# Import QuickBooks into Quicken? What's Possible

- Author: SimpleBankConvert (https://www.simplebankconvert.com)
- Published: 2024-11-11
- Updated: 2024-11-11
- Category: Switching accounting software
- Canonical: https://www.simplebankconvert.com/blog/import-quickbooks-into-quicken

> Can you import QuickBooks into Quicken? Why there's no direct route, what can move as QIF or CSV files and when keeping the two separate is better.
You cannot import QuickBooks into Quicken as a whole company. Quicken has no reader for QuickBooks files, so customers, invoices and the ledger stay behind. What you can move is bank and card activity: download it again from the bank as a Quicken file, or export a transaction list from QuickBooks and bring it in as CSV.

## Why Quicken has no QuickBooks company import

Quicken has no QuickBooks company import because the two programs keep different kinds of records. Quicken tracks accounts and the money moving through them. QuickBooks keeps a double-entry ledger with customers, vendors, invoices and bills. Quicken's own help page on [importing data into Quicken for Windows](https://www.quicken.com/support/how-do-i-import-data-quicken-windows) says plainly that it cannot import QuickBooks files.

That one sentence settles the most common hope. There is no menu in Quicken that opens a .QBW company, and no export in QuickBooks that produces a Quicken data file. Anything you move goes across one account at a time, as a plain list of dated amounts.

People usually look for this route for one of three reasons:

- A side business has closed, and the owner wants its accounts folded into a personal Quicken file.
- A sole owner finds QuickBooks heavier than they need and wants to track the money only.
- An accountant set up QuickBooks, and the owner now keeps their own records.

In each case the useful question is not "how do I convert the company" but "which history do I actually need in Quicken". Usually the answer is the bank and card registers, and those are the easiest part to rebuild.

If you are leaving QuickBooks for another full accounting program instead, the routes are different. [Converting QuickBooks to Sage 50](/blog/convert-quickbooks-to-sage-50) and [switching from QuickBooks to Xero](/blog/switch-from-quickbooks-to-xero) both keep a ledger on the other side.

## Which QuickBooks records can reach Quicken as a file?

Only lists of transactions reach Quicken as a file, and only through formats Quicken reads. The Quicken help page names CSV, Web Connect (.QFX) from a bank, QIF and its own transfer format. QuickBooks Online exports reports to Excel through Export/Print, per [Intuit's guide to exporting reports to Excel](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/report-management/export-reports-excel-quickbooks-online/L7iAoP97n_US_en_US), and Excel can save that as CSV.

The table below sorts each kind of QuickBooks data by where it can go. The routes describe typical results; test one account before you move the rest.

| QuickBooks data | Route into Quicken | What you lose on the way |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Checking and savings lines | Fresh QFX download from the bank, or CSV from a QuickBooks report | Categories as QuickBooks named them, matched invoices |
| Credit card lines | Fresh QFX download from the card issuer, or CSV | Links between payments and the bank account |
| Profit and loss, balance sheet | Keep as Excel or PDF beside Quicken | Nothing moves; they stay reference copies |
| Customer and vendor lists | No useful route for most users | All of it |
| Open invoices and bills | Enter what is still owed by hand | History of how each one was paid |

The pattern is clear. Cash movement crosses over. Accounting structure does not. A QuickBooks account called "Office supplies" becomes, at best, a category name you recreate in Quicken.

## Rebuilding Quicken bank registers from bank downloads instead of QuickBooks

A bank download is the cleanest source for a Quicken register, because it comes from the bank rather than from QuickBooks' version of events. Many US banks offer a Quicken (QFX) download, and Quicken reads that file directly. You skip the extra step of exporting, reshaping and re-importing a QuickBooks report.

Work through it like this:

1. Pick a start date for Quicken, usually the first day of a month or a year.
2. Create the account in Quicken with the balance the bank statement shows on that date.
3. Download QFX files from the bank for each period after the start date.
4. Import them into the Quicken account and review the categories Quicken assigns.
5. Compare the Quicken balance with the next statement's closing balance.

Bank downloads have a limit: many banks only reach back a set number of months. For older periods you have two choices. Export the QuickBooks register as a CSV, or use the PDF statements. Some banks offer no download at all, and [what to do when a bank has no download](/blog/bank-does-not-support-quickbooks-download) covers the options.

A CSV from QuickBooks needs care. Strip report headers, totals and blank rows. Keep one row per transaction with a date, a payee and a signed amount. Then follow Quicken's CSV import steps for the account.

## Does a QIF file help with QuickBooks checking accounts in Quicken?

A QIF file does not help with checking, savings or card accounts in current Quicken for Windows. Quicken's help page states that QIF import is not available for those account types. It works for cash, asset and liability accounts only, plus a couple of business account types in the Business and Personal edition.

That rules out a trick some older forum posts suggest, which is to produce a QIF file of bank lines and import it into a checking register. Even where a converter offers QIF output, Quicken will refuse it for the accounts most people care about. Use a QFX download or a CSV for those registers.

QIF can still be handy for one narrow job. If the old books tracked a loan or a vehicle as a liability or asset, a short QIF file can move that account's history into a matching Quicken account.

## When to keep QuickBooks and Quicken as separate records

Keeping QuickBooks and Quicken separate is often the better choice. Moving years of a closed business into a personal Quicken file mixes two sets of records that a tax preparer may need apart. A clean break, with the old books saved and the new file started fresh, is easier to explain later.

Leave the history where it is when:

- The QuickBooks company belongs to a business entity, such as an LLC or corporation, and Quicken will track personal money.
- You still owe or are owed money on invoices and bills in QuickBooks.
- The old books were reconciled, and moving them would lose that proof.
- You only need the past for tax records, not for daily tracking.

In those cases, save the QuickBooks reports as PDF or Excel. Note the closing balances of each account on your cut-over date and start Quicken from there.

If old bank months exist only as PDF statements, a converter can help. SimpleBankConvert is being built to turn PDF bank statements into CSV or QBO files for QuickBooks Online, and CSV files for Xero; it does not target Quicken. Watch for that difference when you [read what it will do](/).