Importing bank transactions into QuickBooks Desktop: IIF or QBO

QuickBooks Desktop has no PDF import. As one user in Intuit’s community put it: “There is no import of .pdf files, your options are .iif and .qbo” (QuickBooks Community). Both formats work. They behave differently, and the difference matters when you’re importing a year of history for a client.

QBO: the Web Connect file

A .qbo file is the same kind of file a bank gives you when you choose “download for QuickBooks” in online banking. It is based on OFX, a standard for bank data.

In Desktop you open the company file and import the .qbo through Web Connect; the exact menu differs between versions and bank-feed modes. Intuit notes that .qbo is “the only type Web Connect can read” (Intuit). QuickBooks asks which account the file belongs to, then shows the transactions in the bank feed screen, where you match them to existing entries or add them.

Good for: most catch-up work. You get the review screen, the matching, and your bank rules.

Watch for:

• Intuit’s help says you need to be signed in to your Intuit account inside Desktop to import Web Connect files, and to be on a supported version.
• QuickBooks links the file to an account the first time. If the account picker shows nothing sensible, cancel and check which account you meant before creating a new one.

IIF: straight into the register

An .iif file is a tab-separated text file in Intuit’s own interchange format. Each transaction is a TRNS line for the bank side and one or more SPL lines for the other side, closed with an ENDTRNS line. You import it through File, then Utilities, then Import, then IIF Files.

IIF writes transactions straight into the company file. There is no bank-feed review screen and no matching.

Good for: bringing in coded transactions when you already know the accounts, or when Web Connect won’t co-operate with an older file.

Watch for:

• Back up the company file first. An IIF import can’t be undone with one click. If something goes in wrong, restoring the backup is the clean fix.
• Dates follow the computer’s date setting. An IIF written with MM/DD/YYYY dates, imported on a computer set to DD/MM/YYYY, can put 03/04 in April instead of March. Check the setting on the computer that runs QuickBooks and write the file to match.
• Create the accounts first, and match the names exactly. Users report two behaviours for an account name that doesn’t exist: some imports stop with an error, others quietly create the account (QuickBooks Community). An account created that way has no type you chose. Set up the accounts, with the right types, before the first import, and check the chart of accounts after it.

Which to choose

	QBO (Web Connect)	IIF
Review screen before it posts	Yes	No
Matches to existing entries	Yes	No
Carries the offsetting account	No; you code in the feed	Yes, on the SPL lines
Sensitive to date settings	No; OFX writes dates year first	Yes
Undo	Delete from the feed before adding	Restore a backup

For a straight catch-up of bank history, QBO is the safer default. For coded journal-style imports where you have already done the coding, IIF saves a step.

Whatever the format: check the statement first

Both formats import exactly what is in the file. If the file is one withdrawal short, QuickBooks will import it one withdrawal short, and you’ll find out at the reconcile screen.

Before you build either file from a PDF statement, check the rows against what the statement prints:

1. Opening balance + deposits − withdrawals = the printed closing balance.
2. The number of deposits and withdrawals equals the printed counts, where the bank prints them.
3. Your running balance agrees with the printed balance on each row.

How the running balance finds a missing transaction shows how to find the row when step 1 fails.

Where DocsToBooks fits

DocsToBooks reads the PDF statement, runs those checks, and writes the IIF or QBO file from the rows it read. A statement that doesn’t reconcile stays locked for QBO and IIF until you confirm you’ve seen the difference. QuickBooks Desktop with DocsToBooks.