QIF file format explained: every field, with a real example

A QIF file is a list of transactions written as plain text: one letter per line (D date, T amount, P payee), each record ended by a ^. This page explains every main field, takes a real Quicken-style file apart line by line, and shows how to open or convert one. The examples come from Utilly's fictional sample QIF (the same September 2026 business checking account our other sample files use), so you can download it and follow along.

1. What a QIF file looks like

This is the start of the sample file: the account header, the Opening Balance entry Quicken writes when you export a register, the first payroll debit, a check with no payee, and a split. Each field is one line; a line with only ^ ends that record.

!Account
NBusiness Checking
TBank
DSAMPLE FILE - FICTIONAL DATA FOR TRYING GETUTILLY.COM - NOT A REAL BANK OR ACCOUNT
^
!Type:Bank
D9/ 1'26
U12,418.36
T12,418.36
CX
POpening Balance
L[Business Checking]
^
D9/ 1'26
U-6,420.18
T-6,420.18
PACH DEBIT GUSTO PAYROLL 0912
LPayroll
^
D9/ 2'26
U-1,850.00
T-1,850.00
N2041
LRent
^
D9/ 3'26
U-86.43
T-86.43
PPOS PURCHASE OFFICE DEPOT #1123
LOffice Expenses
SOffice Expenses
$-50.00
SPostage
$-36.43
^
…

The file is plain text, usually named .qif. Quicken for Windows writes it this way when you export a register: blank-padded dates with an apostrophe for the year (D9/ 1'26 is 1 September 2026), the amount twice (U and T) with thousands commas, and categories on L. A QIF written by a converter is often simpler — !Type:Bank, then D / T / P / M / ^ with four-digit years and no account header. Both are valid QIF. Microsoft Money and some editions of MYOB also used this format to move register data.

2. Every main QIF record letter

Headers come first. They start with ! and describe the file or the next block, not a single transaction.

Then each transaction is a set of letter-coded lines:

Utilly reads bank, cash, credit card and other asset or liability registers (!Type:Bank, Cash, CCard, Oth A, Oth L). It keeps the date, amount (T or U), payee, memo and category (from L, or from each S / $ pair when the record is split). A check number becomes the description only when there is no payee or memo, as CHECK 2041. Cleared status, address lines and split memos (E) are dropped. Category lists, class lists and memorized-payee lists are skipped.

It does not convert investment QIF. A !Type:Invst register uses the same letters for different things (security, quantity, action), and a file that only has investment transactions is refused: export a bank, cash or credit card account instead. Utilly is not Intuit or Quicken, and it does not try to write every Quicken-only extension.

3. A transaction, line by line

Three records from the sample show the usual shapes.

A normal debit — payroll on 1 September:

D9/ 1'26
U-6,420.18
T-6,420.18
PACH DEBIT GUSTO PAYROLL 0912
LPayroll
^

Utilly reads that as a row dated 2026-09-01, payee ACH DEBIT GUSTO PAYROLL 0912, amount −6,420.18, category Payroll. There is no memo line in the file, so the memo is empty.

A check with no payee — the number sits in N:

D9/ 2'26
U-1,850.00
T-1,850.00
N2041
LRent
^

There is no P or M, so the description becomes CHECK 2041, amount −1,850.00, category Rent. The sample has two more of these: N2042 (Contract Labor, −725.00) and N2043 (Contract Labor, −2,100.00).

A split — one store purchase booked to two categories:

D9/ 3'26
U-86.43
T-86.43
PPOS PURCHASE OFFICE DEPOT #1123
LOffice Expenses
SOffice Expenses
$-50.00
SPostage
$-36.43
^

The T total is −86.43. The split lines add up to the same number: −50.00 + −36.43 = −86.43. Utilly keeps one row for the total (it does not invent two bank transactions) and puts the parts in the Category column as Split: Office Expenses -50.00; Postage -36.43. The LOffice Expenses line is the category Quicken also stores on the transaction as a whole; when there are several S lines, the split list is what we keep.

4. Opening balance and a running check

QIF has no balance field. Quicken instead writes a first register entry named Opening Balance, as a transfer to the account itself:

D9/ 1'26
U12,418.36
T12,418.36
CX
POpening Balance
L[Business Checking]
^

L[Business Checking] points at the same account the file is exporting. That is not a bank transaction, so Utilly skips any row whose payee is “Opening Balance” and whose category starts with [, and remembers 12,418.36 as the starting figure. The 31 real transactions then run:

The first few rows, so you can follow them in the file:

The net of the 31 transactions is +1,022.16, and 12,418.36 + 1,022.16 = 13,440.52. The same totals are on our other sample files for this account (CSV, OFX, QBO, IIF). Because QIF itself does not store a running balance, the Clean CSV of a QIF has Date, Payee, Memo, Amount and Category — no Balance column.

5. QIF vs OFX, QFX, QBO and IIF

Which program accepts which file is on QBO vs IIF vs QIF. The short version: Quicken for Windows imports QIF; Quicken for Mac does not add a QIF to an existing file; Xero imports QIF; QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop do not.

6. How to open or convert a QIF file

Every way to open one, with or without Quicken, is on how to open a .QIF file. A QIF is plain text, so Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit in plain-text mode (Mac) opens it. That is the right way to inspect a failed import. Excel and Google Sheets do not turn it into a transaction table: they put each letter code in one column, and saving from Excel can break the file. Convert it to CSV first, then open the spreadsheet.

Quicken for Windows. Quicken's current help, checked November 8, 2026, says you can import a QIF into any account type (older versions could not). The steps it gives: back up your Quicken data first; go to the File menu and select QIF File; pick the account in the dropdown; browse to the file; choose what to include (Transactions, Account list, Category list) so it matches what was exported; click Import; then review the register. Many versions — and Quicken's older import article — list the same command as File → File Import → QIF File. The account must already exist: the Quicken account to import into list shows only accounts that can take a QIF import. If the account you want is missing from that list, that copy of Quicken will not import a QIF into it.

Quicken for Mac. Support is more limited than on Windows, and we are following Quicken's own Mac help rather than guessing a menu that adds rows to a file you already use. The documented path is to start a new data file: File → New, then Start from a .QIF file exported from another application, and follow the import prompts. Quicken's Mac help also says incremental import of QIF files is not supported — you cannot use a QIF to add later months to an existing Mac file. For ongoing downloads on a Mac, Quicken points you at a bank QFX/OFX file (or, in some versions, a CSV in its own layout). The same help warns that imported QIF data, especially investment transactions, may need cleanup. To add transactions to a Mac file you already use, Quicken's CSV import is the route: see how to import a CSV into Quicken.

Elsewhere. Xero imports QIF through Import a statement on a bank account. GnuCash has a QIF import. Moneydance imports QIF with File → Import, including whole Quicken and Microsoft Money histories (Moneydance import guide). QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop do not import QIF: convert to a .QBO or, for Desktop without Web Connect, an .IIF.

To get a spreadsheet, QIF to CSV or QIF to Excel turns each record into a row with the date, payee, memo, signed amount and the Quicken category (including splits). The same preview can download OFX, QuickBooks .QBO or .IIF. Going the other way — making a QIF — use CSV to QIF, Excel to QIF, OFX to QIF, QFX to QIF, QBO to QIF, IIF to QIF or a PDF bank statement to QIF.

What Utilly writes is a bank or card QIF only: !Type:Bank or !Type:CCard, then D as MM/DD/YYYY, a signed T, P cut to 64 characters, M with the full description, and ^. It does not write U, check numbers, cleared flags, addresses, categories, splits, an !Account name or !Option:AutoSwitch, so Quicken asks which account to put the rows in. It does not write QFX, and it does not convert investment registers. Files are read in memory and not stored.

Sources, checked November 8, 2026: Quicken Windows help on importing data from a QIF file and on accounts missing from the QIF Import dialog; Quicken Mac help on getting started (File → New → Start from a .QIF file exported from another application) and on converting your data. Field letters are those used by Quicken and described in the published Quicken Interchange Format specification. The sample file and the explanations are ours. Utilly is not affiliated with Intuit or Quicken.

FAQ

Related guides

• How to open a .QIF file (Quicken, Xero, GnuCash, Excel or no Quicken)
• How to import a CSV file into Quicken (Windows, Mac and Simplifi)
• How to import bank statements into Quicken (including PDF statements)
• QBO vs IIF vs QIF: which file QuickBooks and Quicken actually need
• How to open an OFX, QFX or QIF file (Excel, Quicken, text)
• Free sample OFX file (bank and credit card), explained

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