Free QBO to IIF Converter for QuickBooks Desktop
Convert a supported QuickBooks Web Connect (.QBO) transaction file into IIF output for a defined QuickBooks Desktop import workflow. Upload the file, choose the supported IIF transaction model, review mapping, validate transactions, and download the generated IIF.
QBO on this page means the .QBO Web Connect file—not the QuickBooks Online product.
Choose your file
Drop your .QBO, CSV or Excel file here
Your file is never uploaded. We never receive it or store it.
Which QBO Do You Have?
The name is overloaded, so a QuickBooks QBO to IIF converter has to handle both files.
A Web Connect Bank Download
Downloaded from your bank's website, usually labelled "QuickBooks", "Web Connect" or "QuickBooks Desktop (.QBO)". Underneath it is an OFX file, the same standard behind .ofx and .qfx, which this tool also reads. You will be asked for the bank account name as it appears in QuickBooks, and a default category for money in and money out.
An Export From QuickBooks Online
A report run in QuickBooks Online (Transaction List by Date, Journal, Transaction Detail by Account) and exported to CSV or Excel. Usually part of moving from QuickBooks Online back to QuickBooks Desktop. You will be asked for the transaction type and a column mapping, which the tool guesses from your header row first.
If You Landed Here Because of Error OL-222
Most people here were refused by QuickBooks Desktop, usually with error OL-222, and the file is normally fine.
A Special Character in the File
An &, < or > in a payee name breaks the OFX structure. Recent QuickBooks builds parse far more strictly than older ones, so a file that imported last year can fail today. Open it in a text editor and look.
Your Bank Dropped Web Connect
Banks retire QuickBooks Direct Connect and Web Connect support regularly. The .qbo still downloads; QuickBooks just will not take it any more.
The File Was Made for a Different QuickBooks
A .qbo carries an intended product and version. If it does not match your installation, QuickBooks refuses it rather than explaining why.
Bank Feeds Are Switched Off for That Account
An account never set up for bank feeds has nowhere to receive the import.
The Period Is Older Than the Feed Reaches
Web Connect will not backfill arbitrarily far. Historical cleanup work usually cannot go through bank feeds at all.
OL-222 reads as "QuickBooks is unable to read the file" or "invalid response from the financial institution", and it is QuickBooks rejecting the packaging rather than the transactions inside it. Try the ordinary fixes first. Update QuickBooks, then re-import in Classic (Register) mode, then check the file for a stray & in a payee name. Those solve a good share of OL-222 cases and keep you on the supported path, where QuickBooks matches against existing transactions and will not duplicate them. Converting to IIF is the fallback for when they do not: an IIF import does not go through the bank-feed pipeline at all, so none of the five causes above can block it. The trade is real. You lose the duplicate matching that bank feeds give you, which is why the option to append the bank's transaction id to each memo exists.
What the Converter Has to Add
Converting a QBO file to IIF is not a rename. A .QBO is one account's statement, a single-entry list of what happened to the bank account. An IIF transaction is double-entry: it needs two sides, the bank account and the account that balances it. The converter writes both, so it has to be told what the second one is.
That second side is not in the file, because a bank statement does not know what you are going to call the expense. Every line arrives with one amount against one account, and the IIF row that answers it has to carry the opposite amount against an account the file never mentions.
The two rows sum to zero. A payment of 84.25 leaves the bank account negative and arrives on the balancing account positive, and a pair that does not net to nothing is not a transaction QuickBooks can import.
| From the .QBO | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| STMTTRN | Example Merchant | -84.25 | One side, from the bank |
| Into the .IIF | |||
| TRNS | Bank Account | -84.25 | From the file |
| SPL | Uncategorized Expense | 84.25 | You choose this |
| Balance | 0.00 | It has to sum to zero | |
The offset account is the only real decision in the conversion. You see the one it will use before the file is written, and you change it there rather than in QuickBooks afterwards.
Choosing the Offset Account
You see the account it will use before the file is written.
Money Out Defaults to Uncategorized Expense
A withdrawal is written as a Check, or a Charge on a credit card file, against the account you name. The balancing row posts to Uncategorized Expense unless you say otherwise, and its sign is flipped so the pair nets to zero.
Money In Defaults to Uncategorized Income
A deposit follows the same rule in the other direction. It is written as a Deposit, or a Refund on a card file, and the balancing row posts to Uncategorized Income until you change it.
Change Them Before You Generate
Both accounts are fields in the converter, and so is the switch that appends the bank's own transaction id to each memo. That switch is off unless you turn it on. Set all three before you generate the file rather than repairing the posting in QuickBooks afterwards.
Two Formats, Two Jobs
Both are Intuit's, and they are not alternatives to each other.
QBO
- SOURCE
- A Web Connect QBO file is what a bank or card provider sends when you download transactions.
- REVIEW
- QuickBooks Desktop reads it into Bank Feeds, where every line is reviewed and matched before it posts.
- NAMING
- The extension is not the QuickBooks Online product. They share three letters and nothing else.
IIF
- FORMAT
- Intuit Interchange Format: tab-separated text QuickBooks Desktop imports for supported lists and transactions.
- LISTS
- The format also carries lists such as accounts and vendors, which a bank download never does.
- IMPORT
- QuickBooks Desktop takes it through the IIF import utility rather than through Bank Feeds.
How to Convert QBO to IIF
Four steps from a bank download to an import file, and nothing leaves your computer.
Drop Your .QBO File
A .qbo, .qfx or .ofx download from your bank or card provider. It is read in your browser, so nothing is uploaded and there is no sign-up.
.qbo · .qfx · .ofx
Say Where It Posts
The bank or credit card account name, spelled the way your chart of accounts spells it, and whether the rows record as bank or card transactions.
match your chart of accounts
Check the Transactions
Payee names come from the file's name or memo field, whichever you pick. Any row without a readable date or amount is named and skipped rather than guessed at.
skipped rows are named
Review and Download
The transaction count, the issues and a preview of the file are all shown before the download, not after. Back up the company file before you import it.
issues shown before download
Stop Treating a Recurring Accounting Process Like a One-Off Conversion
The two routines above are the work. The table is when the longer one starts costing.
The Routine You Run Now
- Download the transaction file
- Choose the mappings
- Convert
- Import the IIF
- Review the errors
- Reconcile
- Repeat next period
A Managed Workflow
- Authorised source
- Controlled mapping and validation
- Approved QuickBooks Desktop workflow
- Monitoring and exception handling
| Need | Free converter | Autymate |
|---|---|---|
| Bank transactions to IIF, one file | Exactly what this page is for | Nothing to build yet |
| The same bank file every period | All seven steps, every period | The seven become one approved run |
| Offset accounts that never change | Chosen again on every conversion | Kept as an approved rule |
| Several QuickBooks company files | One conversion each | Routed per company where supported |
| Rows QuickBooks would not accept | Found afterwards, in the importer's report | Caught before the import runs |
An IIF Import Posts
An IIF import QuickBooks Desktop accepts posts straight into the books, with no review queue.
It Posts, It Does Not Queue
A Web Connect file lands in Bank Feeds and waits for you to accept or match each line. An IIF file does not wait. Once the import finishes, the transactions are in the company file, and changing them afterwards is ordinary bookkeeping.
Back Up the Company File First
Intuit recommends backing up the QuickBooks Desktop company file before an IIF import, and this is why that matters. A restored backup is the only reliable way back from an import that posted something you did not intend.
The Importer Names What Failed
QuickBooks Desktop 2019 and later scan the file and report the items that did not go in, rather than failing silently. Read that report before deciding the import worked, because a file that mostly imported still leaves the difference somewhere.
Some Rows May Not Be Accepted
QuickBooks version, company-file setup, account names that do not exist yet and required fields all affect what an import takes. A row that names an account the company file has never heard of is the common one.
Repeating QBO-to-IIF Work Across Locations or Company Files?
The converter is built for one file. These are the parts that repeat once the same download arrives for every account, every card and every company file.
- A separate .QBO for every account and every card
- The same account choices, made again for every file
- Separate company files, each with its own chart of accounts
- Files that arrive late or not at all, with nobody named to chase them
- New locations, onboarded with the mapping written down rather than remembered
- Historical catch-up, with date boundaries and duplicate prevention
Common Questions
What people ask before they trust a converter with their accounting system.
It means the .QBO Web Connect file format, the download a bank or card provider gives you for QuickBooks Desktop. It is not the QuickBooks Online product, which shares the three letters and nothing else.
Yes. QuickBooks Desktop reads Web Connect .QBO files into Bank Feeds. If getting the transactions into the company file is the whole job, converting to IIF is unnecessary.
IIF is Intuit Interchange Format, a tab-separated text format QuickBooks Desktop uses to import and export supported lists and transactions.
When a downstream workflow, a migration or a defined import process takes IIF and nothing else. A QuickBooks Desktop bank file converter like this one turns a bank download into transactions with both accounts named, which is what an IIF import needs and a Web Connect file does not carry.
No. Web Connect and IIF are different QuickBooks Desktop workflows. The converter carries the fields it maps, which are the date, amount, payee, memo and the two accounts. Bank Feeds matching and the institution metadata behind it do not travel with the file.
Not necessarily. A transaction with no readable date or amount is skipped and reported rather than guessed at, and the result also depends on the file's contents, the accounts you name and the transaction types the converter writes.
Yes. Intuit recommends backing up the company file before an IIF import. An IIF import posts without a review step, so a backup is the way back if something posts that you did not intend.
Where the file arrives from the same source every period, Autymate can scope a managed QuickBooks Desktop workflow when authorized source access and the required destination behavior are available.
No. Autymate is an independent company and an Intuit-authorized Gold partner. This free converter is ours rather than an Intuit product, and QuickBooks, Web Connect and IIF are Intuit trademarks. Autymate connects QuickBooks with more than 300 other systems, so QuickBooks is one destination we support rather than the only one.
Written and maintained by The Autymate integrations team. We build and run accounting integrations for multi-location franchises, ISVs and bookkeeping firms: QuickBooks Desktop and Online, POS, payroll and ERP. These converters exist because we kept writing the same ones for customers, and there was no reason to keep them to ourselves.
Last reviewed
Stop Choosing the Same Accounts Every Period
The converter is the right tool when you need to solve one file. If the same .QBO arrives every period and takes the same accounts every time, tell us where it starts, which QuickBooks Desktop company file receives it, and how many accounts are involved.
Exact source access, fields, permissions, QuickBooks behaviour and service scope are confirmed during discovery.