QIF Wizard makes it easier to enter banking, credit card, and investment transactions into Quicken or other programs that accept Quicken Interchange Format (QIF).
Note that Quicken Essentials For Mac 2010 and later does not support QIF. Nor does Quicken for Windows. They accept only QFX, which is a proprietary format that cannot be produced by this program. Quicken for Mac 2007 and earlier however, do support qif, as do many other financial products.
Bank and Credit Card Transactions: Many online banks and credit card companies allow you to download recent transactions (checks, deposits, credit card charges, etc.) into a file in the Quicken Interchange Format (QIF), so that you can import these transactions into your Quicken account. The problem with this approach is that typically the bank has no way of assigning meaningful categories to the transactions. So, if you care about categorizing your Quicken transactions, you must go through each transaction you have just imported in Quicken, and add categories. QIF Wizard automates this process.
Some banks and credit card companies also produce transaction histories in QFX or OFX format. OFX is an open standard format, and QFX is a Quicken-specific variant. Quicken can import QFX format (Quicken calls this Web Connect) and match transactions with transactions already in your register. This matching is useful, but if you like your transactions automatically categorized, you might prefer to process the QFX or OFX with QIF Wizard, which will convert it to QIF and add categories. If all you have available is OFX, you cannot import it into Quicken, but you can convert it to QIF and then import it.
QIF Wizard adds Quicken categories based on the description (e.g. payee) of each transaction. To convert a QIF file, just drop it onto QIF Wizard. You can configure QIF Wizard as a browser helper application for files of type application/qif to have it run automatically on downloaded QIF files. The resulting file can then be imported into Quicken.
Investment Transactions: Although recent versions of Quicken for the Macintosh have allowed investment transactions to be downloaded into Quicken, in many cases the downloads are incomplete and sometimes wrong. An alternative approach is to use QIF Wizard to extract QIF from your investment firm's transaction history web page and import that QIF into Quicken. Investment information is not produced in QIF format by the investment firms; to get QIF you must use QIF Wizard to convert the transactions on the web page into QIF.
CSV Files: QIF Wizard will also convert comma-separated value (CSV) files into QIF.
Finally, QIF Wizard also performs other useful transformations on any financial data it can process, producing output data as CSV or tab-separated entries in text files. Thus, QIF Wizard can convert financial data from QIF, OFX, QFX, web pages, CSV, or tab-separated value files into QIF, CSV, or tab-separated values files.
Complete documentation for QIF Wizard is provided as help within the application.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When I try to run the program the system says it is from an unauthorized developer. How can I run the application? After you have moved it to the Applications folder, right-click or control-click the application. Ignore any message to trash the application (which may see on Mac OS 10.15+). If you see an “Open” button, click it. If not, click “Cancel”, then right- (or control-) click the application AGAIN. This time you should see the “Open” button. Click it and you will be asked again if you want to run the application. After you run the application once via this “Open” button, you will not be asked again and you can launch the application in any manner. If you are running macOS15 (Sequoia), follow the instructions HERE.
- I am moving my copy of QIF Wizard to another system. How do I move all my saved information (formats, instructions, etc.)? Your saved information is kept in your preferences in the file "us.theWoodwards.jplw.QIFWizard.prefs" in the "Preferences" folder in the "Library" folder in your home folder. Just move this to your new system along with the application. You can always get into the the "Library" folder by--in the Finder--using the "Go" menu with the option key held down and you will be able to select "Library" in the menu. From there you can navigate to the "Preferences" folder.
- How does QIF Wizard differ from QIF Master? There are 3 main differences:
- QIF Wizard is a 64-bit program, and will run on Mac OS 10.12+, including 10.15. QIF Master is a 32-bit program and runs on Mac OS 10.5-10.14.
- QIF Wizard has greatly improved functionality to define input formats to interpret data copied from browsers or other non-QIF/OFX formats. This functionality includes a much-requested "Back" button to go back if you make a mistake defining a format.
- QIF Wizard has improved confirmation displays, has greater compatibility with non-standard QIF (e.g. from Chase) and has fixed many bugs in QIF Master.
- I have already purchased QIF Master, do I have to pay again for QIF Wizard? Because QIF Wizard is a complete re-write of the application and will persist after Apple stops running 32-bit applications, there is a charge to purchase QIF Wizard. Users who purchased QIF Master after 1/1/2018 can get QIF Wizard for 1/2 price. Contact the author for details. Of course, you can continue running QIF Master on systems prior to Mac OS 10.15.
- Will QIF Wizard use my saved preferences and data from QIF Master? Yes.
- Where is Help available? Choose "QIF Wizard Help" under the "Help" menu . If you need to contact the author to report a bug or ask for help, please do so only by using the "Email The Author" function under the "QIF Wizard" menu. This will provide me with debugging info that allows me to better answer your question.
Release Notes
1.0 - Initial release
1.1 - Feature enhancements:
- Added support for csv (clipboards) with dates in format MMM/dd, where MMM is alphabetic, and dd is numeric, with no year.
- Added support for csv that starts with a date.
1.2 - (Not released)
1.3 - Fixed bug in support for certain date formats.
1.4 - (Not released)
1.5 - Bug fixes:
- Fixed bug when "Reformat Date As" is specified in an Output Format.
- Fixed crash when processing multiple files without re-launching.
2.0 - Enhancement and bug fix:
- Updated for Dark Mode on 10.14+.
- Fixed bug in interpreting dates in the clipboard upon launch, leading to a spurious error message.
2.1 - Compatibility enhancement and Bug fixes:
- Improved compatibility with Chase CSV downloads.
- Fixed bug in parsing dates when defining extract formats.
- Fixed version number in "Email the Author" emails".
2.2 - Enhancements:
- Improved compatibility with non-standard USAA CSV amounts.
- Improved user interface for defining CSV Input Formats.
3.0 - Enhancements and bug fixes:
- Added Touch Bar support for MacBooks so-equipped.
- Updated Help Viewer.
- Improved Dark Mode colors.
- Improved error messaging when an ouput format of a different type than the input is selected.
- Added ability to produce debugging information if you do not use a mail application.
- Updated icon.
- Fixed bug in creating Output Formats of the wrong type.
- Fixed rare bug causing registration to be forgotten.
4.0 - Updated for Ventura.
4.1 - Enhancements:
- Added preference to use input file name as the default output
file name.
- Added preference to suppress the "Finished Processing
Transactions" dialog.
5.0 - Enhancements and bug fixes:
- Updated Icon.
- Corrected terminology in prompt dialogs.
- Corrected help.
- Bug fixes.
5.1 - Enhancements:
- Updated for improved compatibility going forward.
- Improved feedback in create/edit instructions display.
- Improved feedback when in trial mode.
- Updated Help.
6.0 - Compatibility enhancement and bug fixes:
- Updated for Sequoia (macOS 15+).
- Fixed bug with creating an output format from the Control dialog.
- Fixed interface glitches in several editing dialogs.
QIF Wizard Copyright ©2019-2024 John Woodward. All rights reserved.
You may distribute QIF Wizard unmodified via any media as long as it is kept together with its Read Me file.