qif2ofx Convert | HelpView Page

Getting Started

QIF2OFX Convert is a single step financial data translator to convert QIF files into industry standard OFX format files.

Use QIF2OFX Convert to import transaction data into your finance application when your data was downloaded from your bank QIF format or created in QIF format by another financial application.

To get started first export or download your QIF file from your bank, and set your destination account information with the Settings menu.

Then use the File menu, Open QIF File to run the conversion and create your OFX file in a single step.

Installation

  • Microsoft Windows® full install
    • Download QIF2OFX.exe for Windows, save the file to your computer, and run the installation program by double clicking the file.
    • If you do not have have Java installed it will be automatically downloaded during the installation.
  • Mac OS X® full install
    • Download QIF2OFX.dmg for Mac OS X, save the file to your computer. Locate the file in the download area, open it by double clicking, then and run the installer.app by double clicking it.
    • If you do not have have Java installed it will be automatically downloaded during the installation.
  • Portable Installation
    • Download QIF2OFX.zip and save the file to your computer.
      • If running on Mac OS X the unzip will be done automatically as part of the download, and QIF2OFXportable.jar should be in your user download folder.
      • If running on other operation systems run zip or winzip on QIF2OFX.zip and extract QIF2OFXportable.jar to a suitable folder such as C:\Program Files\MoneyThumb.
    • Make sure you have Java installed on your computer. If you do not have Java already installed, download it for free at www.java.com.

Entering License Information

On Microsoft Windows, the easiest way to enter the license is to copy the license file QIF2OFX.lic from the product confirmation e-mail to the same folder where you installed QIF2OFX Convert – i.e. C:\Program Files\MoneyThumb\QIF2OFX.

Otherwise enter the license by copying the license string (CTRL-C) from the confirmation e-mail and pasting it (CTRL-V) into the license dialog. To enter the license string manually from within the program select Help, and Enter License, and paste (or type) the full license code into the dialog.

After you enter your license, your license email will be shown in the program title bar, and in Help, About.

Preparation

There are two things to do before running QIF2OFX Convert, and the second one is optional.

  1. Create a QIF file. Most of the time this will be downloaded from a bank site, or perhaps created by another software application.
  1. Get the account number of the account into which you want to import transactions. If you are creating a new account, then any number will suffice. If you wish to import transactions into an existing account, then most financial applications will match up the account numbers, and you will want to import into the correct account.

Running QIF2OFX Convert

On Windows or Mac OS X, double click the QIF2OFX Convert icon on your desktop.

You may also run QIF2OFX Convert from the Windows Start Menu, or run QIF2OFX.exe on Windows or QIF2OFX Convert.app on Mac OS X.

If you are running the portable version, run QIF2OFXportable.jar by double clicking it, or starting it as a Java program.

Settings

Setting Account Info

There are three additional pieces of account information to be inserted into the OFX file when it is created. Set the account information with the Settings menu, and Set Destination Account Info. This will bring up the dialog below.

Set Account Info

OFX files are required to have account information. All files require an account number and bank accounts also require a bank routing number. If you don’t want to save your accounts numbers for security reasons, then you can skip entering this this information. If you do provide your account number to be inserted into the OFX file, then your finance application can use that number to automatically determine which account to import into. If you are always importing into the same account, then QIF2OFX Convert will save the information from session to session, so you do not have to re-enter it. Note that QIF2OFX Convert does not access the Internet at all, so any information entered is only saved on your computer, and is not sent over other web or to any other computers.

To determine the account number to use in the OFX file, QIF2OFX Convert will look in the following locations, in order.

      1. Values from the Destination Account Info dialog window (see above). Once again, if you are concerned about entering your account number, then don’t, and either manually edit the OFX file after it is created, or match up accounts when importing.
      2. The QIF file name, if it is a number without any letters.
      3. As a last resort, QIF2OFX Convert will use an arbitrary default number for the routing number and account number. You will then have to manually match accounts when reading the OFX file into your finance application.

The bank account routing number is required by OFX for bank accounts (but not for credit cards or investment accounts). However, it is not actually used by most finance applications, so if you don’t specify one, QIF2OFX Convert will insert a default value and it should be accepted.

Lastly, the currency needs to be specified. US Dollars are the initial setting, use the drop down to select a different currency.

Date Formats

QIF2OFX Convert can read dates either in US format (month-day-year) or European format (day-month-year). Use the Settings menu to select the date format that is used in your QIF file. If your file came from a US bank or Quicken, it will be in US format. If your dates have the month name or abbreviation rather than a number, then this setting is not applicable. Note that there is no need to specify a date format for QBO files.


Converting the QIF File to OFX

Select File, Open QIF File and this will bring up a file chooser dialog. Navigate to the folder containing the QIF file, select the file, and then select Open at the bottom of the dialog. QIF2OFX Convert will run, giving some statistics on how many lines were processed and create a OFX file with the same name. If a OFX file with that name already exists you will be prompted to overwrite it.

All of the data in a QIF file will be converted directly into the OFX file. You can verify the transactions in the QIF2OFX Convert log.

Automation

To run QIF2OFX Convert from the command line or a script simply invoke it on Windows as:

QIF2OFX inputfile.qif

Or for the portable version

QIF2OFXportable.jar inputfile.qif

There is no need to specify an output file name, QIF2OFX Convert will use the same name and an OFX extension. The log will be written to a file with the same name and a .log extension, or ERROR.log if the input file name is invalid.

Note that if the output file already exists, it will be overwritten. And if your input file name has any spaces in it, remember to use quotes – for example:

QIF2OFX “input file.qif”

Trouble Shooting


No transactions visible when you import the OFX file

First look at the QIF2OFX Convert log to verify that transactions were processed. If not, there should be error messages that describe what is causing the problem.

If the QIF2OFX Convert log does show that transactions were processed, then you may need to accept the transactions into your financial application.

Multiple Accounts in a singe file

Because a OFX file can only contain transactions from a single financial institution, QIF2OFX Convert will only process the first account found in the QIF file when creating a OFX file.

Saving the QIF2OFX Convert Log

After QIF2OFX Convert has run, you may wish to save the log information to a file. Select the File menu, and the Save Log menu entry. This will bring up a File Save dialog. Simply specify a file name and select Save.