Import QuickBooks Into Quicken: What Works and What Doesn't

Quick Answer: You cannot import a QuickBooks company file into Quicken; Quicken's own support pages say it cannot import QuickBooks files. To move the history, export transactions from QuickBooks to a spreadsheet and rearrange them into Quicken's CSV layout, or rebuild each bank and card account in Quicken from QFX files made from your bank statements. Invoices, payroll, inventory and the rest of the business records stay behind.

QuickBooks and Quicken share a history but not a file format, so there is no direct way to import QuickBooks into Quicken. What you can move is transactions, one account at a time, through formats Quicken does accept: CSV in Quicken's required column order, QIF for a few account types, and QFX Web Connect files for bank and credit card accounts.

Why can't Quicken open a QuickBooks file?

QuickBooks is double-entry accounting software built around a chart of accounts, customers, vendors, invoices and bills. Quicken is personal and small-business money management built around accounts and categories. The data models don't line up, and none of Quicken's import options reads a QuickBooks file. Its Windows support article on importing data into Quicken says plainly that "Quicken cannot import Excel (.xls), QuickBooks, PDF, or OFX files." The Mac article repeats the same list.

So the practical question is not "how do I import the file" but "which parts of the history do I need in Quicken, and which format gets each one there?"

Who usually makes this move?

The people asking are rarely switching on a whim. Typical cases are a sole proprietor who closed the business and wants the final years alongside personal finances, a household that used QuickBooks for personal money because it came free with a job, and a freelancer whose bookkeeping needs shrank to a few accounts and a Schedule C. In each case only a handful of accounts matter: one or two checking accounts, a credit card, maybe a loan. That is good news, because Quicken's import tools work account by account, and a short list of accounts keeps the job to an afternoon rather than a project.

What can Quicken import?

Based on Quicken's support documentation:

Two restrictions catch people out. Quicken for Windows says QIF import "isn't available for checking, savings, or credit card accounts," so the old trick of exporting a QIF for a checking account no longer works. And CSV import, according to Quicken's CSV import reference, "does not detect or create transfer transactions," even if the category column names an account in brackets.

Option 1: How do you get QuickBooks transactions into Quicken as CSV?

This route keeps the categories you already assigned in QuickBooks.

Export from QuickBooks

In QuickBooks, run a transaction-level report for the account you want to move (a register report or a transaction detail report filtered to that bank account), set the date range, and export it to Excel. Intuit's QuickBooks support site has current steps for your edition, since report names and export buttons differ between QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop.

Rearrange to Quicken's layout

Quicken for Windows expects the first seven columns in this exact order: Date, Payee, FI Payee, Amount, Debit/Credit, Category, Account, with optional Tag, Memo, Chknum after them. Date, Payee, Amount and Account must have a value in every row. Dates follow mm/dd/yyyy; amounts may include commas.

Map the QuickBooks export onto it:

Category names deserve a pass before import. QuickBooks accounts such as "6100 Office Supplies" become clutter in Quicken; rename them to the categories you use.

Then in Quicken for Windows choose File > File Import > Banking Transactions > From (.CSV) File. If the history contains transfers between your own accounts, delete one side of each transfer from the CSV and enter the transfers by hand afterward; otherwise they arrive as plain categorized transactions.

On a Mac

Quicken for Mac imports CSV through File > Import > Mint.com File (CSV). Its CSV import article lists the columns as Date, Payee, Category, Amount, Debit/Credit, Account and FI Payee, and says Quicken creates a new account named after the file. Name the CSV after the account you want to create.

Option 2: Rebuild bank and card accounts from statements

For checking, savings and credit card accounts, it is often cleaner to ignore QuickBooks entirely and start the Quicken account from the bank's own records. The bank's data is the ground truth, and QFX import lands it in the right account type with the bank's transaction identifiers.

1. Download QFX (sometimes labeled Quicken or Web Connect) files from your bank's website for the periods it offers.
2. For older periods, download the PDF statements instead. QuickBankConvert converts statement PDFs to QFX: upload the file (no bank login), check the preview of rows and the opening and closing balance, and download a .qfx. QFX output starts on the Plus plan, or the one-time 7-day pass; see pricing.
3. In Quicken for Windows, choose File > File Import > Web Connect File and point each file at the right account.
4. Compare the Quicken balance after each month with that statement's closing balance.

The Quicken integration page summarizes the formats, and importing bank statements into Quicken covers the import screens in more detail.

What will not come across?

Whatever route you take, Quicken will not receive:

• Invoices, estimates, bills and purchase orders. Quicken Business & Personal has its own invoice accounts, and Quicken notes that QIF can import into accounts payable and invoice accounts in that edition, but QuickBooks documents don't convert.
• Customer and vendor lists beyond the payee names inside transactions.
• Payroll, inventory items, classes and locations.
• Reconciliation history. Imported transactions are not marked as reconciled the way they were in QuickBooks.
• Attachments such as receipts.
• Journal entries that don't touch a cash account, such as depreciation.

Keep the QuickBooks records anyway

If you are leaving QuickBooks because a business closed or shrank, keep a full export of the books before the subscription lapses: the general ledger, profit and loss, balance sheet and transaction lists for every year, saved as Excel or PDF. The IRS recordkeeping guidance explains that you need records that support the income and deductions on your returns, and moving to Quicken doesn't change that. Your original bank statements serve as backup, too.

A sensible order of work

1. Decide the Quicken start date (often January 1 of the current year).
2. Create each Quicken account with its balance as of that date.
3. Import bank and card history from QFX files.
4. Import any remaining QuickBooks-only history (cash, loans) by CSV.
5. Recreate transfers by hand.
6. Reconcile each account against its latest statement.

Related guides

• Quicken CSV import, step by step
• Convert CSV to QFX
• Convert CSV to QIF