OFX vs QFX vs QBO vs CSV: which bank file format should you use?

The short answer

The OFX vs QFX question comes down to who issues the file and which program reads it. OFX, QFX and QBO all carry the same kind of data: a list of bank or credit card transactions with dates, signed amounts, descriptions and unique IDs, plus account and balance details. QFX and QBO are vendor variants used by Intuit’s Web Connect for Quicken and QuickBooks. CSV is a different thing entirely: a generic table that each importer interprets in its own way.

• QuickBooks Online: Upload from file accepts .ofx, .qbo, .csv and .txt, and QuickBooks Online can also read a PDF or image statement.
• Xero: imports OFX, QFX, QBO, QIF and CSV, and recommends OFX where possible.
• QuickBooks Desktop: imports bank transactions through Web Connect, which reads .qbo files.
• Quicken: imports QFX files from banks that support Quicken Web Connect.
• Excel, Google Sheets or your own scripts: use CSV or XLSX for spreadsheets, and JSON for code.

What is an OFX file?

An OFX file is a bank statement file in the Open Financial Exchange format. Intuit’s OFX support page describes OFX as a unified specification for exchanging financial data, created jointly by Intuit, Microsoft and CheckFree in early 1997. The specification is now managed by the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) consortium through its OFX Work Group.

OFX is not a document format like PDF. It is plain text: versions 1.x use SGML, a tag-based markup, and later versions use XML. A statement in an OFX file contains the account, the currency, the statement period and closing balance, and one transaction block per entry, labeled STMTTRN. Inside each block, DTPOSTED is the posted date, TRNAMT the signed amount, NAME and MEMO the description, and FITID a unique transaction ID that importers can use to spot duplicates.

To open an OFX file, use the program you intend to import it into, or any text editor if you just want to look inside. Because it is a data file rather than a page layout, there is no faithful way to convert an OFX into a PDF statement; keep the original PDF as the bank’s record and use the OFX for import.

What is a QFX file?

QFX stands for Quicken File eXchange. Quicken’s help describes it as the format many bank websites use to send transactions and balances to Quicken, and calls this route Web Connect. It is a proprietary variant of OFX. You download a QFX from your bank’s website, then import it in Quicken through the File Import menu or the account’s import option.

Quicken’s troubleshooting notes that the bank must support a Quicken Web Connect download; if the institution no longer supports Web Connect, the file cannot be authorized when importing. That is why a QFX file is something you get from your bank, not something a converter can reliably create. A text editor can display a QFX, but for spreadsheet work, start from a CSV or XLSX export instead.

What is a QBO file?

A QBO file is QuickBooks’ Web Connect file: an OFX-style transaction file with a .qbo extension, downloaded from a bank that supports QuickBooks. Do not confuse it with QBO as shorthand for QuickBooks Online, the product.

QuickBooks Desktop depends on it. Intuit’s Web Connect troubleshooting article says the file you download from your bank must be a .qbo file, the only type Web Connect can read, and lists errors such as QuickBooks being unable to verify the financial institution information for a download. QuickBooks Online is more flexible: it accepts .qbo but also .ofx and .csv, and Intuit suggests a QBO file when your bank provides one. The guide to PDF to QBO converters explains what this means if your starting point is a PDF.

What about CSV?

CSV is a plain table of comma-separated values. It is the most flexible format and the easiest to edit in a spreadsheet, but it has no standard columns, so every importer needs to be told what each column means. QuickBooks Online expects three columns (Date, Description, Amount) or four (Date, Description, Credit, Debit). Xero asks you to assign columns and choose a date format on the first import, and wants income and expenses in one Amount column.

Choose CSV when you need to edit or analyze the data before it goes anywhere, or when the destination only takes tables. Choose OFX when the destination supports it, because labeled fields and signed amounts leave fewer chances to swap a debit for a credit or misread a date.

Why Fulla Ledger exports OFX, not QFX or QBO

Fulla Ledger converts bank statement PDFs into rows you review beside the source page, then exports the approved revision as CSV, XLSX, JSON or OFX. The OFX file uses version 1.0.2 SGML, the widely imported version, with one account per file, signed amounts, CREDIT or DEBIT types, statement balances and a stable FITID for every row.

Fulla does not create QFX or QBO Web Connect files. Those formats are tied to a bank that has set up Web Connect, and their importers check the institution behind the file. So Fulla’s OFX is for QuickBooks Online, Xero and other standard OFX importers, not for QuickBooks Desktop or Quicken. If you use one of those, ask your bank for a Web Connect download for the period you need. The OFX export page lists every field in the file.

Inspect OFX fields instead of renaming a file

The downloadable example is OFX 1.0.2 generated from fictional approved rows. Inspect CURDEF for currency, DTSTART and DTEND for the statement period, TRNAMT for the signed amount, FITID for the transaction identifier, and LEDGERBAL for the closing balance. The same corrected rows are also available as CSV, XLSX and JSON.

A file extension is not a format conversion. Renaming .ofx to .qbo or .qfx does not add the application-specific information a receiving product may require. Fulla exports OFX, CSV, XLSX and JSON; it does not produce native QBO, QFX or IIF files.