CSV Format

IIF to CSV Converter Online Free — Convert IIF File to CSV

You have moved to QuickBooks Online and the last thing Desktop handed you is a .iif — the one format Online has never read. Its importer works from CSV. Convert IIF to CSV online here and the file becomes exactly that: a row for each transaction, the account each amount posted to, cheque numbers and memos still attached. The browser opens the file itself, so no copy of your ledger goes anywhere.

Converted entirely in your browser - your file is never uploaded
Trouble converting a file? Tell us — we fix issues fast. Report it

Not the file you need?

Want a formatted workbook?
Our IIF to Excel converter — same rows, typed amounts
Going back into Desktop?
Build the .iif QuickBooks Desktop imports
Statement still a PDF?
Straight to a Web Connect file, no CSV step

Why Use Our IIF to CSV Converter Tool?

The split line comes with it

Most converters read the TRNS line and stop, which leaves you a sheet of payees and no idea what any of it was for. The posting account is on the SPL line below, and it comes across as a Category column — the same answer Online will ask you for in the For Review queue.

Every column the file declared

Nothing is dropped to fit a template: transaction type, cheque number, memo and account all survive into the CSV. Keep the ones you want and trim the rest yourself, rather than being handed three columns and told that is all there was.

The file stays on your machine

An IIF is a whole ledger in plain text, and this one is opened by the browser rather than posted anywhere. Free converters that work server-side commonly keep what you upload for around 24 hours.

Convert IIF file to CSV in three steps

1

Bring the .iif across

Any .iif Desktop wrote, or one an add-on produced for you. To convert QuickBooks IIF file to CSV file there is nothing to prepare — no renaming, no template, no saving it as something else first.

2

Upload the IIF

Drop the file on the box or pick it from your machine. It is opened right here, and the transactions are read out of the TRNS and SPL lines against the IIF specification.

3

Set the date order, then take the CSV

One setting appears, and it is the one that matters: the date order to write. QuickBooks Online asks you to confirm that at its mapping stage, so choosing it here is what stops the import reading March as April.

The three fields QuickBooks Online asks you to map

Online does not read the file blindly — it shows a Map CSV columns step and asks which of your columns is which. You point three dropdowns at three of these. Nothing has to be deleted to get there.

QuickBooks Online fieldYour columnWhy
DateDATEConfirm the order at the mapping step too
DescriptionNAMEThe payee as QuickBooks Desktop stored it
AmountAMOUNTOne signed column — negatives are money out
— not mapped —CategoryYour crib sheet for the For Review queue
— not mapped —DOCNUMCheque and reference numbers
— not mapped —MEMO · TRNSTYPE · ACCNT · TRNSIDContext you may want in your own records

Keep the columns you want. Intuit documents a three- or four-column shape and also ships the dropdown mapper, without saying what becomes of the columns you leave unmapped. So keep whatever is useful to you — and if Online refuses the file for being too wide, save a copy holding just Date, Description and Amount and upload that one instead.

What stops an IIF going straight into QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online has never accepted IIF

Intuit's own support answer is unambiguous: the formats Online will import are CSV, XLS/XLSX and Google Sheets. IIF was built for the desktop and never gained the validation a cloud ledger needs, so there is no setting to turn on.

Three record types, one file

A transaction is a TRNS line, one or more SPL lines and an ENDTRNS, with ! header rows describing each shape. Opened straight in a spreadsheet they stack into one sheet where the columns do not line up.

Dates follow the exporting computer, not QuickBooks

The order is inherited from that machine's Windows region and recorded nowhere in the file. Intuit separately tells CSV importers to keep one consistent format and confirm it while mapping, so a wrong guess costs you twice over.

A year of Desktop is more than one upload

QuickBooks Online's bank upload is commonly documented at around 350KB, in the region of a thousand to fifteen hundred transactions. A full Desktop export usually exceeds that, so expect to split the CSV by date range rather than sending the lot in one go.

What goes wrong after the upload, and what to check

Converting the file is the easy half. These are the four things that actually stop a QuickBooks Online import, and none of them mean the CSV is wrong.

Mapping error

"Column Header Not Found"

A mapping mismatch rather than a broken file — QuickBooks could not match a header to the field you pointed it at.

What to check — Recheck the dropdowns at Map CSV columns, and make sure row one holds headers and nothing else.

Does not transfer

Classes and job costing stay behind

A bank-transaction CSV carries transactions, not the structure Desktop kept around them. Complex job costing hierarchies do not fully survive the trip.

What to check — Rebuild classes in Online first if you need them, and treat the import as transactions only.

Expected behaviour

Cleared transactions arrive as "New"

Reconciliation status is not part of the CSV shape, so everything lands unreconciled however it sat in Desktop.

What to check — Plan to reconcile again on the Online side. Amounts and dates are untouched.

Silent refusal

The upload is rejected with no reason given

Intuit names two causes that show no useful message: special characters in a description, and Mac line endings.

What to check — Strip # @ * from descriptions, and on a Mac save the file as a Windows CSV before uploading.

Who needs an IIF as plain CSV

Moving to QuickBooks Online

Export IIF file from QuickBooks Desktop, convert, upload. Online has never read IIF, and CSV is one of the three formats it does take.

Leaving QuickBooks entirely

Xero, Wave, Sage and FreshBooks all read CSV. None of them read IIF, so this is the file that travels between them.

Closing down a Desktop file

Let the subscription go and the company file turns read-only, then stops opening. A CSV needs no licence and no vendor still being in business.

Handing data to a bookkeeper

A CSV opens in anything — Sheets, Numbers, LibreOffice — so nobody needs a QuickBooks Desktop licence to read your year.

Feeding a script or import

One row per transaction under a stable header is what a script, a database load or an IIF to spreadsheet workflow expects.

Checking before you commit

Reading the rows takes a minute. Undoing a bad import into a live company file takes considerably longer.

Frequently Asked Questions — IIF to CSV Converter

QHow do I import an IIF file into QuickBooks Online?

You convert it first — you cannot import IIF file into QuickBooks Online directly. Intuit's support answer states it plainly: the formats Online accepts are CSV, XLS/XLSX and Google Sheets. So the question people really mean by can you import IIF files into QuickBooks Online is answered by turning the file into one of those three.

QWhich columns does QuickBooks Online actually use?

Three: Date, Description and Amount — or Date, Description, Credit and Debit if your amounts are split across two columns. You match them to your own columns from dropdowns at the Map CSV columns step, so the mapping is yours to set.

QDo I have to delete the other columns?

Not to read the file, no — keep whatever you need. Only three get mapped at the QuickBooks Online step and the rest are simply not selected. If Online refuses the file for being too wide, save a copy with just Date, Description and Amount and upload that instead.

QWhat happens to the Category column then?

It stays useful. QuickBooks Online's bank import does not take a category — it puts transactions in the For Review queue and asks you to categorise them there. The Category column carried over from the split lines is what tells you which account each one belongs to.

QWhat is the IIF file format?

It is Intuit Interchange Format — tabs between the fields, plain text throughout, and a shape QuickBooks Desktop has used for imports and exports since long before the cloud. What makes it awkward is that one file holds several kinds of record at once, so what is an IIF file in practice is a transcript rather than a table.

QWhat happens to a transaction split across accounts?

It keeps its own row, and the posting account travels with it in a Category column. Where the money went to two or more places that column is deliberately empty — one cell cannot hold three accounts, and guessing at the first would misstate the other two. The amount on the row is the whole amount either way.

QWhich date format should I choose?

Whichever order your file already uses — then pick the same one again when Online asks. The order came from the Windows region of the machine that did the export, not from QuickBooks, and the file itself records no clue as to which was in force. Convert IIF to CSV free here and the order is yours to set before anything is written.

QWhy did my CSV import fail with "Column Header Not Found"?

That is a mapping mismatch, not a broken file. QuickBooks Online could not match a header to the field you pointed it at — recheck the dropdowns at the Map CSV columns step, and make sure the first row of the file is headers and nothing else.

QWill my classes and job costing come across?

Not through a bank-transaction CSV import. Classes and deeper job costing hierarchies do not fully transfer that way, and cleared or closed bank statuses arrive as New. A CSV moves the transactions; it does not rebuild Desktop's structure around them.

QWill it take a supplier list or a chart of accounts?

Transactions only. Feed it a chart of accounts and it will tell you there is nothing to convert, because a list of accounts contains no dated entries. A supplier or customer export may open as the plain list it is rather than a transaction sheet, so glance at the preview first.

QDoes the file leave my computer?

It does not. Reading the .iif and writing the CSV both happen inside the browser tab, which means no ledger of yours is ever transmitted and none is sitting on a queue waiting to be purged. Tools that convert on a server routinely hold the upload for a day.

QWhat is the best IIF to CSV converter?

It depends on whether you want the split accounts kept and whether "free" has a ceiling. FinanceFileConverter is free for light use and paid beyond it, and does not say which columns it returns; SaasAnt imports IIF into QuickBooks Online directly from about $25 a month; the Axis Online app does the same from the QuickBooks app store. This page will convert IIF to CSV free, with no cap and no signup, and it names every column you get. As an IIF viewer it costs nothing either — the rows are on screen before you download.

QIs there a version I can download and run offline?

There is no installer, and a QuickBooks Desktop export to CSV does not need one — the conversion already runs on your own machine inside the browser, which is the thing a download would buy you. Nothing is transmitted, so an offline tool would offer no extra privacy.

Other Conversion Formats

PDF to QIF Converter

Convert to QIF

CSV to QIF Converter

Convert to QIF

CSV to QBO Converter

Convert to QBO

CSV to OFX Converter

Convert to OFX

CSV to QFX Converter

Convert to QFX

CSV to IIF Converter

Convert to IIF

Turn the IIF into rows anything can read

That .iif was written for a program you may not be running much longer, in a format only that program reads. Put it on the box above and it comes back as plain rows — every column the file declared, the split accounts alongside, and a date order you chose. An IIF to CSV converter online free of caps, with no signup — an IIF converter and IIF file viewer in one, showing the rows before you commit.