QIF: A QIF file is Quicken's oldest export.
Plain text, one line per field, written by Intuit for Quicken in the late 1980s and still emitted by banks and accounting tools decades later. If a program handed you a .qif and nothing on your machine will open it, this is what you are holding.
Runs in your browser · Nothing uploaded · No account
- Plain text, human-readable
- No account numbers inside
- Dates are ambiguous by design
Export transactions
Choose the scope, format, fields, and column order.
Scope
Selected transactions (40)Exports only the currently selected rows.
Format
Quicken (QIF)A plain-text QIF file with categories.
Fixed field set
OFX/QuickBooks files always carry date, description, and signed amount.
Row order
Match current viewFields
Fixed by the OFX/QuickBooks format
Preview
1,284 matching transactions
| Date | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-10-24 | STRIPE PAYOUT 4af2c9 | 4820.00 |
| 2025-10-23 | AWS EMEA SARL us-east-1 | -1204.00 |
| 2025-10-22 | WHOLE FOODS MKT #214 | -112.88 |
1,284 rows · 3 columns
Export Quicken (QIF)The format predates the problems it causes.
QIF was designed when a file moved between two copies of the same program on the same desk. It carries no account number, no currency, and no unique id per transaction, and it writes dates in whatever order the exporting country favours. That was fine in 1990. It is why a modern import of a QIF file can land in the wrong account, duplicate last month's rows, or read the third of April as the fourth of March, with nothing in the file to contradict any of it.
How it works
How to open a QIF file
- 1
Look at it in a text editor first
A QIF is plain text. Open it in Notepad, TextEdit, or any editor to see the header line and the records: this tells you immediately whether the file has transactions in it at all.
- 2
Import it into a program that still reads QIF
Quicken, MYOB, GnuCash, Moneydance, and several older desktop tools accept QIF directly. In Quicken the path is File, then File Import, then QIF File, and you must pick the destination account yourself because the file does not name one.
- 3
Or convert it to something current
For a spreadsheet, convert to CSV or Excel. For an accounting tool, convert to OFX, or to QBO if the destination is QuickBooks. Anything that refuses QIF will take one of those.
- 4
Check the dates before you trust the import
Compare the first and last transaction in the imported data against the file. A day and month swapped is the single most common QIF failure, and it is invisible until a date lands past the twelfth of a month.
What is actually inside a QIF file
One letter per field
Each line starts with a code: D for date, T for amount, P for payee, M for memo, L for category, N for a check or reference number. A lone ^ on its own line ends the record.
A header that sets the type
The file opens with a line like !Type:Bank, !Type:CCard, or !Type:Cash. The importing program uses it to decide how to read the records that follow.
Dates with no stated order
A date is written as 3/4/2026 with nothing to say whether that is March or April. The reader has to guess from its own locale, which is why the same file imports differently on two machines.
Splits, if the exporter wrote them
A transaction divided across categories carries S, E, and $ lines under it, one set per split. Many exporters skip them entirely and write the total only.
No account and no unique id
Nothing in the file names the account it came from or identifies a transaction. Import the same file twice and most programs will happily create every row twice.
No validation of any kind
There is no schema to check a QIF against. A truncated or half-written file looks exactly like a short one, so the first sign of trouble is usually a balance that is wrong.
The field codes you will see
A bank transaction record, in the order a typical exporter writes it.
| Code | Meaning |
|---|---|
| !Type:Bank | Header line. Also !Type:CCard, !Type:Cash, !Type:Invst. |
| D | Date. Order of day and month is not stated anywhere in the file. |
| T | Amount. Negative for money out. Some exporters write U as well, with the same value. |
| P | Payee, or the raw narration the bank printed. |
| M | Memo: the second description line, where one exists. |
| L | Category. Square brackets around it mean a transfer to another account. |
| N | Reference: cheque number, or a code like DEP or ATM. |
| C | Cleared status. An X or an asterisk, or absent. |
| S / E / $ | Split category, split memo, split amount. Repeated per split. |
| ^ | End of record, alone on its line. The only separator in the format. |
Anything else in a QIF is an extension one program invented and another will ignore. There is no committee behind this format and never was.
FAQ
Common questions
What is a QIF file?
A Quicken Interchange Format file: a plain text export of transactions, written by Intuit for Quicken and still produced by some banks and accounting programs. Each line carries one field, marked by a single letter, and a caret on its own line ends each transaction.
How do I open a QIF file?
Any text editor will show you the contents, since it is plain text. To use it as data, import it into Quicken, MYOB, GnuCash, or Moneydance, or convert it to CSV or Excel for a spreadsheet and to OFX or QBO for accounting software.
Can Excel open a QIF file?
Not directly. Excel has no QIF importer, and opening the file as text gives you one field per row rather than a table. Convert it to CSV or XLSX first, which puts each transaction on a single row with dates and amounts in their own columns.
What is the difference between QIF and QFX?
QIF is plain text from the late 1980s with no account information and no validation. QFX is Quicken's modern file, built on OFX, which carries the account, the institution, and a unique id per transaction so a repeated import can be recognised as a duplicate.
Why does Quicken refuse to import my QIF file?
Recent Quicken versions only accept QIF into certain account types, and steer everything else to QFX through Web Connect. If the import is blocked rather than broken, converting the file to QFX is usually faster than fighting the QIF path.
Why are my dates wrong after importing a QIF?
Because the format does not record which of the first two numbers is the month. A file written in one locale and read in another swaps day and month, and nothing in the file marks the error. Check a transaction dated after the twelfth of a month, where the swap becomes visible.
Keep exploring
QFX Files
Quicken's Web Connect file, and why a plain OFX will not do instead.
OFX Files
The banks' interchange format, its two incompatible versions, and what imports it.
QBO Files
QuickBooks' Web Connect file, and the header that decides whether it imports.
IIF Files
QuickBooks Desktop's tab-delimited import, and the accounts it creates by accident.
Bank Statement Converter
What a converter has to get right, and what the file looks like when it does.
Turn the QIF into something current.
Open a QIF, QFX, OFX, or QBO file in the browser and save it as CSV, or convert a statement PDF straight to the format your accounting tool actually takes.