QIF to CSV Converter
Turn a Quicken .qif file into a table you can open in Excel, Sheets or Numbers. The file is read in this tab, and it is not sent anywhere.
Your file stays on this device.
How to convert QIF to CSV
Three steps, and the middle one is the one worth slowing down for.
- 1Choose your .qif file. It is read here in the browser, and nothing is sent to a server.
- 2Press Convert. Once the file has been read you get a count of the transactions it found, which is the first sign that the export was the one you meant to make.
- 3Download the CSV and open it in any spreadsheet program. The columns it will hold are listed further down this page.
A QIF to CSV conversion reports what the file holds and nothing more, so a low count is usually the export's doing rather than the conversion's. A QIF file holds only the records it was exported with, and a date range picked at export time is the usual culprit.
Two formats, one flat table
A QIF file is a record format: transactions are blocks of coded lines, and one file can carry several accounts in sections. A CSV file is a single table with one row per transaction. This conversion is the step between them, and the only thing it decides is how a record becomes a row.
The rule the file follows is the CSV specification's: fields containing a comma, a quote or a line break are enclosed in double quotes, and a double quote inside one is escaped by doubling it. See RFC 4180, section 2.
What each column holds
A QIF record carries more than a spreadsheet column can show. These are the columns a QIF to CSV conversion produces, in this order.
| Column | Where it comes from |
|---|---|
| Date | The record's date, written as YYYY-MM-DD when the file's format can be read. A date in a shape the reader does not recognise stays in the cell as the text the file held, so nothing is invented. |
| Amount | The amount as a number, with the sign the file gave it. A whole-dollar amount loses its decimals: 99.00 arrives as 99. |
| Name | The payee line, or the description a bank used for a deposit. It is written as the file spelled it. |
| Memo | The note attached to the record, if one was written. It is carried over word for word. |
| Category | The category line, including a subcategory when the file uses one. A class written after a slash comes through as part of the same value. |
| Transaction ID | The number field, which holds a check number or a reference the exporting program chose. |
| Account | The account the record belongs to. This column appears only when the file names its accounts; an export from a single register usually does not, and then the column is left out rather than filled with blanks. |
What the table leaves behind
A flat table has no column for a few things a QIF file can hold, and a QIF to CSV conversion does not carry them. The opposite trip, turning a table back into Quicken, is a different page with its own column matching to do.
All four are properties of the format rather than choices made here: the cleared marks, the split lines, the account types and the investing sections are each part of the QIF format reference, which is also where the field codes on this page come from.
Opening the CSV in a spreadsheet
The file is written to survive the trip into Excel, Sheets or Numbers. These are the parts that matter once it is open. The same values can also come out as an Excel workbook if you want formats and filters rather than plain text.
- 1A comma in a payee does not break the rowThe quoting rule above is doing its work here. A payee recorded as Smith, John and Co. stays in one cell instead of pushing the amount into the next column.
- 2Accented names arrive intactThe file opens with a byte-order mark and is written as UTF-8. Double-clicking it into Excel gives you the names as they were, not a row of question marks.
- 3Excel may re-type the date columnThe dates are text in the file. Excel can decide for itself to show 2026-09-28 as a date, which is usually what you want and occasionally is not. Open the file through Data, then From Text/CSV, when you need to control it.
- 4The amount column is numericSums and pivot tables work on it immediately. If 99 looks odd sitting next to 12.34, that is what currency formatting is for.
Who converts a QIF file to CSV
A QIF to CSV conversion is usually the last step of leaving an old program, or the first step of trusting a new one.
- You have stopped using Quicken and want the history in a file that outlives the subscription, so that whichever program you try next can read it.
- An accountant or a bookkeeper asked for the transactions in something they can open without installing anything, which means a table rather than another finance file.
- The records came out of Microsoft Money or GnuCash, and the program you are moving to reads CSV and has no idea what a QIF is.
About QIF, and where the conversion runs
QIF is an old format, and Quicken's own help says so: it describes QIF as a legacy format and notes that it is being replaced over time by QXF. It is still documented and still exported, which is reason enough for a page like this one to exist. The conversion runs in the tab you are reading: the file is parsed here, the CSV is built here, and nothing is uploaded, so no copy of your statements sits on a server and there is no account to make before a QIF to CSV conversion will run. If the file you have from your bank is a .qfx rather than a .qif, the OFX to CSV page reads that one.
Quicken's Windows help describes the format and what replaces it: exporting financial data to a QIF file.
QIF to CSV questions
QIF is a record format: each transaction is a block of coded lines, and one file can hold several accounts in sections. CSV is a single flat table with one row per transaction. Converting between them flattens the structure, which is why the account column in a QIF to CSV conversion appears on some files and not others.
Four things do not come across: the cleared mark, split lines, the account type and any investing records. The date, amount, payee, memo, category and check number do, because a QIF file has a field for each of them.
Quicken's own help still documents it and still describes exporting to it, while calling QIF a legacy format that is being replaced over time by QXF. If you have a .qif file in front of you, that is what it is.
The account column is written only when the file names its accounts. A file exported from a single register does not name one, so that conversion has six columns and this one has seven.
The date is text, written as YYYY-MM-DD when it can be read. The amount is a number, so totals work without cleaning anything up first.
Yes, as long as it uses the standard field codes that a QIF to CSV conversion reads. A code the reader does not recognise is ignored rather than treated as an error, and a record with neither a date nor an amount is skipped, since that is a section header rather than a transaction.
No. The conversion runs in this tab, and that is the only place it happens.