What is inside a QFX file
A QFX file is plain text in the OFX format (Open Financial Exchange). It starts with header lines such as
OFXHEADER:100 and VERSION:102, then holds:
- a sign-on section with the bank’s details and Intuit’s bank ID tag (
INTU.BID), - the account (routing number, account number and type, or a card number),
- every transaction, each with a type, posting date, amount, unique ID (
FITID), name and optional memo, - the ledger balance and its date.
The bank ID is what makes it a QFX file rather than a plain OFX file: Quicken uses it to check which bank the file came from, and the unique transaction IDs let Quicken skip transactions it has already imported.
Where QFX files come from
You download them from your bank’s website, usually through a “Download to Quicken” link or a Quicken logo in the download or history area. Quicken describes Web Connect as available to customers of banks that partner with Quicken. Banks decide whether to offer QFX downloads; if yours only offers CSV, the CSV to QFX converter can make a QFX file from it.
How to open or convert a QFX file
- Drop the QFX file into the viewer above.
- Check the transactions. The File contents panel shows the file’s own text.
- Choose CSV or Excel (or QBO, QIF or OFX) and download.
QFX and QBO files
QFX and QBO files have the same structure inside; the difference is the program and the bank ID. Intuit keeps
separate bank lists for Quicken and for QuickBooks, and a bank can have a different ID in each: Chase, for
example, is 10898 in Quicken’s list and 02430 in QuickBooks’. So a QBO file renamed to .qfx may not import in
Quicken. Convert it instead, and pick the bank from the Quicken list.
Importing a QFX file in Quicken
- Quicken for Windows: File › File Import › Web Connect (.QFX) File, then link it to an account.
- Quicken for Mac: File › Import › Bank or Brokerage File (OFX, QFX), then choose the account.
Quicken says Web Connect files are checked online and need an active Quicken subscription. It imports every transaction in the file and uses each transaction’s ID to skip the ones it already has, so importing the same file twice doesn’t create duplicates.
When Quicken refuses a QFX file
- “Quicken is currently unable to verify financial institution information for download”: Quicken couldn’t match the bank in the file. Quicken lists a wrong date on your computer, a bank that doesn’t support your Quicken release, missing or wrong bank information, and an account type the bank doesn’t support.
- CC-885: Quicken says the bank no longer offers Web Connect.
- OL-220 to OL-226 on a QFX import: Quicken points to a problem in the file itself.
Quicken also says it does not support QFX files made by conversion software. If Quicken refuses a converted file, its own CSV import (Quicken for Windows) is the supported route; the CSV to QFX converter can write that layout too.