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I need to select some records from an SQL database and transform them into a Quicken-friendly format for the purpose of merging them into an existing Quicken 2012 Home and Business checking account.

Here's what I've done so far:

  • Attempted to import a QXF containing new transactions for a pre-existing account (named "Checking Account"). However, instead of importing the transactions into "Checking Account" it instead creates a new account "Checking Account 2" rather than importing/merging the new transactions into the appropriate pre-existing "Checking Account" account. According to Quicken's site (link at the bottom of the page) this is what's happening:

When importing a QXF file, it's possible that one or more accounts in the QXF file already exist in the destination data file. If this is the case, Quicken will not attempt to merge the transactions in these duplicate accounts. Instead, Quicken will create a new account

  • Contacted Quicken, however their support was clearly having trouble understanding the question and they only knew how to use the program and could not provide any additional information on which format to use.
  • Researched QFX, QXF, OFX and QIF

From what I've read OFX is not supported (instead QFX is used for financial institutions registered with Quicken only). Additionally QIF is being phased out and does not support the Checking account I need to import these records into. Finally, QXF has proven difficult to locate information on but from what I've read it is an encoded file format that requires some SDK to create and aside from this issue (as stated above) it does not import according to my criteria.

I'm at my wits end here and I've spent several hours researching the topic. Any help would be appreciated.

UPDATE: Please understand I'm not asking for your "favorite" SDK, I'm simply having troubles discovering what my options are and I would appreciate the StackOverflow community point me in the right direction.

References

Quicken QXF Literature: http://quicken.intuit.com/support/help/backup--restore--file-issues/importing-and-exporting-qxf-files-in-quicken-essentials-for-mac/GEN83152.html

alan
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  • Contact Quicken and ask them what libraries they recommend? Otherwise, you probably get to read the QXF spec and write your own. – keshlam Jan 15 '14 at 00:01
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    From the documentation it sounds like what you want to do can't be done. Does the application have some sort of API you could hook into *after* the import and move the transactions across then delete the temp account? Have you looked at [Quicken Interchange Format API](http://qif.codeplex.com/)? – James Jan 15 '14 at 13:55

2 Answers2

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After extensive research, I found the solution to be QIF. Though Quicken states:

Note: QIF import is not available for checking, credit card, savings, 401(k), or any other brokerage accounts.

This appears to be a mis-statement as it's really only enforced when Exporting data. After adding the following four lines (documented [here][1]) to the top of any QIF, I have successfully imported/merged new transactions into an existing Quicken 2012 Checking account. My understanding is this will work for any account, regardless of the type.

!Account
NJoint Brokerage Account
TInvst
^

In my situation I only needed to replace "Joint Brokerage Account" with the account name I wished to import into, even though the type specified is "Invst" and my account is "Checking", this still succeeded.

Quicken QIF Literature: Importing Data Into Quicken (Updated: 4/27/2012 | Article ID: GEN82389) Solution URL: Direct Method

jxramos
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alan
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  • do you recall if Quicken was capable of properly importing split transactions? That would be the `S`, `E`, and `$` entries. I'm helping out with a project using the sunset edition of Microsoft Money and it doesn't appear to be able to import splits correctly. – jxramos Feb 23 '20 at 04:34
  • I'm sorry, I do not recall. – alan Feb 27 '20 at 19:16
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QIF is deprecated for the simple reason that it is not well documented, and Quicken never released a standard for it. The best you can achieve with it is by trial and error (or going by what has worked for your installed program).

QFX (more OFX variants) on the other hand are well specified and best suited for banking data importation. Your solution to the QIF file is exactly the same solution you need to apply to the QFX file, and the tag(s) you need to amend values for to match your existing account are: and Note that QFX has additional (undocumented) tags to enforce their licencing restrictions, which you'll need to match too.

Nepaluz
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  • There may actually have been a [standard](https://web.archive.org/web/20100222214101/http://web.intuit.com/support/quicken/docs/d_qif.html) at one point. You can find the link in the corresponding wikipedia article in its external links [section](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicken_Interchange_Format#External_links). – jxramos Feb 23 '20 at 04:36
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    @jxramos - there certainly was a standard but it is deprecated. I believe there were several revisions to the original one by different interest groups and that is why you now get incompatibilities where a QIF file will import in one app but not the other (mainly due to headers and field lengths & tags). – Nepaluz Feb 26 '20 at 01:20
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    Oh yah, you're right. Digging up this [source](https://www.stockmarketeye.com/users-guide/portfolios/msmoney-export-to-qif.html) it mentions _"Loose QIF” or “Strict QIF”_ for Microsoft Money. Looks like a variant standard right there. On a related topic do you know if OFX supports transaction _splits_. I know QIF files could express such things. https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/120687/can-ofx-files-express-split-transactions – jxramos Feb 27 '20 at 21:27
  • @jxramos - do you mean splits for investment / brokerage transactions or for banking / credit card? If the latter then not for the earlier versions (but could be for 2.2 which was released in 2017 though not widely implemented). – Nepaluz Feb 28 '20 at 21:10