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What is an OFX file, and how do you open it?

· 4 min read

OFX stands for Open Financial Exchange. It's a standard format for financial data, and it's what most banks use when you download your transactions "for accounting software". If your bank's download page offers OFX, QFX or QBO, those are all versions of it.

What an OFX file contains

An OFX file holds one or more account statements. Each one has the account number and type, the currency, the period the download covers, usually a closing balance, and a list of transactions. Every transaction has:

  • a type, such as DEBIT, CREDIT, POS or CHECK
  • the date it was posted
  • the amount, negative for money out
  • a description, in the NAME and MEMO fields
  • an ID, called the FITID, which software uses to recognise a transaction it has already imported

Because every value is labelled, software can import an OFX file without asking you which column is which. That's why Xero recommends OFX over CSV for manual imports.

Two versions

OFX 1 files start with a header such as OFXHEADER:100 and use an older markup style where most fields aren't closed. OFX 2 files are XML, starting with <?xml. Both carry the same information, and most software reads both.

OFX, QFX and QBO

QFX and QBO are OFX files with some of Intuit's own fields added. QFX is for Quicken and QBO for QuickBooks; the most important addition is INTU.BID, which identifies the bank. There's more on that in what is a QBO file?

What opens OFX files

  • Xero imports them as bank statements, and recommends them.
  • QuickBooks Online accepts .OFX in Upload from file. QuickBooks Desktop's Web Connect wants .QBO instead.
  • GnuCash and many other personal finance apps import OFX.
  • Excel and Google Sheets don't understand the format, so convert it to CSV first.

How to look inside one

An OFX file is plain text, so any text editor will open it, but a long one is hard to read that way. The free OFX and QFX viewer lays it out as a table, with the account, period and totals at the top. It flags anything likely to break an import, and converts the transactions to CSV, or to the CSV layouts QuickBooks Online and Xero use. It runs in your browser, so the file isn't uploaded. For step-by-step help, see how to convert an OFX or QFX file to CSV or Excel.

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