Quicken CSV import: convert a CSV to QIF or QFX

Your bank gives you a CSV. Quicken will not take it — its only documented CSV import is for security prices, not transactions. So the file has to become a QIF or a QFX first, and which one depends on your Quicken, in a way most of the advice online gets wrong.

🔒 Convert your CSV to QIF or QFX here — free, both formats, runs in your browser, nothing uploaded.

Which format does your Quicken take?

In one line: on Windows, use QIF. On a Mac, use QFX. Everything below is why, and what to do when the file is refused.

No, Quicken cannot import a CSV of transactions

This is the part that is genuinely settled. Quicken for Windows has a CSV import, and it does exactly one job — prices:

Investing tab → Portfolio view → File → File Import → Import security prices from CSV file

— the only CSV import documented in How do I import data into Quicken for Windows?, Quicken Support

There is no documented column layout for importing transactions from a CSV, because there is no such import. A ticker symbol, a price and a date is the whole feature. If you dropped a bank CSV in there and got an "invalid header" error, that is why.

The advice to ignore: "Quicken cannot import QIF any more"

You will read this everywhere, and it has been out of date since about 2018. It was true once: starting with Quicken 2006, Intuit switched off QIF import for checking, savings, credit card, 401(k) and brokerage accounts, on the argument that OFX had replaced it. That left only cash and asset accounts, which is useless if what you have is a current account.

Quicken Inc. reversed it. Quicken's own help page, answering whether you can import a QIF into a banking or investment account, now says:

"While older versions of Quicken did not have this capability, you can now import any account type using QIF."

— Importing data from a QIF file, Quicken Support

Two reasons the stale version persists. The old forum threads are the ones that rank, because they are fifteen years old and heavily linked. And the people writing the newer pages sell QFX converters — the restriction is their reason to exist, so nobody in that business has an incentive to notice it ended.

So if you are on Quicken for Windows: QIF is fine, it goes into your checking account, and you do not need to pay anyone for a QFX.

Quicken for Mac is the real exception

The Mac version has never had a QIF import. ProperSoft, who sell converters for both platforms and document the formats side by side, list the Mac import formats as QFX (Web Connect) and Mint-format CSV, with QIF marked as Windows-only. That matches what Mac users report: the File → Import menu simply has no QIF entry to find.

So on a Mac the route is QFX: File → Import → Web Connect File, then pick the account.

What makes a file a QFX, and why Quicken rejects some of them

A QFX is an OFX file with one extra tag. Quicken reads three fields to decide which institution the file came from:

• <ORG> — the institution's name
• <FID> — its financial institution id
• <INTU.BID> — Intuit's own id for it, the tag that makes an OFX a QFX

If any of them is missing or is not an id Quicken recognises, you get OL-221, "Quicken cannot verify the financial institution information for this download". The file is otherwise perfectly valid; Quicken just will not accept a statement from an institution it cannot name.

The fix is boring: put 3000 in both the FID and INTU.BID boxes and convert again. 3000 is the documented fallback id for an institution that is not in Quicken's list. Be aware of what that means and decide for yourself: the file then tells Quicken it came from the institution that owns id 3000, not from your bank. The transactions, dates and amounts are your own either way, and Quicken does not use the id for anything after the import.

Converting the file

Our converter writes both formats from the same CSV, PDF or Excel statement:

1. Drop the file in. Columns are detected; fix any it got wrong.
2. Under Pick your output, choose .QIF for Quicken for Windows, or .QFX for a Mac or a pre-2018 Windows version.
3. For a QFX, set the FID and INTU.BID boxes — your bank's ids if you know them, or 3000.
4. Import it in Quicken: File → Import → QIF, or File → File Import → Web Connect File for a QFX.

Two things worth knowing about QFX specifically. It carries a FITID on every transaction, so Quicken can tell a transaction it has already seen from a new one — a QIF cannot, which is why a re-run of the same QIF duplicates everything. And if you want to re-import a statement you deleted, tick force re-import, which issues fresh ids so the file is not silently skipped.

🔒 Everything converts in your browser. The statement is never uploaded, so we never hold your bank data.

Convert your statement for Quicken — free

Or see it work on a sample statement — no file of your own needed.

Sources

• How do I import data into Quicken for Windows? — Quicken Support, source for the import formats and for the CSV import being security prices only.
• Importing data from a QIF file — Quicken Support, source for "you can now import any account type using QIF".
• Import QIF Files in Quicken 2005, 2006, 2007 — source for the original 2006 restriction and the account types it covered.
• Quicken formats: QFX vs QIF vs QXF vs CSV Mint — ProperSoft, a converter vendor, source for the Quicken for Mac format list and for 3000 as the fallback INTU.BID.

Related

• Convert a bank CSV to QIF
• QBO vs OFX vs QIF: which format do you need?
• Cannot verify the financial institution (FID and INTU.BID)
• PDF bank statement to CSV