Import a QBO file into QuickBooks Desktop

Quickbooks for Windows

This tutorial shows all the steps for ".QBO" (web connect) file import into Quickbooks Desktop for Windows. If you have a transactions file in another format (CSV, PDF, QIF, OFX, QFX) or your existing ".QBO" file is not imported by Quickbooks, use the ProperConvert app to convert the file to the ".QBO" format. If your Quickbooks is older than three years, convert to the IIF format.

IMPORTANT: Before importing any file (IIF file, QBO file, QBJ file) into Quickbooks, make sure to backup your Quickbooks company data file. You can quickly roll back to the previous state if you realize later that something was importing in the wrong way. To backup your Quickbooks data, click 'File' - 'Back Up Company' - 'Create Local Backup'.

Then select 'Local backup' and click 'Next'.

Select 'Save it now' and click the 'Next' button.

Confirm file name. You can change it, just keep the file extension as .QBB. Then click the 'Save' button.

Done! Quickbooks has saved a backup of the company file to the Documents folder. Click 'OK'. Now we can import a QBO file.

Before importing, make sure that the Bank or Credit Card account is disconnected from Online Services. Click 'Lists' - 'Charts of Accounts' for the account you want to import into.

Make sure, that the account you need to import into doesn’t have the yellow strike icon. If you have the icon, it means that the account is connected to Online Services. You need to disconnect first to import a QBO file.

To disconnect, right-click - 'Edit Account'.

Then click on 'Bank Feed Settings' and select 'Deactivate All Online Services'.

Click 'Save & Close' and 'OK'. Check there is no yellow icon after the change. After disconnecting the account from Online Services, you can import a QBO file. You do not have to disconnect all accounts from Online Services, just the account you need to import your data into.

Let's import a QBO file. In this example, we have already a QBO file at the beginning of this tutorial. Click 'File' - 'Utilities' - 'Import' - 'Web Connect Files'. QBO files are Web Connect Files.

Then you select your QBO file. It shows only QBO files, listed here. There are no other files in the Downloads Folder. Click the 'Open' button. This greeting form shows you a Bank label, which is converted from INTU.BID value in your QBO file.

Let's take a look at the INTU.BID in the text editor Notepad. Open Downloads folder, select a QBO file - right-click - 'Open with' - 'Notepad'. In our case, we have INTU.BID number - 3000. So, the QBO files are the text files. You can review them, before importing. Just take a look at them, that they are created correctly. INTU.BID value is for your bank and it is allowed. 3000 is 'Wells Fargo'. When you use ProperSoft converter you can get that list, numbers for each bank, and you'll see they are allowed or not. There is also a Bank ID. It should be digits only.

There is also an Account Type. It is matching what you are going to import. So if you have a Checking account, you'll see only Checking accounts listed, if you have Credit Card, you'll see only Credit Card accounts listed.

Account ID has to be digits only number. It could be any number, but it is a good idea to use the actual account number, that you have for that account. Because if you are importing for multiple accounts, then you must use different Account ID's for different QBO files. Let's say if you need to convert for two accounts and you have five files: three for one account and two for another. So, for those three files, you have to use one Account ID and for those other two files, you have to use another Account ID, the same for those two. So, that's why, when you are starting using different numbers, to avoid confusion, it is easier just to use the account number. So you have a specific account number for that account, just use it. If you are starting converting or using another account, just use that another account number.

Check any transactions, that it is obviously an expense transaction, check that it has a minus, that it is a negative amount. So if it something expense, like Office Supply, Home Depot, Shell Purchase, it must be negative. If it is negative, then the QBO file was created correctly. And deposits must be positive. If you see it in the opposite way, even if that file was downloaded from your bank, then it means, that it was created incorrectly. Even for banks, like Checking Account or Credit Card, if it is an expense, it must be negative.

Let's return to selecting a Bank Account. In our case, we have 'Financial Institution' - Wells Fargo Bank (3000). You can have any name here, even if you are importing, let's say, for Capital One. You could have here Wells Fargo. It's fine because the Bank Label is no an important Label. The Account type is more important, you must match what you importing for. You are importing for Bank Account, then it has to be Checking or Savings. The Account number is important to check because if you are importing for this or that account, that you used incorrectly, you specified for the QBO file correctly. You may never use the option 'Create a new Quickbooks account' because you can not move transactions from one account to another in Quickbooks, as in Quicken. Unless you really creating a new account, then you would use this option to create a new account and import transactions there. But mostly you created that account before when you set up Quickbooks. So 99%, that you will select 'Use an existing Quickbooks account' option. And you will see here only accounts matching this Account Type. So if it is a Checking Bank account, then you would see only Checking accounts. In this example, we will use the 'Checking Wells Fargo Bank' account. Select the Bank Account and click the 'Continue' button.

You can ignore this message, it doesn't mean anything.

Now your Web Connect data has been successfully read into Quickbooks. Click the 'OK' button. So, the first part is done.

The account we import into got back yellow strike icon. It happens when you import a QBO file. It means that linking is done to that Account ID, Account Type, INTU.BID value. So what happens if you import the second QBO file with the same Account ID, same INTU.BID value, same Account Type, Quickbooks will not ask you to select an account and will import directly into this account. If you need to import the QBO file with another Account ID, but into that account for whatever reason, you have to disconnect it first. You have to edit the account, click on 'Bank Feed Settings' and select 'Deactivate All Online Services', click 'Save & Close', 'OK'. And then continue with that QBO file.

In the second part, you have to review transactions. Click 'Banking' - 'Bank Feeds' - 'Bank Feeds Center'.

'Wells Fargo Bank' Label - ignore it if you are importing for another Bank name. Pay attention to the Account ID. 'Checking at Wells Fargo Bank' (or 'Capital One', or 'Credit Card', or 'Visa') is the name of your actual account in Quickbooks.

We have four transactions. Click on 'Transaction List' to review transactions.

You see, that 'Payee' is empty, but it is not empty on the actual QBO file.

And 'Downloaded as' column is a Payee from the QBO file.

You have to match each transaction to Vendor Record. For example, figure out 'No payee' (what it is?) - select 'Home Depot'. Then you have to select an expense/income account.

It is a good idea before converting to go 'Vendor' - 'Vendor Center'.

And for each Vendor assign the default expense account.

Right-click - 'Edit Vendor'.

Then go to 'Account Settings' and tell which expense account to prefill when you enter bills for this Vendor. Let's select 'Office Supplies'. Click 'OK'.

So, we have the 'Office Supplies' account prefilled. You can still change it, but if it is your regular Vendor and it is already classified, categorized, then you would have by yourself extra-clicking, because you already assigned it, as Vendor Record.

Then you continue doing it with all of them or some of them, actually checking what you want to add to the register. Only check once you select 'Add/Approve'.

If you see some transaction, that does not belong, or wrong, or you do not want to import it, mark it and select 'Ignore'.

So, you have to get all transactions out of here. Let's add the first one, for example. Click 'Yes'.

It offers you to create a renaming rule, so for next time, when you import this, it will be automatically selected 'Home Depot' for 'No payee'. For something, like 'Home Depot' 1, 2, 3, it is a good idea to create the following rules. For something, like 'No payee' is not a good idea to create a renaming rule. So, you can uncheck it, because 'No payee' could mean anything you have to find actual payee, so you don't want it to be automatically for the next QBO import. Then click 'OK'.

Now, this transaction is gone and it is in the register for that account.

Click 'Lists' - 'Chart of Accounts' - 'Checking at Wells Fargo Bank' and you'll see that transaction here. So this way you can continue matching transactions. And then it will be done. This is how you import and then match your QBO file.

Quickbooks for macOS

This tutorial shows all the steps for ".QBO" (web connect) file import into Quickbooks Desktop for Mac. If you have a transactions file in another format (CSV, PDF, QIF, OFX, QFX) or your existing ".QBO" file is not imported by Quickbooks, use the ProperConvert app to convert the file to the ".QBO" format. If your Quickbooks is older than three years, convert to the IIF format.

IMPORTANT: Before importing any file (IIF file, QBO file, QBJ file) into Quickbooks, make sure to back up your Quickbooks company data file.

To back up your Quickbooks data, click 'File' - 'Back Up'.

Then click 'Start Backup'.

Now your backup is completed. Click 'Show in Finder'.

Backup file (.dmg) is created. To restore - double-click this file and then read the instruction (how to restore).

The next step is to inspect a QBO file we are importing. Now right-click on the QBO file - select 'Open With' - 'TextEdit'. QBO file is a text file, so you can view it at any text editor.

Look for the INTU.BID line and make sure that it is from the allowed bank. You may not know your Bank ID. But if you use ProperSoft utility you could find that Bank ID and check if your Bank is allowed. If your QBO file stopped importing, maybe your Bank ID or INTU.BID ID is not allowed anymore for your Bank. So, you have to use different INTU.BID numbers.

Currency should be USD even for non-USD accounts for Quickbooks US edition. For the Canadian edition, you can use USD and CAD. And for the UK edition, GBP currency must be set. For Bank ID it has to be digits only number. For Account ID it must be digits only number. If you are importing for different accounts, you have several QBO files. It has to be the same number for the QBO files for the same account. For example, you have three QBO files for one account and two QBO files for another account. So, those three must have the same account ID's same number and another two must have another, but the same account ID for those two.

Another important setting is Account Type, Checking, or Credit Card. You can not import a QBO file for Credit Card into a Checking account, you can not import a QBO for Checking into a Credit Card account in Quickbooks. If you have an incorrect Account Type in your QBO file, downloaded from your bank, you can use the converter to change the Account Type. So it is changing from Checking or Credit line to Credit Card or Credit line to Credit Card, from Credit Card to Credit line.

Another setting to check for is that expenses are negative. This is the one transaction statement (starts from the statement and ends by a statement with a slash), which has a Date, Amount, also there is could be Payee or Memo. In our example, the transaction is an expense and it must be negative. Credit Card or Bank account must be negative for expenses. Money takes it from the account, must be negative. Some Credit Card companies supply the CSV files in the opposite way, for example, expenses or charges are positive and payments to the account are negative. Don't pay attention, when you convert CSV to QBO, and then you convert charges as positive, then they will go on the QBO file as positive. So they must go as deposits when you convert a QBO file. It is also a good idea to do a backup again. So if you forget to do this reverse and then you imported that file, you could easily restore it from the backup.

The next setting to check in Quickbooks before importing a QBO file is the Chart of Accounts. Click 'Lists' - 'Chart of Accounts'.

If you see that account you want to import (in our case, we want to import into Checking account) has a blue ball icon, it means the account is Online Services connected or previously QBO file was imported into this account, but you don't know with which settings it was imported. You need to disconnect first to import a QBO file.

To disconnect, right-click - 'Edit Account'.

Then click 'Online Settings'. Online Account Information shows us a Bank name - 'Wells Fargo Bank', how the account was connected, defined by INTU.BID value, Account Number - it could be different from what you have in the actual account settings and the Account Type. To remove all this, you just have to select 'Not enabled'. Then click 'Save' and 'OK'.

Check there is no blue ball icon after the change. After disconnecting the account from Online Services, you can import a QBO file.

Let's import a QBO file. In this example, we have already a QBO file at the beginning of this tutorial. Click 'File' - 'Import' - 'From Web Connect'. QBO files are Web Connect Files.

Then you select a QBO file to import. Click the 'Open' button.

Then inspect the Account Number, which comes from the QBO file, Account Type, and Store in the Quickbooks Account, which shows how you link an account. Select an existing account (Checking) to import transactions. If the account has a blue ball icon, it would not be listed here. Click the 'Continue' button.

Now your Web Connect data has been successfully read into Quickbooks. Click the 'OK' button.

Match transactions to Vendor Records and expense/income accounts. The "Downloaded as" column is a Payee from the QBO file.

'Payee' is empty, because you have to select a Vendor. For example, select 'Home Depot'.

Then you select, for example, 'Office Supplies' Account. Click 'Add One' or 'Add Multiple', if you mark more.

That transaction is selected now. Continue to select payees, expense accounts until there are no transactions left.