ChangeTransfers
Note I'm not associated with Quicken, I'm just another Quicken user.
At times you might want to create a Quicken Windows data file by importing a QIF file. You might do this you have a data file corruption or are trying to import a QIF file from an old version of Quicken Mac to get a Quicken Windows data file started.
With my data file that has over a hundred accounts I was never able to get a very good QIF import because Quicken's handling of transfers always messed things up. So recently I took a different approach that proved a lot more successful. I wrote a program that changes all the transfers in the QIF to categories, like xfrACCOUNT_NAME.
This will break the links between the two accounts, and as such you can't jump between accounts on a transfer, but it does mean that Quicken does the right thing as far as importing and getting all the amounts correct.
I would advise anyone that is trying to create a new data file from a QIF file, to first try it with the transfers in the QIF file, but if that just won't work for you, you can use this program to generate a QIF where the transfers are converted to categories, which at least works.
And note if you are using multiple currencies, most likely you will need to use ChangeTransfers.
This means that I have found that I can do the import process with nothing more than creating a new data file, setting it up, including removing the existing categories just so only my categories are there, importing this QIF file, and then just do accept all in every account that has a red flag on it. Turning off all the options in Quicken Windows before the import isn't needed with this process.
Note that you still would have to pre-create any account that wouldn't get the right account type if created by importing a QIF. From what I have seen the ones to worry about are the Roth/Education IRAs/any brokerage & linked checking accounts/Single Mutual fund accounts. There may be others. Update: in Quicken Subscription there is more flexibility on changing the account type, but note if you are using multiple currencies, you can't change the currency after the account is created. The regular accounts should be OK, and if you have an account import as a brokerage account you can mark it as tax free and it will allow you to convert that to a regular IRA account, and from there you can go to a 401K I think, but there is not path to a Roth IRA. You need to name these with the exact same name as was used in the QIF file (you can look at the account list at the top of the QIF file with any text editor if in doubt).
I also suggest going into the category list and deleting all the non built-in (not hidden) categories so that only your categories in the QIF file are in the new data file.
Updated for Quicken subscription. Quicken subscription has removed the processing of QIF transactions while importing, so the transactions go directly into the register. In some ways this is better since you don't have to go to each account and accept the transactions.
Also, it seems that it is possible to reconnect the transfers after you have used this process but is a problem with transfer that are in split transactions. So certainly, you should make a backup before trying to change the xfrXXXXX categories back to [XXXXX] using find and replace. Note that Quicken is going to prompt you on every single transfer to make sure it is correct, so you are going to be hitting the Y key a lot (you can just hold it down).
The problem with split transactions is that this "transfer detection" isn't performed for transfers in a split. So, if you change them along with the other transfers you will get duplicate transactions in each of the accounts involved in the transfer.
You can download the program to change the transfers from HERE. You will need to extract it out of the ZIP file before using it.
Just save it somewhere like your Desktop and drag and drop your QIF file on it (you might want to run it through CleanQIF first).
It will produce another QIF file with the transfers changed to categories. That file will be called: QIF_FILENAMEXfrsAsCategories.QIF
Note you have to select the "Account list" during the QIF output because ChangeTransfers needs to know what account it is in while processing a given section of transactions and selecting the "Account List" will do that. But this does have the side effect of creating all the accounts even if you are only exporting transactions for one account. If you just want to do one account, put this at the top of the QIF_FILENAMEXfrsAsCategories.QIF with a text editor.
!Account
NACCOUNT_NAME
TBank
^
Where ACCOUNT_NAME is the account name of the exported QIF transactions.
You might also be interested in this discussion about the pitfalls of a QIF import.
One pitfall that has been reported recently is about Savings Goals. There isn't anything in a QIF file that knows about savings goals, so it isn't even possible that they will be reconstructed as savings goals. The accounts/transactions will be transferred, but they won't be "savings goals" and have a relationship with the parent account(s).
community.quicken.com/discussion/7450045/i-just-succeeded-in-recreating-my-data-file-using-a-qif-export-import/p1
With my data file that has over a hundred accounts I was never able to get a very good QIF import because Quicken's handling of transfers always messed things up. So recently I took a different approach that proved a lot more successful. I wrote a program that changes all the transfers in the QIF to categories, like xfrACCOUNT_NAME.
This will break the links between the two accounts, and as such you can't jump between accounts on a transfer, but it does mean that Quicken does the right thing as far as importing and getting all the amounts correct.
I would advise anyone that is trying to create a new data file from a QIF file, to first try it with the transfers in the QIF file, but if that just won't work for you, you can use this program to generate a QIF where the transfers are converted to categories, which at least works.
And note if you are using multiple currencies, most likely you will need to use ChangeTransfers.
This means that I have found that I can do the import process with nothing more than creating a new data file, setting it up, including removing the existing categories just so only my categories are there, importing this QIF file, and then just do accept all in every account that has a red flag on it. Turning off all the options in Quicken Windows before the import isn't needed with this process.
Note that you still would have to pre-create any account that wouldn't get the right account type if created by importing a QIF. From what I have seen the ones to worry about are the Roth/Education IRAs/any brokerage & linked checking accounts/Single Mutual fund accounts. There may be others. Update: in Quicken Subscription there is more flexibility on changing the account type, but note if you are using multiple currencies, you can't change the currency after the account is created. The regular accounts should be OK, and if you have an account import as a brokerage account you can mark it as tax free and it will allow you to convert that to a regular IRA account, and from there you can go to a 401K I think, but there is not path to a Roth IRA. You need to name these with the exact same name as was used in the QIF file (you can look at the account list at the top of the QIF file with any text editor if in doubt).
I also suggest going into the category list and deleting all the non built-in (not hidden) categories so that only your categories in the QIF file are in the new data file.
Updated for Quicken subscription. Quicken subscription has removed the processing of QIF transactions while importing, so the transactions go directly into the register. In some ways this is better since you don't have to go to each account and accept the transactions.
Also, it seems that it is possible to reconnect the transfers after you have used this process but is a problem with transfer that are in split transactions. So certainly, you should make a backup before trying to change the xfrXXXXX categories back to [XXXXX] using find and replace. Note that Quicken is going to prompt you on every single transfer to make sure it is correct, so you are going to be hitting the Y key a lot (you can just hold it down).
The problem with split transactions is that this "transfer detection" isn't performed for transfers in a split. So, if you change them along with the other transfers you will get duplicate transactions in each of the accounts involved in the transfer.
You can download the program to change the transfers from HERE. You will need to extract it out of the ZIP file before using it.
Just save it somewhere like your Desktop and drag and drop your QIF file on it (you might want to run it through CleanQIF first).
It will produce another QIF file with the transfers changed to categories. That file will be called: QIF_FILENAMEXfrsAsCategories.QIF
Note you have to select the "Account list" during the QIF output because ChangeTransfers needs to know what account it is in while processing a given section of transactions and selecting the "Account List" will do that. But this does have the side effect of creating all the accounts even if you are only exporting transactions for one account. If you just want to do one account, put this at the top of the QIF_FILENAMEXfrsAsCategories.QIF with a text editor.
!Account
NACCOUNT_NAME
TBank
^
Where ACCOUNT_NAME is the account name of the exported QIF transactions.
You might also be interested in this discussion about the pitfalls of a QIF import.
One pitfall that has been reported recently is about Savings Goals. There isn't anything in a QIF file that knows about savings goals, so it isn't even possible that they will be reconstructed as savings goals. The accounts/transactions will be transferred, but they won't be "savings goals" and have a relationship with the parent account(s).
community.quicken.com/discussion/7450045/i-just-succeeded-in-recreating-my-data-file-using-a-qif-export-import/p1
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