How to use PDF2QBO converter (PDF2QBO)

This tutorial shows how to convert a PDF file to the QBO format for bank or credit card transactions.

Use the ProperConvert app to make your transaction files importable into your accounting software.

Step by step Convert a PDF to QBO and import into Quickbooks

When you start a PDF2QBO converter it offers you to select a PDF file. We will select a sample-bank-statement.pdf file.

These are the parsing transactions from the PDF file.

And this is like the PDF file looks like. This is the bank statement. It has the Deposits.

It has the Checks.

And it has the Withdrawals.

Once the PDF file is loaded, examine the transactions: check the dates are correct: year, month, the day on the dates are correct. Sometimes some dates could be confusing.

In this case, we show dates as month/day/year. It is all July's statement for 2016.

Make sure, that Deposits are positive, Withdrawals are negative. It is for bank or credit card statements, expenses always must be negative and payments to the account must be positive. This part of the converter is about working with the statement, parsing the statement, parsing the statement.

This part is about converting to the output file, output file settings. Here you are creating a QBO file, creating a CSV file.

So let's look first at the bar on the top. What does it mean? The Parser allows you to specify the page range. If you want to convert only specific pages you can specify it here from one page to another page. If the PDF file has the password, you can enter it here, let's say to use it for several statements. And the Parser will ask the password if there is any password for the first time.

And you can specify how dates look like in your PDF file. Usually, it's not required, but you can specify it.

If you have a scan or image page file, you can click the OCR checkbox, which means optical character recognition. So, some PDF files do not have text in them or may be created in a specific way, that the Parser cannot parse them correctly. So, the OCR is a good option to use in such situations.

And the next option is Resolution. So when it does OCR it needs to render the image of your PDF file and you can select the Resolution for this image. And it is important for certain forms, for certain text, how the text looks, how it composed on your PDF file. The resolution is important in the OCR process. Some PDF files are better parsed with 300 dpi, some better parsed with lower Resolution, like 150. Once you start working with your PDF files you will see quickly which resolution works better for you.

And if you change any of these settings - click the 'Apply' button to restart the parsing process.

The bottom part of this form is for quickly changing some transaction properties. So, let's say if you see that those are Withdrawals, but the Parser shows them as Deposit, you can quickly adjust it. And if you want to adjust the year - you can quickly adjust for all transactions. If it's present on a PDF file, you can do this with this checkbox 'Use Post date'.

And now let's discuss this central part. You can uncheck or deselect any transaction. You can select a group of transactions - click the first one, hold shift and click the last one and then right-click. You can do several things: we can 'Check', 'Uncheck', 'Change +/-', 'Add payee(s) to payee mapping', increase year or decrease year for those specific transactions only. Sometimes if you have a statement over the year, coming and starting December and ending in January, the Parser usually should pick up the year correctly for both parts before the year and after year. And if it doesn't, you can quickly adjust it, select transactions for the previous year for December you will see the December dates and then January dates, then select them and click right-click and click 'Year -' to adjust year quicker.

You can edit any of those transactions, you can change, you can adjust Amount, you can adjust Date, you can change the Amount to become Deposit instead of Withdrawal or Withdrawal instead of Deposit. And you may also enter any other details you would like to enter.

And if you need to rename certain names, let's say, clean up or do some other changes, let's say, you have Shell 1,2,3 or Shell corporation, something like that, where too many names in QuickBooks, then you can do that, using the renaming Tab - 'Name' and 'New name' - you can specify here, you can have several lines added and once you enter the first line, the second line will appear and so on. Now we finished working with our actual transactions and we are ready to create a QBO file.

Each QBO file has several properties, that you can set on this part of the screen. The first one is Account ID, which is important to set and must be digits only. Account ID must be different for different accounts. Let's say if you have few statements for one account, you converting them, make sure to use the same Account ID, once you switch to another account, make sure to change the Account ID.

Then you have the Account Type and in this case, is the Checking account. You can set CreditCard, let's say if you're working with a bank account and then you switch into CreditCard, make sure to change the Account ID, as well.

The Currency must be US dollars for QuickBooks US Edition. If your accounting software allows you to import QBO files and allows different currencies, then you can set the Currency here.

Bank ID and Branch ID - you can set them as well, QuickBooks does not show them and the Parser will use some good default values. Bank INTU.BID value - it has to be from the allowed bank for the Account Type you convert. It is important to set the allowed value, you can click the 'Lookup' button and locate your bank. And if your bank is Capital One, for example, which has several INTU.BID values. 'Capital One Comm Card Connect' (number 54696) is good for CreditCard and 'Capital One Intellix Services' (number 15496) is good for Checking account. So, make sure, that the value/number you choose is the allowed number for QuickBooks.

You can set a Balance if you need to. 'Deterministic references', 'Allow non-numeric checks', 'Allow empty name' settings are not going in this tutorial. They are Advanced Settings and usually included for specific advanced cases. And the last thing to pay attention to is the 'Open after save'. So, what happens, if you click it and then click the 'Convert': the QBO file will be created and the QBO file will be passed to the application that is responsible for the QBO files on your computer. And if you have QuickBooks installed on your computer the application responsible for QBO files will be Quickbooks, so, in this case, the Parser will create a QBO file and we'll start QuickBooks and will ask it to load a QBO file. Some users prefer this a streamlined workflow, that you open a PDF file in converter, then you click 'Open after save', then you click 'Convert', and then QBO file is created, and QuickBooks started right away, and QuickBooks loading that QBO file right away without asking any questions. In this case, this tutorial focuses on just using PDF2QBO, so, we will not click that checkbox. And, finally, to create a QBO file, make sure, to click the 'Convert' button.

You will be asked to confirm the file name and the file location, you can change either of those and then you click 'Save' to create a QBO file. And if you have already some QBO file with the same name created, you have to confirm that you want to resave.

This tutorial was about opening a PDF file, setting options, and creating a QBO file.

See this tutorial as a video:

Import created QBO file into Quickbooks for Windows

Now the QBO file is created, let's switch to Quickbooks and import created QBO file. Before importing a QBO file make sure that the account you need to import into doesn’t have the yellow strike icon. Click 'Lists' - 'Charts of Accounts'.

Because if you have the icon, it means the account is online linked to direct download. You need to disconnect first to import a QBO file.

To disconnect, right-click - 'Edit Account'.

Then click on 'Bank Feed Settings' and 'Deactivate All Online Services' first if needed. Check there is no yellow icon after the change. After disconnecting the account from online services, you can import a QBO file.

To import a QBO file, select 'File' - 'Utilities' - 'Import' - 'Web Connect', select created QBO file, and select an existing account to import transactions. Check bank label, Account Type, Account number to select the correct account in Quickbooks. Then click the 'Continue' button.

Now your data is imported.

Click on 'Transaction List' to review transactions.

Assign Vendor Records and expense/income accounts before adding transactions to the register.

If you like to see the Memo column from the QBO file, click 'Show Bank Memo'. Once Vendor Records and Account are set, you can add transactions to the register.

Import created QBO file into Quickbooks for macOS

Now the QBO file is created, let's switch to Quickbooks and import created QBO file. Before importing a QBO file make sure that the account you need to import into doesn’t have a blue ball icon. Click 'Lists' - 'Charts of Accounts'.

If it has a blue ball icon it means the account is online linked to direct download. You need to disconnect first to import a QBO file.

To disconnect, right-click - 'Edit Account'.

Then click 'Online Settings' and select 'Not enabled' and click 'Save'.

Then click 'Ok'.

Check there is no blue ball after the change. After disconnecting the account from online services, you can import a QBO file.

To import a QBO file, select 'File' - 'Import' - 'From Web Connect', select created QBO file.

And select an existing account to import transactions. It shows the Account ID, Account Type, that you set in the PDF2QBO and it offers you to choose an existing Account. Click the 'Continue' button.

Now your data is imported.

Open Bank Feeds, and assign Vendor Records and expense/income accounts and add transactions to the register.

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