Convert an Excel File to IIF for QuickBooks Desktop

Quick Answer: An IIF file is a tab-delimited text file that QuickBooks Desktop imports through File > Utilities > Import > Import IIF. To make one from Excel, lay your rows out under IIF header lines (!TRNS, !SPL, !ENDTRNS), save as tab-delimited text, rename it to .iif, back up your company file and import. For plain bank transactions, a .QBO (Web Connect) file is usually the safer choice because it goes through the Bank Feeds review screen instead of writing straight into your books.

Converting an Excel file to IIF means rearranging spreadsheet rows into the Intuit Interchange Format layout, then saving the sheet as tab-delimited text with an .iif extension. QuickBooks Desktop reads that file and creates the lists or transactions it describes. It works, but IIF writes directly to the company file, so a mistake in the sheet becomes a mistake in your books.

What is an IIF file, exactly?

IIF (Intuit Interchange Format) is an old, plain-text format that QuickBooks Desktop uses to import lists such as the chart of accounts, customers, vendors, items and classes, and transactions such as checks, deposits, invoices, bills and journal entries. Each line is a record; columns are separated by tabs; lines that start with an exclamation mark are headers telling QuickBooks what the following lines contain.

Three things set it apart from other import routes:

• It is Desktop only. QuickBooks Online has no IIF import. If you are on Online, skip this format entirely and use a CSV, Excel or .QBO file.
• It skips the review screen. Bank Feeds and Web Connect show you each downloaded line before it is recorded. An IIF import creates the transactions immediately.
• Intuit does not offer assisted support for building IIF files. Its help article on the improved importer says so directly, so you are on your own when a file misbehaves.

How is an IIF transaction laid out?

A transaction is a block of lines: one TRNS line for the bank side, one or more SPL (split) lines for the other side, and an ENDTRNS line to close it. Before the first block you declare the column order with matching header lines.

Here is a single check, shown with spaces for readability (the real file uses one tab between every field):

!TRNS  TRNSTYPE  DATE        ACCNT     NAME         AMOUNT   DOCNUM  MEMO
!SPL   TRNSTYPE  DATE        ACCNT     NAME         AMOUNT   DOCNUM  MEMO
!ENDTRNS
TRNS   CHECK     07/01/2026  Checking  Office Depot  -84.50  1043    Printer paper
SPL    CHECK     07/01/2026  Office Supplies  Office Depot  84.50  1043  Printer paper
ENDTRNS

The rules that trip people up:

• The TRNS and SPL amounts must sum to zero. Money leaving the bank is negative on the TRNS line and positive on the expense split.
• Account and name values must match QuickBooks exactly, including spelling and sub-account paths written with a colon (for example "Utilities:Electric"). A name or account QuickBooks does not recognise can end up created as a new list entry instead of being rejected, which is how IIF files clutter a chart of accounts.
• TRNSTYPE decides what kind of record you get. CHECK, DEPOSIT, GENERAL JOURNAL and others each behave differently.
• Dates follow the company file's date format, normally MM/DD/YYYY for US files.

How do you convert an Excel sheet into an IIF file?

The method below assumes a simple list of bank payments with date, payee, amount, check number, expense account and memo.

1. Export a sample from QuickBooks first. Go to File > Utilities > Export and export a list (vendors or the chart of accounts). Opening it in Excel shows you real header lines and exact account names to copy.
2. Build the header rows. In a new sheet, put the !TRNS, !SPL and !ENDTRNS header lines in rows 1 to 3, one field per cell.
3. Lay out each transaction as three rows. A TRNS row (bank account, negative amount), an SPL row (expense account, positive amount), and an ENDTRNS row. A formula sheet can generate these from your source list: each source row becomes three output rows.
4. Format tricky columns as text. Intuit warns that Excel strips leading zeros; format those cells as Custom or Text before typing values such as check numbers "000123" or account numbers.
5. Save as tab-delimited text. Use File > Save As and choose "Text (Tab delimited) (*.txt)". When Excel asks about keeping the format, keep it, and when closing, decline the prompt to save again in Excel format.
6. Rename the extension from .txt to .iif.
7. Back up the company file. Intuit's IIF help article puts this first for a reason: the backup is your only undo.
8. Import. Go to File > Utilities > Import > Import IIF, select the file and confirm.

To edit an existing IIF file, Intuit's route is File > Open in Excel, choose "All Files" in the file type list, then click through the Text Import Wizard.

What does the improved IIF import catch?

QuickBooks Desktop 2019 and later scan the file before importing. Intuit says the improved tool reports how many records imported and how many failed, and writes a new .iif file of the failed lines with the errors marked so you can fix and retry. Choose the review option. Intuit explicitly advises against "Import it for me. I'll fix it later", because it bypasses the data review.

The scan checks file structure, not your intentions. It will not notice that you coded rent to Office Supplies, that a payee name is a near-duplicate of an existing vendor, or that you already entered the same check by hand last month. Intuit also notes that IIF imports do not link transactions, so a payment imported this way is not applied to the invoice it pays.

When is a .QBO file the better choice?

If the rows came from a bank or credit card statement, IIF is usually the wrong tool.

QuickBankConvert writes .QBO from a statement PDF rather than IIF, and that is deliberate: bank activity belongs in the review flow, where you can see matches and catch duplicates before they reach the register. If you keep a spreadsheet of bank activity rather than a PDF, the CSV bank import for QuickBooks Desktop guide covers turning it into something Bank Feeds accepts.

Keep IIF for what it is good at: moving lists between company files, loading journal entries, or bulk-creating non-bank transactions where you are confident in every account name.

Can you convert QIF to IIF, or IIF to QIF?

QIF is Quicken's format; IIF is QuickBooks Desktop's. Current QuickBooks Desktop versions do not import QIF, which is why people search for a QIF-to-IIF conversion. There is no built-in converter in either product; you either use a third-party conversion utility or rebuild the data yourself.

For bank and card history, rebuilding as IIF is the long way round. Convert the QIF into a bank file instead and import that through Bank Feeds. QIF to QBO explains that route.

Going the other way, IIF to QIF, is unusual: it means moving data out of QuickBooks into Quicken or another QIF reader. Since an IIF transaction is just tab-separated fields, you can open it in Excel, keep the TRNS lines (date, payee, amount, memo), and re-save those as CSV for the destination program. Most current personal finance apps import CSV more reliably than hand-built QIF.

A checklist before you import any IIF file

• Backup made and you know where it is.
• Account, vendor and customer names copied from a QuickBooks export, not typed from memory.
• Every TRNS/SPL block sums to zero.
• Dates in the company file's format; no stray time stamps from Excel.
• Leading zeros intact.
• Saved as tab-delimited text, extension changed to .iif, never re-saved as .xlsx.
• A test import of two or three transactions in a copy of the company file before the full run.

Related guides

• Excel template for QuickBooks import for spreadsheet layouts QuickBooks accepts.
• Import bank transactions into QuickBooks Desktop for the Bank Feeds route.
• PDF to QBO for turning statement PDFs into Web Connect files.