
Easily Manage, Organize and Track Your Business Finances
Northwest Bank is compatible with Quicken® and QuickBooks® allowing you to efficiently organize your business finances saving you time and money.
- No manual data entry | Once you're set up, you can download all your transactions right into Quicken® or QuickBooks® - instead of typing them in by hand.
- Automatically reconcile data | Data includes complete transaction and balance information to make categorization and account reconciliation easy.
- Eliminate duplicate transactions | Incorporates a special transaction-matching algorithm that prevents the download of duplicate transactions.
- Easy to use | Files may be automatically opened by Quicken® or QuickBooks® directly from your Northwest Bank Business Online banking, which eliminates the need for you to search for files that have been downloaded.
There are two ways to connect your Online Business Banking to Quicken® or QuickBooks® either with Direct Connect or Web Connect.
Get Started with Quicken® Get Started with QuickBooks®
How is Direct Connect different from Web Connect?
Web Connect is a way to download transactions directly from your Northwest Bank Business Online Banking and import them manually into Quicken® or QuickBooks®.
Direct Connect links directly with your accounts through your online banking and automatically downloads transactions into Quicken® or QuickBooks®. Northwest Bank is providing this service at no additional cost to our business banking customers enrolled in Business Online Banking.


What You Need To Get Started
- Be enrolled in Online Business Banking WITHOUT a security token access.
- Contact your Treasury Management Rep to setup a view only access with export capabilities.
Get Started With QuickBooks®
- Set Up Direct Connect in QuickBooks
- Below is our quick step process to help you set up Direct Connect with QuickBooks, you can also Click here to download our helpful Direct Connect QuickBooks Instructions.
- STEP 1: Log into QuickBooks to see the Home Page.
- STEP 2: Under the Banking Option, select Bank Feeds and Set Up Bank Feed for an Account.
- STEP 3: Search for Northwest Bank and scroll down until you see Northwest Bank IA/NE Business DC and click it.
- STEP 4: Follow the screens to Enroll in Direct Connect. You will have to be setup on business online WITHOUT a token. Setup a separate view only with export capabilities user FIRST.
- STEP 5: Input your Business Online Login and password and hit Connect. You will receive an error saying you need to put the “PIN” that was just emailed to you on the end of your password from the initial setup.
- STEP 6: Retry the login with the PIN at the end of the Password and it will take you to a screen displaying all of your current account(s) that are set up with Northwest Bank. You can choose which account to add Direct Connect with.
- STEP 7: If you have not added an account to Quickbooks yet, you have the option to add it at this time. There are just a few fields you will need to select.
- STEP 8: After hitting connect, the system will give you a success screen.
- STEP 9: Go back into the Bank Feeds Center to load in the first set of Transactions.
- STEP 10: Once your transactions load, it will give you the opportunity to categorize transactions and, in the future, upload new transactions since the last download. If the system asks for your username and password again, it will no longer require the initial “PIN” at the end.
- Set Up Web Connect for QuickBooks
- STEP 1: Log into your Business Online Banking
- STEP 2: Click on the account you'd like to export transaction information from.
- STEP 3: Select the Download button at the top portion of this screen.
- STEP 4: This will give you some options to filter. Select the activity, the type of transactions and the format(.qbo for Quickbooks and .qfx for Quicken) that you would like to export.
- STEP 5: After the transactions are selected, click the Download Transactions button at the bottom.
- STEP 6: This will create your file which can then be opened inside QuickBooks or Quicken.
Get Started With Quicken®
- Set Up Direct Connect in Quicken
- Below is our quick step process to help you set up Direct Connect with Quicken, you can also Click here to download our helpful Direct Connect Quicken Instructions.
- STEP 1: Log into Quicken to see the Home Page.
- STEP 2: Under the Tools Option, select Account List
- STEP 3: For each account you would like to setup with Direct Connect, select the Edit option. If you have no accounts currently setup, you will need to add them first with the Add Account button in the bottom right corner.
- STEP 4: Select the Online Services Tab and Set up Now to download transactions directly.
- STEP 5: Search for Northwest Bank IA-NE Business DC and select that option. If you just type Northwest Bank in the search, you will have to make sure to select Northwest Bank IA-NE Business DC.
- STEP 6: Follow the screens to Enroll in Direct Connect. You will have to be setup on business online WITHOUT a token. Setup a separate view only with export capabilities user FIRST.
- STEP 7: Input your Business Online Login and password and hit Connect. You will receive an error saying you need to put the “PIN” that was just emailed to you on the end of their password for the initial setup.
- STEP 8: Retry the login with the PIN at the end of the Password and it will take you to a screen with all of their current account(s) setup with Northwest Bank. You can choose which account to add Direct Connect with and link it to an account already setup in the system.
- STEP 9: The system will automatically load transactions for the last 45 days (if there are transactions available that far back). If items are not categorized, they will have that option to do so here.
- STEP 10: Uncheck the Sync to the Cloud option as it causes errors in Post Production.
- Set Up Web Connect for Quicken
- STEP 1: Log into your Business Online Banking
- STEP 2: Click on the account you'd like to export transaction information from.
- STEP 3: Select the Download button at the top portion of this screen.
- STEP 4: This will give you some options to filter. Select the activity, the type of transactions and the format(.qbo for Quickbooks and .qfx for Quicken) that you would like to export.
- STEP 5: After the transactions are selected, click the Download Transactions button at the bottom.
- STEP 6: This will create your file which can then be opened inside QuickBooks or Quicken.
Questions? Please contact a Treasury Service Representative or give our Customer Service Center at 1.800.678.4105 (Monday - Friday 7:00 am - 7:00 pm and Saturday 9:00 am - 1:00 pm CST) for assistance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Direct Connect?
Direct Connect is an Intuit solution that provides our online banking business customers the ability to conveniently connect and access their account information and download transactions directly from within Quicken® or QuickBooks®.
How is Direct Connect different from Web Connect?
Web Connect is a way to download transactions directly from your Northwest Bank Business Online Banking and import them manually into Quicken® or QuickBooks®. Direct Connect links directly with your accounts through your online banking and automatically downloads transactions into Quicken® or QuickBooks®.
How do I enroll in Direct Connect?
You do not need to enroll in Direct Connect as it is available within your Quicken® or QuickBooks® application. Follow the instructions above to activate Direct Connect.
Is Direct Connect available to all Northwest Bank Business clients?
Yes, Direct Connect is available through Quicken® and QuickBooks® to our business banking customers who are enrolled in Business Online Banking.
Is there a fee for Direct Connect?
No, Northwest Bank is providing this service at no addtional cost to our business banking customers enrolled in Business Online Banking.
Are there requirements to use Direct Connect?
Yes, you will need to be enrolled in Northwest Bank Online Business Banking and either the current versions (or one of the pervious two versions) of Quicken® or QuickBooks®.
Helpful Resources