QuickBooks CSV import not working: fix your bank file here

Intuit accepts two layouts for a bank CSV:

• 3 columns: Date, Description, Amount (money out has a minus sign)
• 4 columns: Date, Description, Credit, Debit (headers without the word “amount”)

The same help pages add a few rules:

• every date in one format (Intuit recommends dd/mm/yyyy), with no day of the week
• zeros left blank, not typed as 0
• no description that shows only numbers
• up to 1,000 lines and 350 KB per upload, in English

1. On your bank’s website, download the account activity for the dates you need as CSV.
2. Drop it in the fixer above, check the columns, and download the new file.
3. In QuickBooks Online, go to All apps > Accounting > Bank transactions.
4. Select the Link account dropdown, then Upload from file.
5. Select Drag and drop or select files, pick the new file, and select Continue.
6. Pick the account in the QuickBooks account dropdown and select Continue.
7. Choose the date format you picked in the fixer, match each column to the field with the same name, and select Continue.
8. Tick the transactions to import, select Continue, then Yes and Done.

For a credit card, pick the credit card account, not a bank account. Intuit notes that card files often show payments as negative amounts.

If your bank also offers a .qbo file, Intuit suggests that format first.

• Header: it finds the line of column names, so account and date-range lines above it are skipped. A file with no header gets numbered columns.
• Lines left out: blank lines, titles, totals, beginning and ending balances, zero amounts, and amounts with 12 or more digits. Each one is listed with its reason.
• Dates: the day of the week and any time are removed. It reads month-first or day-first, and guesses from dates like 31/10.
• Amounts: dollar signs and commas go, and brackets, trailing minus signs and DR become a leading minus. Two columns become one: money in minus money out.
• Rows to check: missing descriptions, descriptions that are only numbers, and rows with the same date, description and amount.

• Overlap. Compare the first and last dates with what is already in that account in QuickBooks. Our duplicate transaction finder catches anything that slips through.
• Signs. Look at a few rows in the QuickBooks review step. If money in shows as money out, tick Flip every sign here and download again.
• Subaccounts. Intuit’s upload error page says importing into a subaccount isn’t supported. Connect the subaccount to the bank feed, or enter its transactions by hand.