Transaction file formats: OFX, QFX, QBO, QIF, IIF, MT940
Banks, accounting apps and personal finance programs exchange transactions in a handful of file formats. Each one carries different details and is accepted by different software. Read what each format holds, which apps import it, and how to open or convert it.
OFX
An OFX file is a bank or credit card transaction download in Open Financial Exchange format, a standard banks and finance programs use to exchange transactions, balances and account details. Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage, MYOB, Microsoft Money and many other programs import OFX; Excel does not open it directly. Read more about OFX.
QFX
A QFX file is Quicken's Web Connect format: a bank or credit card transaction download in OFX format with an extra Intuit bank identifier. Quicken for Windows and Quicken for Mac import QFX files; Excel does not open them directly. Read more about QFX.
QBO
A QBO file is a QuickBooks Web Connect file: a bank or credit card transaction download in OFX format with an Intuit bank identifier, made for importing into QuickBooks. ".QBO" does not mean QuickBooks Online; QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online both import it, and Excel does not open it directly. Read more about QBO.
QIF
QIF stands for Quicken Interchange Format, a plain-text file Quicken introduced to move transactions, categories and splits between programs. Quicken for Windows, Banktivity, YNAB and other finance programs still import QIF, and Quicken exports it, so it is often the way data gets out of Quicken. Read more about QIF.
IIF
An IIF file (Intuit Interchange Format) is a tab-delimited text file that QuickBooks Desktop imports transactions and lists from. It is the way to import bank transactions into a QuickBooks Desktop version too old for QBO Web Connect files, and it also imports journal entries, customers, vendors and the chart of accounts. QuickBooks Online does not import IIF. Read more about IIF.
MT940
MT940 is the SWIFT customer statement format: a text file in which a bank reports one account's opening balance, transactions and closing balance for a period. Banks offer it mainly to business customers, and ERP, treasury and some accounting software import it; Excel does not open it as a table. Read more about MT940.
Other transaction formats
- CSV (Excel) is a free-form table. Banks and apps choose their own columns, date formats and sign rules, so a CSV import usually needs a column mapping, and some apps do not import CSV at all. It is still easier to work with than PDF.
- PDF is made for reading and printing, not for importing. A PDF statement has to be converted to one of the formats above, or to CSV, before an accounting app can use it.
- QBJ is Intuit's file for general journal entries in QuickBooks Desktop. It carries several debit and credit lines per entry with accounts, names and classes.
- BAI2 is a cash-management format large banks use to report balances and transactions to corporate treasury systems.
Before choosing a conversion, check which download formats your bank offers and which import formats your accounting app supports. Many banks let you download only the last 90 days; the statements cover the rest.