Import Excel Into QuickBooks Online: What Works and How

Quick Answer: Yes, you can import Excel into QuickBooks Online. Lists such as customers, vendors, products and the chart of accounts, and transactions such as invoices and journal entries, go through Settings > Import Data, which accepts .xlsx, .xls, CSV or Google Sheets. Bank transactions are different: they use the bank upload screen, which takes CSV but not .xlsx, so save the sheet as CSV first.

QuickBooks Online has two doors for spreadsheet data. The Import Data screen under Settings handles lists and many transaction types and reads Excel files directly. The bank upload screen handles statement lines and wants a CSV, TXT, QBO or OFX file. Knowing which door your data belongs to, and preparing the sheet for it, is most of the work.

What can QuickBooks Online import from Excel?

Intuit's common questions about importing data lists what the import tools take:

The same page says spreadsheets must have fewer than 1,000 rows, that the first row is used for column mapping rather than imported, and that CSV, Google Sheets and XLS/XLSX files are accepted. Larger lists have to be split into several files.

Can you upload Excel bank transactions into QuickBooks?

Yes, after one conversion. The bank upload screen (under All apps > Accounting > Bank transactions, then Link account > Upload from file) accepts .csv, .txt, .qbo and .ofx files of 350 KB or less with up to 1,000 lines, according to Intuit's manual upload article. An .xlsx workbook is not on that list.

To get an Excel sheet of bank lines in:

1. Reduce the sheet to the columns QuickBooks maps: a date, a description, and either one signed amount or separate credit and debit columns.
2. Delete everything else: title rows, balance columns, totals, notes and blank rows.
3. Save a copy as CSV (in Excel, Save As and choose the CSV file type).
4. Upload the CSV and map the columns.

The full screen-by-screen walkthrough is in how to import bank transactions into QuickBooks Online, and the Excel template for QuickBooks import shows the exact column layouts with sample rows.

Why the separate screen? Bank lines are not finished transactions. They arrive in a review list where you match them to invoices and bills already in QuickBooks, or categorize them, before they post. Import Data, by contrast, creates finished records immediately.

How do you import lists from Excel?

The Import Data screen works the same way for each list. For customers or vendors, Intuit's contact import article gives these steps:

1. Go to Settings ⚙ > Import Data and choose Customers or Vendors.
2. Select Browse to pick your Excel or CSV file, or Connect to use a Google Sheet.
3. Select Next and match each spreadsheet column to a QuickBooks field with the dropdowns.
4. Untick any rows you do not want, then select Import.

Spreadsheet rules from the same article: put column headers in the first row, keep the data on Sheet1, and avoid formulas, charts and blank rows. Names must be unique across customers, vendors and employees, and cannot contain colons or quotation marks. Importing the same file twice creates duplicates rather than updating the first set.

Products and services follow the same path (Settings ⚙ > Import Data > Products and Services). Intuit's products import article offers a sample file to download, highlights errors in red before you commit, caps names at 100 characters and warns that once a list is imported, the import cannot be undone.

How do you import invoices or journal entries from Excel?

Transaction imports need the related lists to exist first. An invoice import refers to customers and products by name; a journal entry import refers to accounts. If a name in your sheet does not match a name in QuickBooks exactly, that row will not map.

A sensible order:

1. Chart of accounts.
2. Customers and vendors.
3. Products and services.
4. Open invoices and bills.
5. Journal entries for opening balances or adjustments.

Intuit's import questions page gives the journal entry route from the create menu (+ New or + Create, then Journal entry, then Import). Each journal entry in the file needs balanced debits and credits, a shared entry number or date to group its lines, and account names that match your chart of accounts.

How should you prepare an Excel file for any QuickBooks import?

A checklist that prevents most failed imports:

• One header row, no merged cells, no blank rows between records.
• No formulas: paste values over any calculated column.
• Dates in one consistent format. The products import asks for MM/DD/YYYY; the bank upload page recommends a single consistent format and lets you choose it while mapping.
• Amounts as plain numbers, without currency symbols. Negative numbers with a minus sign, not parentheses.
• Names spelled exactly as they appear in QuickBooks, including capitals and punctuation.
• Fewer than 1,000 rows per file.
• A backup of the original sheet, because imports cannot be reversed in bulk.

What if the data starts as a PDF?

Many people searching for an Excel import actually start with a bank or card statement PDF and plan to retype it into a sheet. You can skip the retyping. Your bank's online banking may offer a CSV download for recent months, which goes straight to the bank upload screen. For older statements, a converter such as QuickBankConvert reads the PDF into rows and gives you a CSV or Excel file on a free account, or a QBO file that needs no column mapping on the Plus plan and above (pricing has the details). The broader routes are compared in importing bank statements into QuickBooks.

What does a failed mapping usually look like?

Most Import Data problems show up on the mapping screen rather than as an error message afterward. A few patterns are worth recognizing:

• A column has no QuickBooks field to map to. The field is not importable for that data type. Leave the column unmapped, or add the information by hand after the import.
• Every row is flagged. The header row is probably not in row 1, or the sheet you meant to import is not the first tab.
• Some rows are flagged in red. Look at what those rows have in common: a name with a colon, a missing required field, a date in a different format from the rest.
• Numbers import as zero or blank. The cells contain text that looks like numbers, often from a pasted PDF table. Convert them with Excel's VALUE function or by multiplying by 1, then paste values.

Testing with a five-row copy of the file before the full import catches nearly all of these in a couple of minutes.

Excel versus the alternatives

Third-party importers exist for cases Import Data does not cover, such as importing payments applied to invoices or very large files; the Transaction Pro importer comparison looks at one of them.

Related guides

• The QuickBooks Online bank upload screen
• Column layouts for a QuickBooks-ready sheet
• Statement files into QuickBooks, start to finish
• Convert a statement to Excel or CSV