QBO File Viewer

1. Drop the .qbo, .qfx, .ofx or .qif file above, or choose it.
2. The file is read in your browser. You see the account, the date range, the bank code, the closing balance and a table of transactions.
3. Read the checks under the summary. Each one names a problem an importer would hit and what to do about it.
4. Download the transactions as CSV to open them in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.

Nothing is uploaded: the viewer reads the file on your device, so it is safe to use with real bank downloads.

All three are OFX, the Open Financial Exchange format banks use for downloads. A QBO file is OFX for QuickBooks and a QFX file is OFX for Quicken; both add Intuit's bank code, the INTU.BID tag, which the programs check before accepting the file.

An OFX 1 file is plain text: nine header lines (OFXHEADER:100 and so on), a blank line, then tags in angle brackets. A sign-on block names the bank, then one statement per account lists each transaction as a STMTTRN with:

• TRNTYPE: DEBIT, CREDIT, CHECK, FEE and so on.
• DTPOSTED: the date, written YYYYMMDD, sometimes with a time.
• TRNAMT: the amount, negative for money out.
• FITID: the bank's ID for the transaction, which QuickBooks uses to skip ones it has already imported.
• NAME and MEMO: the description.

Newer banks send OFX 2, the same content written as XML. The viewer reads both. QIF is an older, simpler Quicken format of one line per field; it is read too, with its dates shown exactly as written because QIF has no fixed day and month order.

The CSV download has one row per transaction: account, date, description, memo, amount, type, check number and transaction ID. Dates are written as YYYY-MM-DD, which Excel and Google Sheets both read as dates, and amounts are plain numbers with money out negative, so a column can be summed straight away.

The CSV opens in Excel as it is. To bring it into QuickBooks Online, which wants 3 or 4 columns, delete the extra columns or simply upload the original QBO file, which QuickBooks Online accepts.

• No INTU.BID: QuickBooks refuses the file with "Missing bid data". The bank ID fixer adds one.
• A FITID used twice, or missing: QuickBooks treats a repeated ID as already imported and may skip transactions. Banks occasionally write NONE or reuse IDs.
• Missing header lines: files saved from a text editor or spreadsheet often lose the OFXHEADER lines that QuickBooks and Quicken expect. Download the file again rather than editing it.
• A tag that never closes, or a file that ends early: the download was cut short or the file was edited. Transactions after that point are missing.
• Dates or amounts in the wrong form: dates must be YYYYMMDD and amounts plain numbers such as -42.35.
• A non-zero sign-on status: the bank itself reported an error when it made the file.

If the viewer reports nothing, the file's structure is sound, and a refusal is about the bank code or the account it is being imported into.