Quicken 2002, XG, 2004

What are Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) files?

Background: A QIF (Quicken Interchange Format) file is a specially formatted ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) text file used to transfer data between different Quicken data files, and in some cases from and to other financial programs. The Export function in the Quicken program automatically creates a QIF file that can be imported into other Quicken data files. Following are tips to remember when working with QIF files:

Solution: The QIF file must have a name between three and eight characters long followed by the .qif extension (for example, Business.qif), for Quicken to recognize it.

A QIF file can be edited in any text-editing program, for instance, Microsoft® Notepad.

QIF files may need to be edited when moving files from a Quicken for Windows program to a Quicken for Macintosh program.

Note: Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) is a non-proprietary data format. Although QIF was originally developed by Intuit, and certain Intuit products (including this product) still contain the ability to import and/or export files in QIF format, Intuit does not endorse or provide support for this format. For this reason, Intuit does not know the identities of all institutions and processors that support QIF.

General structure of Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) files

Each transaction must end with a ^ symbol.

Each item in the transaction must appear on a separate line.

When Quicken exports an account register, it adds one of the following lines at the beginning of the file to identify the type of account:

!Type:Bank

!Type:Invst

!Type:Cash

!Type:Oth A

!Type:CCard

!Type:Oth L

In addition to the above lines, Quicken Home and Business also uses the following lines:

!Type:Invoice

!Type:Tax

!Type:Bill

The following example of Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) shows two transactions exported from a Quicken bank account: