Free sample QBO file (QuickBooks Web Connect), explained
Looking for a .QBO file to test a QuickBooks import, check what a converter writes, or see what Web Connect expects before you build one yourself? Here are two you can download free, with no sign-up: a fictional checking account and a fictional business credit card for September 2026, each as a QuickBooks Web Connect (.QBO) file with known totals. Below: what a QBO file is (and the other thing people mean by "QBO"), the format part by part, how the bank and card versions differ, where each QuickBooks product imports it, and how to tell the import worked.
Short answer: download the sample bank .QBO (checking account 0427: 31 transactions, 11 deposits totalling 29,597.43 and 20 payments totalling 28,575.27, net +1,022.16, ending balance 13,440.52) or the sample credit card .QBO (card 7316: 21 transactions, 19 charges totalling 1,939.94, 2 credits totalling 1,542.18, balance owed 3,243.88). A .QBO is an OFX 1.02 text file plus two Intuit tags in its sign-on section, <FID> and <INTU.BID>, the bank ID QuickBooks reads to decide which bank the download claims to come from. Import it into a test company, never your real books.
Make a .QBO from a sample CSV
Open a fictional bank CSV in Utilly's CSV to QBO converter: check every row and the account ID, then download the .QBO (or an .IIF for QuickBooks Desktop 2023). The sample costs nothing; so does your own CSV of up to 100 rows.
1. QBO means two things
Search for "sample QBO file" and you'll find two different things, because Intuit uses the same three letters for both:
| You want | What it is | Where to get a sample |
|---|---|---|
| A .qbo file (Web Connect) | A bank download for QuickBooks: transactions for one account, as text. It holds no company data, just what the bank would send | This page: the bank and card samples |
| A QuickBooks Online sample company | "QBO" is also short for QuickBooks Online. Intuit's test drive opens a demo company, Craig's Design and Landscaping Services, with customers and transactions already in it. Changes aren't saved | Intuit's test drive help article. Sign out of your Intuit Account or use a private window first |
| A QuickBooks Desktop sample company | A company file (.QBW), not a bank file. Desktop installs sample businesses you open from the No Company Open window → Open a sample file | Inside QuickBooks Desktop: Sample product-based business (Rock Castle Construction) or Sample service-based business |
One catch for testing imports: Intuit says the Online test drive can't be connected to a bank, and points you to an active or trial account to test online banking. So to try a .qbo upload in QuickBooks Online, use a trial company. In Desktop, a new test company (File → New Company) keeps the sample out of anything you care about. QuickBooks Desktop's own files use other extensions: .QBW is the company file, .QBB a backup and .QBM a portable copy; none of them is a .qbo. For every way to open a real .qbo, in Desktop, on a Mac, in QuickBooks Online, in Excel or with no QuickBooks at all, see how to open a .QBO file.
2. The sample QBO files
Utilly's exporter wrote these from two fictional statements, the same code that runs on customers' files, so they look exactly like a real conversion.
| File | Contents | Known totals |
|---|---|---|
| Bank .QBO | Business checking 0427, September 1–30, 2026: 11 CREDIT and 20 DEBIT lines (payroll, rent, checks, card payment, Stripe deposits, fees, interest) | In 29,597.43, out 28,575.27, net +1,022.16; ending balance 13,440.52 |
| Credit card .QBO | Business card 7316, same month: a payment and a return, then 19 charges ending with 21.36 of interest | Charges 1,939.94, credits 1,542.18; balance owed 3,243.88 |
| Bank-style .QBO | The same 31 checking lines with a bank name, Example Community Bank, in the sign-on section, the way a bank's own "Download for QuickBooks" file reads | Net +1,022.16; ending balance 13,440.52 |
| Bank PDF / card PDF | The statements behind the files, so you can compare line by line | 12,418.36 → 13,440.52; 2,846.12 → 3,243.88 owed |
The same month as CSV, Excel, QuickBooks Online CSV, Xero CSV, IIF, QIF and OFX is on sample bank statement files, and the plain OFX version is explained tag by tag on sample OFX file.
3. The QBO file format, part by part
Intuit doesn't publish a separate QBO specification. A .QBO follows the OFX 1.02 standard (now kept by the Financial Data Exchange's OFX Work Group), in its SGML form, where most values have no closing tag, and adds Intuit's own sign-on tags. Read top to bottom, the bank sample has six parts:
| # | Part | In the bank sample | What QuickBooks does with it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Header block | Nine lines from OFXHEADER:100 to NEWFILEUID:NONE, then a blank line | Recognises the file as OFX 1.02 text; a file that doesn't start this way isn't read as Web Connect |
| 2 | Sign-on (SIGNONMSGSRSV1) | <FI><ORG>Utilly<FID>3000</FI><INTU.BID>3000 | Reads the bank ID to identify the financial institution (section 4) |
| 3 | Message set | BANKMSGSRSV1 → STMTTRNRS → STMTRS with CURDEF USD | Bank or card statement; the card file uses CREDITCARDMSGSRSV1 |
| 4 | Account | <BANKID>999999999<ACCTID>0427<ACCTTYPE>CHECKING | Matches the file to a QuickBooks account; the first time, it asks you to pick or create one |
| 5 | Transactions | <DTSTART>20260901<DTEND>20260930, then 31 <STMTTRN> lines | Each becomes a downloaded transaction to match or add; its FITID lets QuickBooks skip one it already has |
| 6 | Ledger balance | <LEDGERBAL><BALAMT>13440.52<DTASOF>20260930 | Shown as the bank's balance; it is not posted to your books |
A transaction line in the sample, the payroll payment that opens the month:
<STMTTRN><TRNTYPE>DEBIT<DTPOSTED>20260901120000<TRNAMT>-6420.18<FITID>20260901E26D1A27070800<NAME>ACH DEBIT GUSTO PAYROLL 0912<MEMO>ACH DEBIT GUSTO PAYROLL 0912</STMTTRN>Dates are year first, amounts are signed from your side (money out negative) with a dot for decimals, and NAME stays within OFX 1.02's 32 characters, so the full wording goes in MEMO too. The OFX fields table covers every tag in a <STMTTRN>.
4. The two Intuit tags
Everything that makes a .QBO a QuickBooks file sits in one line. In the samples it reads:
<OFX><SIGNONMSGSRSV1><SONRS><STATUS><CODE>0<SEVERITY>INFO</STATUS><DTSERVER>20260930120000<LANGUAGE>ENG<FI><ORG>Example Community Bank<FID>3000</FI><INTU.BID>3000</SONRS></SIGNONMSGSRSV1><FID>sits inside the<FI>block next to the bank's name (ORG). Plain OFX allows it; Web Connect files carry it.<INTU.BID>is Intuit's bank ID, written after</FI>. QuickBooks Desktop uses it to identify which bank the download is from. A missing or unrecognised one is the usual cause converter makers give for "QuickBooks is unable to verify the Financial Institution information for this download".- 3000 is a bank ID converters commonly use. What's in a Utilly .QBO file explains why QuickBooks Desktop may label the download Wells Fargo, and what to do if a Desktop release refuses it.
Take those two tags out and you have a plain OFX file: in the samples, the bank .QBO and the bank OFX differ in that one line only, down to every FITID. That is also why renaming a Quicken .QFX or an .OFX to .qbo rarely works in Desktop: the extension changes, the sign-on section doesn't.
5. Bank vs credit card .QBO
The card sample keeps the header and the Intuit sign-on line but switches to the credit card message set:
<CREDITCARDMSGSRSV1><CCSTMTTRNRS><TRNUID>1<STATUS><CODE>0<SEVERITY>INFO</STATUS><CCSTMTRS><CURDEF>USD<CCACCTFROM><ACCTID>7316</CCACCTFROM>
<BANKTRANLIST><DTSTART>20260901<DTEND>20260930
<STMTTRN><TRNTYPE>CREDIT<DTPOSTED>20260905120000<TRNAMT>1500.00<FITID>20260905BB4B10ECD76000<NAME>PAYMENT THANK YOU - WEB<MEMO>PAYMENT THANK YOU - WEB</STMTTRN>| Bank .QBO | Credit card .QBO | |
|---|---|---|
| Message set | BANKMSGSRSV1 / STMTRS | CREDITCARDMSGSRSV1 / CCSTMTRS |
| Account block | BANKACCTFROM with BANKID, ACCTID and ACCTTYPE | CCACCTFROM with ACCTID only |
| A purchase or payment out | Negative (−6,420.18 payroll) | Negative: a charge raises what you owe (−72.00 Google Workspace) |
| Money in | Positive (+3,184.27 Stripe transfer) | Positive: a payment or return (+1,500.00, +42.18) |
| Ledger balance | 13440.52 | -3243.88 (owed, so negative) |
| Import into | A bank account | A credit card account |
The card file ends with the interest charge and a negative ledger balance:
<STMTTRN><TRNTYPE>DEBIT<DTPOSTED>20260930120000<TRNAMT>-21.36<FITID>20260930E76AD4F2127B00<NAME>PURCHASE INTEREST CHARGE<MEMO>PURCHASE INTEREST CHARGE</STMTTRN>
</BANKTRANLIST><LEDGERBAL><BALAMT>-3243.88<DTASOF>20260930</LEDGERBAL></CCSTMTRS></CCSTMTTRNRS></CREDITCARDMSGSRSV1></OFX>6. Importing the sample into QuickBooks
| QuickBooks | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop 2024 or later (Windows) | Banking → Bank Feeds → Import Web Connect Files | Sign in to your Intuit Account inside QuickBooks first. The first import asks which account the file belongs to; pick a new test account |
| Desktop 2023 | No longer imports .QBO | Intuit ended online banking on 2023 versions after May 31, 2026. Test with the sample IIF file instead (File → Utilities → Import → IIF Files) |
| QuickBooks for Mac | The Web Connect import, on a version that still has online banking | Mac Plus 2023 lost it after May 31, 2026, like Desktop 2023. OL-222 on a Mac has its own fix: OL-222 on QuickBooks for Mac |
| QuickBooks Online | Bank transactions → Link account ▾ → Upload from file | Up to 350 KB and 1,000 lines per file; the transactions land in For review, not in your registers |
Menus move between releases. If yours differs, follow Intuit's current help article. If an import fails, QBO Web Connect import errors lists every message Intuit documents with its fix.
7. Did it work? The known totals
| Check | Bank .QBO | Card .QBO | If it's off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downloaded transactions | 31 | 21 | 0 on a second import is normal: QuickBooks skips FITIDs it has seen. 62 or 42 means the same month went in twice; see duplicate transactions after an import |
| Money in | 29,597.43 | 1,542.18 | Lower means lines were skipped as already downloaded |
| Money out | 28,575.27 | 1,939.94 | Same check |
| Change in the account | +1,022.16 | 397.76 more owed | −1,022.16, or 397.76 less owed, means the file went into the wrong kind of account |
| Bank balance shown | 13,440.52 | 3,243.88 owed | Comes from LEDGERBAL. A new test account only matches it after you enter the opening balance, 12,418.36 (or 2,846.12 owed) |
8. Five ways to break a .QBO
- Opening and saving it in Excel or Word. It's tagged text, not a table; edit it in Notepad or TextEdit (plain text) if you must edit it at all.
- Deleting the blank line after the header block or adding XML-style closing tags to the values of a 1.02 file.
- Copying a
<STMTTRN>without changing its FITID. QuickBooks treats the copy as already downloaded and quietly drops it. - A raw
&in NAME or MEMO, such as AT&T. Write it as&or as "and"; the samples use plain text only. - Two accounts with the same ACCTID. QuickBooks matches files to accounts by it, so two cards that both say 0000 end up in one register.
What the samples are not: a record of anything. Example Community Bank, Sample Customer LLC and every transaction are made up, and the source statements are marked SAMPLE STATEMENT, FICTIONAL DATA FOR DEMONSTRATION ONLY. Use them to learn the format and test imports, converters or parsers, and keep them out of books you report from.
9. A .QBO from your own CSV, Excel or PDF
Most people looking at a sample .QBO have their own transactions in another shape. Your bank's CSV or Excel export goes through CSV to QBO or Excel to QBO, free up to 100 rows. An .OFX, .QFX or .QIF goes through OFX to QBO or QIF to QBO. Need a .QBO back in a spreadsheet? .QBO to CSV or .QBO to Excel does that. Months that only exist as PDF statements go through bank statement to QuickBooks: the preview is free with no sign-up and checks the rows against the statement's ending balance before you pay; your first 3 full statements are free with your email, then a download is 1 credit ($9 for 5, no subscription) or Pro at $19 a month, and one credit covers every format of that statement, including the .IIF for Desktop 2023.
Turn your own transactions into a .QBO
Spreadsheet exports cost nothing up to 100 rows. A PDF statement, downloaded or scanned, shows a free preview, checked against its ending balance, before you sign up for anything. Files are processed in memory and not stored.
Sources: Intuit, Test drive and practice using QuickBooks Online (Craig's Design and Landscaping Services; no bank connections in the test drive); Intuit, Getting started with QuickBooks Desktop (Open a sample file); Intuit, manually upload transactions into QuickBooks Online; Financial Data Exchange, OFX Work Group. Checked November 4, 2026. Intuit changes menus and limits; if a screen differs, follow the current article.
FAQ
Where can I download a sample QBO file?
On this page, free and with no sign-up. The bank .QBO has 31 fictional transactions on checking account 0427 for September 2026: 11 deposits totalling 29,597.43 and 20 payments totalling 28,575.27, ending balance 13,440.52. The credit card .QBO has 21 transactions on card 7316: 19 charges totalling 1,939.94 and 2 credits totalling 1,542.18, balance owed 3,243.88.
What is the QBO file format?
A QuickBooks Web Connect file: plain text in the OFX 1.02 SGML format with two Intuit tags added. It has a nine-line header starting OFXHEADER:100, a sign-on section with the bank's FID and INTU.BID, the account (BANKACCTFROM or CCACCTFROM), one STMTTRN per transaction with a type, date, signed amount and unique FITID, and the ledger balance at the end. Intuit doesn't publish a separate QBO specification.
What is INTU.BID in a QBO file?
Intuit's bank ID, written in the sign-on section right after the FI block. QuickBooks Desktop uses it to identify the financial institution the download comes from. A missing or unrecognised bank ID is the usual cause converter makers give for the error that QuickBooks is unable to verify the Financial Institution information for this download.
Is there a QuickBooks Online sample company file?
Yes, but it isn't a .qbo file. QBO also stands for QuickBooks Online, and Intuit's test drive opens a demo company called Craig's Design and Landscaping Services that resets when you leave. Intuit says the test drive can't connect to a bank, so test a .qbo upload in a trial company instead.
Can I rename an OFX or QFX file to .qbo?
Usually not with success in QuickBooks Desktop. The extension isn't what Desktop checks: it reads the sign-on section, and a plain OFX has no INTU.BID while a Quicken QFX carries a bank ID meant for Quicken. Convert the file instead, which rewrites the sign-on section, or use the .QBO your bank offers for QuickBooks.
Can QuickBooks Desktop 2023 import a QBO file?
Not since May 31, 2026, when Intuit ended online banking, including Web Connect uploads, on the 2023 versions. Import the same transactions as an IIF file through File, Utilities, Import, IIF Files, or upgrade to a supported version.
Related guides
- How to open a .QBO file (QuickBooks Desktop, Online, Excel or no QuickBooks)
- QuickBooks .QBO (Web Connect) import errors: OL-222, OL-221, “unable to verify the financial institution” and how to fix them
- Free sample OFX file (bank and credit card), explained
- Free sample IIF file for QuickBooks Desktop (bank and credit card)
- QBO vs IIF vs QIF: which file QuickBooks and Quicken actually need
- Free sample bank statement files: PDF, CSV, QBO, IIF, QIF and Xero CSV
Related tools
- Bank reconciliation checker: compare a bank statement to your books and list missing, duplicate and mismatched transactions.
- Receipt to CSV: turn PDF or photo receipts and invoices into CSV, Excel, or QuickBooks and Xero bill imports.
