Talk:Quicken Interchange Format

Missing QIF code in table

I exported some transaction data to a QIF file from Quicken 2004 for Windows and found a code that was not in the Code table in this article. The code is the letter U and is related to the price of a US Savings bond. I have a reinvested interest payment of $74.00. I entered 74 shares at a price of $1.00. T already shows the amount but I don't know why it is shown again with a code U.

This is what my output looks like:

D4/ 1' 2
NReinvInt
YUS $5000-3% 10/31-V002977113I
I1
Q74
U74.00
T74.00
^
Dennis Fernkes (talk) 02:46, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

The U "Amount of transaction (higher possible value than T)" identifier has the same meaning and purpose as the T "Amount of transaction" identifier. I've never seen the limit of the T field that U overcomes enumerated. It must pre-date the ability to split a transaction because there isn't a corresponding version for the $ (item price) field. Since that would be a DOS version Quicken may have been storing monetary values as signed 32 bit integers to save memory and disc space. That would have limited the range to ±2^31 cents, and $21,474,836.48 was beyond the realm of personal finance in the 1980's. If earlier versions of Quicken handled over-range values gracefully the U identifier would have been un-necessary so its reasonable to assume that the import routine didn't handle the integer overflow exception and simply crashed. An unrecognized identifier causes the rest of the line to be ignored, so the U identifier must have been a work-around to avoid crashing early versions of Quicken. PolychromePlatypus (talk) 23:05, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

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Importing QIF files in modern versions of Quicken (i.e. 2018)

I tested the sample import code listed under the Direct method heading in Quicken for Mac Deluxe 2018 (version 5.6.3) and it imported the transaction but interpreted the year as the year 007.

I then modified line six from the current "D12/21' 7" and changed it to include a full four-digit year, i.e. "D12/21/2017" and it imported perfectly. I'm not familiar with this Wiki entry and I'm new to Quicken in general - I just wanted to confirm whether the original year format is correct for earlier versions of Quicken?

If the sample data is correct for earlier versions of Quicken, can anyone test with Quicken 2018 for Windows and see if they get the same results as I did in Quicken Mac 2018? I'd then be happy to edit the page with additional guidance on properly formatting QIF files for anyone seeking to import QIF files into the latest 2018 versions of Quicken.

Wild typist (talk) 22:54, 19 June 2018 (UTC)

IIRC Quicken has been able to import QIF files with the date represented as a 4 digit year since sometime in the 1990's - Quicken still exports dates using an eccentric encoding to disambiguate 2 digit years to reduce file size. It made sense when floppy discs held 360kB and a 5MB hard disk was just under $1,000. Why it exports QIF files compatible with DOS versions of Quicken that can't import most of the identifiers doesn't make as much sense. In re: adding an account identifier to direct a QIF import to an account that isn't listed in the import dialog box. Quicken seems to have decided that having the client program disable all imports when subscription expires is enough protection. In 2021 Quicken for Windows R33.24 (and slightly earlier versions) the QIF import dialog lists all accounts and imports all transactions from QIF files to all account types. The addition of an account identifier naming the specific account that transactions are to be imported to is no longer necessary. PolychromePlatypus (talk)

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Really? No original research? Sure, usually, but here?

The problem is that Intuit has had varying levels of support for QIF files over the years, and its documentation - which should be definitive - is incomplete in practice.

So, for example, on 2026-04-16 the link

https://info.quicken.com/win/why-can-t-i-import-data-from-a-qif-file-into-a-ban#:~:text=The%20Quicken%20Interchange%20Format%20(QIF)%20is%20an,such%20as%20dates%2C%20amounts%2C%20payees%2C%20and%20categories.

states in a highlighted paragraph:

> Can I import data from a QIF file into a banking or investment account?
> Yes. While older versions of Quicken did not have this capability, you can now import any account
> type using QIF.

This is misleading. Early versions, 1999 through to 2004 allowed QIF file imports in the same way as described in the above link. As per the Wiki Article, 2005+ restricted imports, but there were workarounds.

> Import workarounds for Quicken 2005+: importing from QIF
> While Intuit officially only supports QIF importing on asset, liability, cash, small business
> payable, and invoice accounts, Quicken will still allow you to import transactions using QIF into
> any account type. Two methods are explained below:

The second method, "Direct Method" is the one I use myself and as far as I know it will work for any version of Quicken from 1998 to date. It's clear, however, that that whole section is based on original research.

It's also clear that Intuit, for its own reasons, has often been both inconsistent and unclear.

However,other sources are personal: home pages, GitHub, StackOverflow, Reddit and the like. They are not moderated, too often incomplete and often enough contradictory.

Is there legitimate room on Wikipedia for a documented testing based approach to this topic and a range of topics with similar constraints.

Yes, I have read that if there are few good external citations the topic is not of sufficient interest to warrant a Wikipedia article, but to my mind although there may be few people interested in a topic, they have great interest in the topic. A clear article could also raise interest.

Wizenbeak (talk) 00:55, 17 April 2026 (UTC)