Linking receipt images to card transactions in Adaptive keeps spending coded correctly, reduces duplicate QuickBooks entries, and makes month-end reconciliation easier. This article explains how automatic matching works, the typical field workflow, and how to link expenses manually when a match does not happen on its own.
1. Prerequisites
Before matching works reliably:
Connect company cards in Connecting Your Credit Cards (Settings → Cards).
Map each card to the correct Payment account in QuickBooks.
Upload or create expenses from the Expenses tab or the mobile app. See Uploading & Creating Expenses.
Card transactions from connected cards appear as draft expenses on Expenses → Draft. Receipt uploads create expenses that Adaptive tries to link to the corresponding card transaction.
2. How automatic matching works
Adaptive links a receipt expense to a card transaction when:
Amount matches the card transaction amount (including tax when applicable).
Date falls within a few days of the card transaction date (configured on your account; commonly within three days).
Vendor helps disambiguate when multiple expenses share the same amount and date.
Payment account aligns with the card’s mapped QuickBooks account when available.
When a match is found, the expense shows a value in the Card transaction column and is no longer treated as unlinked.
Note: Linked bank cards can take a few days to post new charges. If your team uploads receipts at the time of purchase, the card transaction often appears in Draft shortly after and can link automatically.
3. Typical workflow
A team member pays with a connected company card.
They photograph the receipt and upload it to Adaptive (or create an expense manually).
They code the expense (vendor, cost codes, job, and other required fields).
Adaptive links the expense to the card transaction when the charge posts and matching criteria are met.
The expense moves through your approval workflow (Send for approval or Send for review, depending on settings).
An authorized user publishes the expense to QuickBooks with Publish to QuickBooks.
For the full Expenses page workflow, see Managing expenses with Adaptive.
4. Manually link a receipt to a card transaction
If automatic matching does not occur, link the expense manually.
From the expense detail page
Open the expense from Expenses.
Confirm Payment account matches the card used for the purchase.
In Card transaction, open the transaction picker and search by vendor, date, or amount.
Select the correct card transaction.
Save the expense.
From the Expenses table
Go to Expenses (Draft, All, or Unlinked).
In the Card transaction column, open the picker for the row.
Select the matching card transaction.
When no card transaction exists in Adaptive
For cash purchases, personal cards, or cards not connected to Adaptive:
Open Expenses → Unlinked.
Select the expense(s).
Click Mark as linked (or use the check control in the Card transaction column on a single row).
Important: Link expenses to card transactions before publishing to QuickBooks when possible. Publishing without a link increases the risk of duplicates when the card transaction arrives later. See How to avoid creating duplicate expenses in QuickBooks.
5. Common reasons a match does not happen
The card is not connected, or the bank connection needs re-authentication (Settings → Cards).
The card transaction has not posted yet.
Multiple expenses share the same amount and date, so vendor or payment account is needed to pick the right match.
Payment account on the expense does not match the card’s mapped account.
The expense was already published to QuickBooks without a link (Adaptive cannot merge a late receipt image into an already synced transaction).
Use Expenses → Unlinked to review expenses without a Card transaction across all statuses. Resolve each item by linking, marking as linked, or archiving/deleting duplicates. See Identifying and Resolving Duplicate Bills and Receipts.
6. After matching
Once an expense is linked to a card transaction (automatically or manually):
It is treated as reconciled for card matching purposes.
It can proceed through approval and Publish to QuickBooks according to your permissions and workflows.
It may leave Unlinked if it was listed there previously.
If sync issues occur after publishing, review the sync errors alert on Expenses or your sync error dashboard.
If you have any questions or want to share feedback, feel free to reach out at [email protected].