How do I import transactions from my bank or other financial software?

iBank can import transaction data from your financial institutions or other money-management software in a variety of formats. You can import transactions regularly to keep current with your bank's records, or just do a one-time import of your transaction history the first time you start iBank.

You can easily migrate your account data from other financial products like Quicken or Microsoft Money, or if you use PDA software such as SplashMoney or Ultrasoft Money to manage your finances you can import that data into iBank as well. iBank 3 now supports direct downloading as well, so that you can update your accounts at the click of a button!

Supported formats:

iBank can import transaction data from the following file formats: QIF (Quicken Interchange Format), OFX (Open Financial Exchange, sometimes called QFX) and CSV (Comma-Separated Value). It cannot import from CSV files that use two separate columns for the transaction amounts, nor can investment transactions be imported in CSV format.

Import options:

iBank can import transactions using any of the following three methods:

  1. By connecting directly to your financial institution and downloading transaction updates automatically (see Direct Downloads).
  2. By using the built-in web browser to visit your bank's website and let you download transactions manually (see Using the Built-in Web Browser).
  3. By importing transactions from an external data file (see below).

To initiate an import from an external data file:

If you are just getting started with iBank and want to begin by using the transactions you have stored in a data file, create a new iBank document, then choose File>Import and check "Create accounts for this file" in the window that appears. If you have already set up your accounts in iBank and want to add some transactions from a data file, select the account into which you want to import the transactions and choose File>Import. In both cases, the next step is to locate the data file containing the transactions you want to import, and click "Import."

Checking "Create accounts for this file" will cause iBank to automatically detect which bank accounts the transactions in the import file came from, and automatically add those accounts to your data file. Be sure to use this option only if the transactions you want to import do not belong in any of your existing accounts.

Another quick way to initiate an import is to drag and drop the data file from the Finder onto the iBank application icon in the Dock. If the QIF, OFX, QFX, and CSV file types are associated with iBank, all you have to do is double-click the data file in the Finder to initiate the import process in iBank.

Configuring import settings:

If the data file uses the QIF or CSV format, you will be asked to configure some additional settings before proceeding with the import. For more information, see Confguring Import Settings. If you are using OFX or QFX format, no configuration is required - continue on to Processing Imported Transactions.

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