Specifications of Intuit's .QFX Format?

mad.frog asks: "I recently upgraded my ancient version of Quicken to the latest (Macintosh) version, with the intention of being able to download my credit card transactions directly from my bank into Quicken, rather than entering all that stuff by hand. As it turns out, almost no banks support doing this for non-Windows platforms (not surprisingly, Intuit doesn't point this out on the package). But here's the weird part: the information downloaded is just an xml-like text file (.QFX). Anyone know how (or why) they would make such a generic file platform-specific -- what business advantage does Intuit (or my bank) have in restricting how I use this information? Also, does anyone happen to know details of this (apparently undocumented, Intuit-specific) format so that I can hack mine into submission and use this data anyway, even if it's not on my bank's Platform Of Choice?"

Comments

perl

[delorean]

My bank's wouldn't import right. They weren't using windows linefeeds.... they didn't set the cleared flags, either. What use is that?
la lalala! Perl to the rescue.
I did an export, examined the code, and wrote a little script to fix the downloaded file into what I needed (replace linefeeds, add the cleared flag).
Here is my code; it might be good for starters. Not sure what the new version needs.
------------
print "I fix QIF files!\n\nEnter Filename: ";
chomp($filein=<STDIN>);
print "Working on $filein.\n";
open (FLN, "<$filein");
@raw=<FLN>;
close FLN;
open (FLO, ">Fixed_$filein");
foreach (@raw)
{
chomp $raw[$a];
print FLO "$raw[$a]\n";
$test=(substr $raw[$a], 0, 1);
if ($test eq "D")
{print FLO "C*\n"; }
$a++;
}
close FLO;
print "Finished!\nhit return and close window.";
<STDIN>;
-----

QFX - The Royal Scam

[Anonymous Coward]

Intuit is a bastard of a company.

I happen to use Quicken 2001 on a Mac.

When I switched banks at the beginning of the year, I asked if they supported Quicken.

They said, "Yes. You can download your transactions into Quicken."

I didn't dig any further since, my assumption was, once I get the file downloaded, Quicken should just import the data. Well, that's not quite the case.

I go online and download the a "Web Connect" (QFX) file for my account and it gets saved to my desktop. I flip over to Quicken and say "Import Web Connect". Quicken opens the file, proceed to connect to the internet and reports back "Quicken is currently unable to verify the financial institution information for this download. Please try again later."

Hmmm... that's strange. Why did it go online? Why didn't it just import the file?

After a few days of trying different things and talking to the bank, I decided to break down and call Intuit Tech Support ($1.95/minute). After being on hold for awhile and talking to a technician, I am told "Your bank doesn't support Macs". The rest of the conversation was along the lines:

Me: "What do you mean?"

Tech: "You can't download transactions into Quicken from your bank because they don't support Macs."

Me: "That doesn't make sense. My bank is not the issue. I have the QFX file - which is the same file that I would get if I were on a PC - Quicken is just refusing to import it."

Tech: "That's because your bank doesn't support Macs."

Me: "I already have the file from the bank; Quicken just needs to read it in."

Tech: "Quicken needs a QFX file formatted for Macs. Your bank would need to pay to have different servers for Macs."

At this point, I knew I was screwed. So, I started thinking, what information can Quicken be sending when it goes online during an import? The OS, probably. But, what else? I fired up BBEdit and opened the QFX file. They probably wouldn't send account or transaction info - leaving mainly the following parameters:

ORG (Bank name)
FID (Some ID internal to Intuit)
INTU.BID (Same as FID)
BANKID (Bank Routing Number)

So, for kicks, I called up a buddy of mine who has an account at another bank that has "Mac Access" and asked him to download a QFX file and give me those parameters.

A quick BBedit ... fire up Quicken ... click Import:

Viola! The file imported with no issues. All the online connection does is connect back to Intuit and ask "Has this bank paid for Mac support?" - if the answer is "no", the import is stopped.

Now, since I don't use any Quicken Online Banking features, I can't vouch for how it affects those (I would expect them to fail since the routing numbers are wrong). But, as a pure import facility, there are no issues doing it this way.... which happens to be the only feature that most people I know use (importing vs. Quicken Online Banking).

So, Intuit is going out of their way to make pay for "Mac Support" when it doesn't cost them a cent more. Sure, development of Quicken for Mac might cost more, but that's why it's double the price of the PC version. We pay for certain functions in Quicken - importing transactions is one and to prevent us from doing so because they want more money from our banks just doesn't seem right.

Re:QFX is basically just OFX

[truth_revealed]

GNUCash can import OFX/QFX files.

QFX is OFX

[Watcher]

The QFX file format is a standard implementation of OFX. For those not in the know, OFX (Open Financial eXchange) is an XML standard for financial data exchange. This is supported by a number of third party financial software providers (including my glorious employer). If your bank doesn't have OFX support, then you're pretty much up a creek. QIF, Intuit's older data format, is pretty much dead now. I don't know if they still support it, but from what I've been told support is sunsetting rapidly.

I don't know who told you that no banks support QFX/OFX for non-windows platforms, it is a platform independent standard. Unless, of course, your bank purchased a windows/IE specific solution. I know our software does work on mac versions of Quicken (I wrote it), and if they follow the intuit example code it is trivial to write.

The OFX standard, including the DTD, can be found here

Re:The Problem of Importing and Online Banking...

[delorean]

I'm not sure I follow you.
I enter my debit card receipts every night (and then my budget spreadsheet since the Intuit budget feature is worthless...). Weekly, or at least every payday, I download the QIF file from my bank (and fix it with my perl script); I then import it. Each record is either a) matched to any entry, or b) flagged new by Quicken.
I then scroll down the list and verify that the matched entries are the same (sometimes flipping back to the browser to see the name). Accept, Accept, UnMatch, Manual... and then I'm done. I've just reconciled my checkbook. If I had a double charge, I would (and have) see it.
What's wrong with that picture?