How to upload bank statements to QuickBooks Online

Before you start

• Your statement needs real text in it. If you can select and copy words in the PDF, it is fine. Scanned pages are not supported yet; OCR is coming soon.
• Create the bank or credit card account in QuickBooks first, and check your chart of accounts so the upload doesn’t make a second copy of an account. Intuit asks for this to avoid duplicate transactions.
• Intuit says the statement should start at least one day before the oldest transaction already in that QuickBooks account.
• Upload files must be in English, 350 KB or smaller, with up to 1,000 lines. For more, download smaller date ranges and upload them one at a time.

Convert the PDF to a QBO file

1. 01Open the converter and drop in your PDF statement. It is read in your browser and not uploaded. Open a sample statement first if you want to see how it works.
2. 02Look at the balance check. It compares the statement’s printed opening and closing balances with the rows it read. If it shows a difference, fix or add the missing rows before you export.
3. 03Choose QBO in the export bar.
4. 04If a box asks for the account type, pick it (checking, savings or money market). Credit card statements are written as card statements automatically. The account number is optional; the last 4 digits are enough.
5. 05Leave Bank ID at 3000 unless you know you need another. It only sets the bank name QuickBooks shows.
6. 06Download the file. Keep the file name or rename it; the name doesn’t matter to the import.

Upload it to QuickBooks Online

1. 01Open Bank transactions: All apps, then Accounting, then Bank transactions. In some layouts it sits under Transactions.
2. 02If the account has a tile, select it. Then open the Link account menu and choose Upload from file. If the account isn’t connected to online banking, the choice may read Upload transactions.
3. 03Drag the .qbo file in, or select it, then choose Continue.
4. 04In the Select account menu, pick the QuickBooks account. Use + Add new if it doesn’t exist yet. Choose Continue.
5. 05Select the transactions to import and choose Continue. Choose Yes, then Done.
6. 06Open the For review tab. Categorise or match each transaction, then add it. QuickBooks may fill in details from bank rules you’ve already set up.

What is inside our QBO file

A QBO file is a plain-text OFX 1.02 statement with a few extra lines that tell QuickBooks which bank it came from. Here is what ours writes. The QBO guide has the full layout.

Common errors and fixes

QuickBooks says the file is from a bank that isn’t supported

QuickBooks decides which bank a file belongs to from the bank ID, INTU.BID, inside it. The ID in our file is 3000 by default. If QuickBooks doesn’t accept that, export again with a different Bank ID. If you have a .qbo file your own bank gave you, open it in a text editor, find the INTU.BID line and use that number. Don’t save our file from a text editor or Excel before you upload it, since saving can change it.

“The uploaded file isn’t a valid Web Connect file”

This usually means the file was changed after it was made, or isn’t a QBO file at all. Export a fresh copy from Tableaf and upload it without opening it first. Also check that the file ends in .qbo, not .qbo.txt.

Duplicate transactions

Each transaction in our file has an ID that stays the same every time you export the same statement, so uploading the same file twice shouldn’t add anything new. Duplicates usually come from overlap: the account is also linked to a live bank feed, or two statements cover the same dates. A live feed uses its own IDs, so upload only the dates the feed hasn’t covered, or exclude the repeats on the For review tab.

Too many lines, or the file is too big

Intuit’s limit is 1,000 lines and 350 KB per upload. Convert one month at a time and upload each file in turn.

Money in and money out are swapped

This happens when a credit card file is uploaded into a bank account, or the other way round. Pick the matching account type in QuickBooks. In our file, a card charge is negative and a card payment is positive.