How to import bank statements into QuickBooks Online.

Two CSV column layouts.

QuickBooks Online accepts a CSV with three columns or with four. The 3-column file is Date, Description, Amount, with money out as a negative number and money in as a positive one. The 4-column file is Date, Description, Credit, Debit. In Intuit's own example, money out sits in the Credit column and money in sits in the Debit column. The unused cell is left empty, never zero. The headers read exactly Credit and Debit, without the word "amount."

The rules Intuit publishes.

1. One date format throughout the file, chosen again at the mapping step. For a US company, MM/DD/YYYY is the safe choice. No weekday text in the date cell.

2. Amounts as plain numbers: No currency symbols, no thousands separators, no parentheses. Leave zero cells empty.

3. At most 1,000 lines per upload and a file of 350 KB or less. Split larger exports into two files.

4. Descriptions without special characters that could break the import. Commas, quotes, and line breaks are the ones to strip.

5. Credit card files go into a credit card account, not a bank account. Payments to the card show as positive; purchases as negative.

6. The file should start at least one day before the oldest transaction already in that account, so nothing is skipped.

Getting the rows out of the PDFs.

If the statements are PDFs, the rows have to be read out of them first, and checked. This is the step Ledgerfoot does. Each statement is read into rows and checked against its own printed balances. The 3-column or 4-column file is built with every rule above applied, and validated before download. A statement that does not foot is flagged. Its rows carry the flag into the file, so you look before you import.

Uploading, step by step.

1. In QuickBooks Online, open Bank transactions. From the Link account menu, choose Upload from file.

2. Drag the CSV in, or select it, and continue.

3. Choose the QuickBooks account the file belongs to. Create it first if it does not exist.

4. Map the columns: Which column is the date, the description, and the amount or the credit and debit. Choose the date format that matches the file.

5. Review the rows, untick any you do not want, and finish.

6. The transactions arrive in the For review tab. Categorize and match them as you would feed transactions, then reconcile the account to each month's closing balance.

The errors people hit, and the fixes.

A date error means the file's format and the chosen format disagree; pick the other one. An amount error usually means a currency symbol or a thousands separator; remove them. A file that will not upload is often over 1,000 lines or 350 KB; split it. A file with only money-out rows can refuse to import. Intuit's workaround is to add one positive line and untick it on review.