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How to convert an OFX or QFX file to CSV or Excel

· 4 min read

Banks offer OFX and QFX downloads for accounting software, but sometimes you just want the transactions in a spreadsheet: to check them, total them, send them to someone, or import them into something that only takes CSV. Excel doesn't understand OFX's structure, so opening the file directly gives you a page of tags instead of a table.

Here's how to get a clean table out of it, and what to check once you have.

What's inside an OFX or QFX file

An OFX file is text. Each transaction is a block with a type, a date, an amount, an ID and a description, along these lines:

<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>DEBIT
<DTPOSTED>20260105
<TRNAMT>-45.20
<FITID>20260105-001
<NAME>GROCERY STORE
</STMTTRN>

A QFX file (for Quicken) and a QBO file (for QuickBooks) are the same thing with a few of Intuit's own fields added, so they convert the same way. Converting means turning each of those blocks into one row.

Convert it in your browser

  1. Open the free OFX and QFX viewer and drop in your .OFX, .QFX or .QBO file. It's read in your browser and isn't uploaded.
  2. Check what it found: the account, the statement period, money in and out, and every transaction. If anything in the file looks broken, such as missing dates or amounts, it says so and tells you how many rows are affected.
  3. Click CSV. You get one row per transaction with the date, description, amount, type, memo, check number and transaction ID.
  4. Open the CSV in Excel or Google Sheets.

If the spreadsheet is on its way into QuickBooks Online or Xero, use the QuickBooks CSV or Xero CSV button instead. They write the exact columns each one imports.

Check the result before you use it

  • Signs. OFX amounts are signed: money out is negative. In a credit card file, purchases are negative and payments positive. That's correct, but it's the opposite of how the card statement prints them.
  • Dates. The plain CSV writes dates as YYYY-MM-DD, which Excel recognises as dates whatever your regional settings. If you need another format, change it in Excel with Format Cells.
  • Totals. Compare the money in and money out the viewer shows with your bank's figures for the same period. If they match, nothing was lost on the way.

When the file won't open at all

If the viewer reports the file has no OFX section, it isn't really an OFX file. Some banks label a CSV or a web page as a download, so check the download page for a different option. If it says sections were never closed, the download was cut off; download it again for a shorter period. There's more on fixing broken files in bank file won't import into QuickBooks.

And if your bank only gives you PDF statements, the statement converter turns those into CSV or Excel directly, checked against each statement's closing balance.

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