating a duplicate entry, you can match the imported transaction to the existing journal entry.

When to use Match:

You wrote a check and already entered it as a journal entry, then the check cleared and appeared in your bank feed.
You recorded a deposit manually before the bank import pulled it in.
A transaction was entered by another treasurer before the bank connection was set up.

To match a transaction:

Find the imported transaction in the Needs Review tab.
When BeeKeeper finds possible matches (based on amount and date), they appear automatically on the transaction row under Matching transactions as a list of options.
Select the correct journal entry.
Click Match. The imported transaction is linked immediately.

The imported transaction is linked to the existing journal entry. No new entry is created. The transaction status changes to Journaled.

Bulk Accept

If you have many transactions that are already matched to the correct accounts, you can accept them all at once instead of adding each one individually.

To use Accept All Matched:

Open the Needs Review tab.
Review the list of matched transactions. Make sure the suggested accounts and vendors look correct.
Click Accept All Matched and confirm the prompt (“Accept all matched transactions and create journal entries?”).
BeeKeeper creates journal entries for all matched transactions at once.

What Accept All Matched skips:

Potential transfers — Transactions that look like they might be transfers between your accounts (an opposite-sign matching amount on another account within 7 days) are skipped. BeeKeeper does this to prevent you from accidentally creating regular journal entries for transfers. Review these individually using the transfer workflow.
Pending transactions without a match — Only transactions that are already Matched are included.

After Accept All Matched runs, check the Needs Review tab for any remaining transactions that were skipped. Handle transfers and unmatched items individually.

Merging Duplicates

Occasionally the same transaction gets imported twice. This can happen if your bank connection refreshes overlapping date ranges. BeeKeeper lets you merge duplicates into a single transaction.

To merge duplicate transactions:

Find a transaction that has a duplicate. The Merge option appears in the transaction’s three-dot menu only when another transaction with the same amount exists on the same account.
Open the three-dot (kebab) menu on the transaction and choose Merge.
Review the suggested duplicate in the Merge Duplicate Transaction modal.
Click Confirm Merge. BeeKeeper combines the two into one transaction, keeping the best available data from each.

Duplicates can be merged even after one or both have been journaled. In that case BeeKeeper keeps a single journal entry and preserves reconciliation status.

Auto-Matching

BeeKeeper uses two systems to automatically suggest accounts and vendors for your imported transactions. This saves you significant time, especially for recurring transactions.

Transaction Rules

Rules are text-based patterns that you create. When a transaction description matches the pattern, BeeKeeper automatically assigns the account and vendor.

How rules work:

Go to Settings > Rules and click Add Rule.
Define a text pattern to match against (e.g., “AMAZON” or “COSTCO WHSE”).
Set the account to assign (e.g., “Office Supplies”).
Optionally set a vendor (e.g., “Amazon”).
Save the rule.

From now on, any imported transaction whose description contains that pattern will automatically be matched to the specified account and vendor. Rules are checked first, before AI categorization.

Tips for rules:

Use short, distinctive text fragments. “COSTCO” is better than “COSTCO WHOLESALE #482 CITY ST”.
Check your Needs Review tab for recurring transactions that always go to the same account. These are great candidates for rules.
Rules apply instantly to new imports and can be applied to existing pending transactions.

AI Categorization

For transactions that don’t match any rule, BeeKeeper uses AI to suggest a category. The AI looks at the transaction description, the amount, and your organization’s past categorization history.

How AI categorization works:

After transactions are imported and rules are applied, any remaining unmatched transactions are sent to the AI.
The AI analyzes the description and compares it to your historical patterns.
It suggests an account and vendor, along with a confidence level.
Matches at or above 90% confidence are accepted and journaled automatically — no review needed.
Lower-confidence matches appear as suggestions on the Needs Review tab for you to review and accept or correct.

The AI gets better over time as you categorize more transactions. The more history it has, the more accurate its suggestions become.

Deleting Transactions

In rare cases, you may want to permanently remove an imported transaction.

To delete a transaction:

Find the transaction in the Needs Review tab.
Open the three-dot menu and click Delete.
Confirm the deletion.

Use delete sparingly. Deleted transactions are gone for good.

Tips for Efficient Review

Set up rules first. Before reviewing a large batch of transactions, look for patterns. Create rules for your most common vendors (Amazon, Costco, your school district, etc.). This dramatically reduces manual work.
Review weekly. Don’t let transactions pile up for months. A weekly review of 10-20 transactions takes a few minutes. A quarterly review of 200 transactions takes much longer.
Use Accept All Matched after checking. Scroll through matched transactions to verify the suggestions look right, then use Accept All Matched to process them all at once.
Handle transfers first. Look for transfer pairs and accept those before doing Accept All Matched. This prevents transfers from being accidentally accepted as regular transactions.
Trust but verify the AI. AI suggestions are usually good, but always glance at the account and vendor before accepting. The AI learns from your corrections, so fixing mistakes early improves future accuracy.
Use payee sibling categorization. When you add one transaction from a payee, check if similar transactions were auto-suggested. This can save several clicks.
Create rules from repeated corrections. If you keep correcting the same payee to the same account, create a rule so you never have to do it again.
Work oldest to newest. This keeps your books in chronological order and makes your reports accurate at any point in time.

Common Questions

Q: What happens if I accept a transaction with the wrong account? A: The journal entry is created in your books. You can edit or delete the journal entry from the account’s Transactions tab to fix it.

Q: Can I undo an accept? A: An accepted transaction has a real journal entry behind it. To undo it, edit or delete that journal entry from the account’s Transactions tab.

Q: Why are some transactions skipped during Accept All Matched? A: Accept All Matched skips transactions that look like potential transfers between your accounts. This prevents you from creating incorrect journal entries. Review these individually and use Accept as Transfer for actual transfers.

Q: How does BeeKeeper detect transfers? A: For the suggestions shown on the Needs Review tab, it looks for a matching amount (opposite sign) on one of your other connected bank accounts within 30 days of the transaction date. Accept All Matched separately skips anything with an opposite-sign match within 7 days.

Q: What if the same transaction appears twice? A: Use the Merge feature to combine duplicates. This can happen when bank data refreshes with overlapping date ranges.

Q: Do I need to review every transaction? A: Yes. Every imported transaction should end up Journaled (accepted). Pending transactions mean your books are incomplete.

Q: How often are transactions imported? A: BeeKeeper fetches new transactions from your bank nightly. You can also trigger a manual refresh from Settings > Linked Accounts.

Q: What if a transaction doesn’t have an AI suggestion? A: Some transactions have unusual descriptions that the AI can’t confidently categorize. Set the account manually when you add them, and the AI will learn from your choice for next time.

Q: Can I change a rule after creating it? A: Yes. Go to Settings > Rules to edit or delete rules. Saving a rule applies it immediately to existing un-journaled transactions that have not already been matched by a rule, as well as to future imports.