Convert a PDF bank statement to QIF
Drop the PDF statement into the converter below and choose the QIF export. You get a plain text file that opens with the header !Type:Bank and then one record per transaction, carrying the date, the amount and the payee. QIF is read by Quicken, GnuCash, Xero, Zoho Books and Sage Business Cloud. QuickBooks does not read it.
The PDF is read on your own machine and is not uploaded. Every conversion runs a reconciliation check first: opening balance plus every transaction must equal the closing balance, shown as PASS or FAIL with the arithmetic.
- Account type header
- !Type:Bank
- Fields Tickvouch writes
- D, T, P, M, ^
- Date order written
- month/day/year, four-digit year
- Locale marker in the file
- none exists
- Official specification
- none published today
- QuickBooks
- does not read QIF
Checked against the GnuCash project's own QIF documentation on 14 August 2026: gnucash qif-imp/file-format.txt. Xero's acceptance of QIF is checked on the same date against Xero Central. What we could not verify is left out, not hedged.
Read this before you rely on a QIF file. There is no official QIF specification published anywhere today. Intuit's original page is offline, and Intuit sold the Quicken business to H.I.G. Capital, which confirmed the closed acquisition on 5 April 2016. Every field list now in circulation descends from a 1997 Intuit document that survives only as third-party copies. That is why this page cites community documentation, and says so, rather than pointing at a specification that no longer exists.
Convert your statement to QIF here
This is the whole tool, running on this page. The PDF is read on your machine; nothing is uploaded. Turn your internet off and convert anyway. That is the test.
Drop a PDF statement here
or click to choose one. One file in, one checked spreadsheet out.
Text-based e-statements from online banking, not scans or phone photos.
The statement does not leave this tab. The PDF is read here by pdf.js, Mozilla's PDF library, and the rows are parsed on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded, because there is nowhere to upload it to.
Everything this page loads, it loads from tickvouch.com: the stylesheet, the
converter, pdf.js, and the spreadsheet writer. Once loaded, a conversion makes no
network request at all. The page also sets a Content-Security-Policy of
default-src 'self', so the browser itself refuses a request to any other
host, whatever we might write on this page.
Check it rather than take it: turn your wi-fi off and convert anyway, or open the network panel in your browser and watch while you do. No account, no card, no sign-up.
What this page is doing
A FAIL never blocks the download. You get the file and the warning, not one held hostage to the other.
What a QIF file contains
A QIF file is plain text. Each line starts with a single letter that names the field, and a caret on its own line ends the record. The fields that appear in the 1997 Intuit text are: D for the date, T for the amount, C for the cleared status, N for the number or reference, P for the payee, M for the memo, A for the address, L for the category, S, E and $ for the parts of a split, and ^ to end the record. The type header for a bank account is !Type:Bank.
Tickvouch writes a subset of those. Fields we cannot source to that text are left out rather than guessed at.
The fields Tickvouch writes
| Line | What it holds | When it is written |
|---|---|---|
| !Type:Bank | The account type header for a bank account. | Once, at the top of the file. |
| D | The transaction date, month/day/year with a four-digit year. | Every transaction. |
| T | The amount. Money out is negative. No thousands commas. | Every transaction. |
| P | The payee, holding the bank's own narrative for the row. | When the row has a narrative. |
| M | The memo, holding Tickvouch's row flags. | Only when the row carries flags, so an uncertain row stays visible after the import. |
| ^ | End of record. | After every transaction. |
The date trap, and how to check for it
A QIF file carries no country or locale marker. Nothing inside the file says whether 06/01 means 6 January or 1 June. Serious QIF tools therefore ask you to choose the order as you import.
Tickvouch writes a four-digit year in month/day/year order, the order used in the surviving Intuit-authored examples. Your software may read it the other way.
So check the first row after importing. Open the imported transaction list, find the first transaction, and compare its date against the PDF statement. If the day and the month have swapped, undo the import and set the date order in your software before importing again. This takes ten seconds and it is the one check worth making every time.
We are pointing at this rather than around it, because it is the one error the reconciliation check cannot catch for you. A transaction dated 1 June instead of 6 January still carries the right amount, so the opening balance plus the transactions still equals the closing balance and the check still says PASS. The totals are right and the month is wrong. That is why the parser runs a separate date test and flags a row whose date runs backwards against the rest, and it is why this paragraph exists instead of a claim that the file is simply correct.
Which software reads QIF
- Xero accepts QIF, alongside CSV, OFX, QFX and QuickBooks files. Where your bank offers OFX or QFX, Xero recommends those over QIF. If you use Xero, the Xero CSV export is the one built for it. (Xero Central, read 14 August 2026.)
- Zoho Books lists QIF among the bank-statement formats it imports. (Zoho Books documentation, read 14 August 2026.)
- Sage Business Cloud Accounting accepts QIF. (Sage knowledgebase, read 14 August 2026.)
- GnuCash reads QIF, and publishes the working notes on the format that this page cites throughout. (GnuCash QIF import notes, read 14 August 2026.)
QIF began as Quicken's format, which is where its name comes from. We have not tested any current Quicken release and do not claim one here.
QuickBooks does not read QIF. QuickBooks Online's accepted list is QBO, QFX and CSV. QuickBooks Desktop's Web Connect accepts .qbo files only, and Intuit states that QIF files will not work with it. For QuickBooks, use the QuickBooks Online CSV export in the converter above instead. Our QuickBooks page carries the Intuit sources for both statements, and explains why no tool outside a bank should hand you a .qbo file.
If the QIF import fails
- Dates are in the wrong month. The file has no locale marker, so your software has read month/day/year as day/month/year. Set the date order at import and try again.
- Your software asks which date order the file uses. Answer month/day/year. That is what Tickvouch writes.
- QuickBooks refuses the file. That is expected. QuickBooks Online takes QBO, QFX and CSV, and Web Connect takes .qbo files only. Download the QuickBooks Online CSV from the converter above.
- Your tool wants a category or a cleared status. Tickvouch writes only D, T, P and M, because those are the fields we can source. Set categories inside your accounting software after the import.
- You are importing into Xero and it stalls. Xero recommends OFX or QFX over QIF where your bank offers them, and it accepts CSV. The Xero CSV export is written against Xero's own published rules.
What Tickvouch cannot do
Text-layer PDF e-statements only. These are the files you download from online banking.
There is no OCR. A scanned statement or a photograph of one has no machine-readable text, so the page declines it rather than guessing numbers from an image.
Amounts need two decimals to be read as amounts.
The reconciliation check runs before any export. If it says FAIL, the arithmetic is shown and the download stays available. Find the difference before you import the file into your ledger.
Questions
Is there an official QIF specification?
Not one published today. Intuit's page is offline, and Intuit sold Quicken to H.I.G. Capital, which confirmed the closed acquisition on 5 April 2016. The field lists in circulation descend from a 1997 Intuit document that survives only as third-party copies.
Why does the date order matter so much?
A QIF file carries no country marker. Nothing inside it says whether 06/01 is 6 January or 1 June. Tickvouch writes month/day/year with a four-digit year, and you check the first row after importing.
Can I import QIF into QuickBooks?
No. QuickBooks Online accepts QBO, QFX and CSV. QuickBooks Desktop's Web Connect accepts .qbo files only, and Intuit states QIF files will not work with it.
Why are there so few fields in the file?
Tickvouch writes D, T, P and M, plus the !Type:Bank header and the ^ terminator. Those are the fields we can source to the Intuit-copyright text. Fields attested only elsewhere are left out.
Is my statement uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs in your browser and the file never leaves your machine. Disconnect your internet and convert to prove it.