Banktivity Import: How to Import Transactions from OFX, QFX, QIF and CSV

TL;DR: Banktivity imports QIF, OFX, QFX, QMTF and CSV files. Banktivity's own guidance is to choose OFX, QIF or QFX when any of them is available, because those formats carry the most complete transaction data, and to fall back to CSV only when nothing else is offered. CSV import works, but you have to label every column yourself each time, and Banktivity cannot import investment data from a CSV at all. If your bank only gives you a PDF, convert it to OFX first, then import that.

Banktivity is one of the few serious Mac finance apps left, and most of the friction people hit with it has nothing to do with the app. It comes from the file the bank hands over. Below is what each supported format does well, where CSV costs you data, and how to handle the increasingly common case where the only thing your bank will give you for older activity is a statement PDF.

How do I import transactions into Banktivity?

Download a transaction file from your bank, then in Banktivity choose File and then Import, select the file, and tell Banktivity which account the transactions belong to. For OFX, QFX, QIF and QMTF files the fields are already typed, so the transactions land in the register with their dates, descriptions and amounts intact. For a CSV, Banktivity adds one extra step and asks you to assign a label to each column before it will accept the data.

After the import, Banktivity matches incoming transactions against anything already in the register so you do not end up with duplicates from an overlapping date range. Review the matched set, confirm the ending balance against your statement, and the account is current.

What file formats does Banktivity import?

Five, and they are not equivalent. The table below is the practical version of the decision.

Banktivity's documentation is unusually direct about the ranking: if the OFX, QIF or QFX format is available, choose one of those, because they contain the most comprehensive transaction data, and only pick CSV when none of the others is offered. That is worth taking at face value, because the difference shows up later rather than at import time.

Can Banktivity import CSV?

Yes. Banktivity accepts CSV files delimited with either commas or semicolons, and it prompts you to assign labels to each column of data in the file so it knows which one is the date, which is the amount, and so on. That flexibility is the point, since no two banks lay out a CSV the same way.

The cost is that the mapping is manual work you repeat for every new file, and a CSV carries no unique transaction identifier, so duplicate detection has less to work with than it does on an OFX. There is also a hard limit worth knowing before you commit to a CSV workflow: Banktivity cannot import investment data from CSV files. If you are bringing in a brokerage or retirement account, CSV is not an option and you need OFX or QFX.

Can Banktivity import from Quicken?

Yes, through files rather than a direct connection. Quicken can export a QIF, and Banktivity reads QIF, which is the usual migration path for people moving off Quicken on the Mac. A QFX file your bank produced for Quicken will also import into Banktivity, since QFX is the Open Financial Exchange format with an Intuit identifier attached, and Banktivity reads it happily.

The reverse is not symmetrical. Quicken is far pickier about what it accepts than Banktivity is, which is why a file that imports cleanly into Banktivity can still be refused by Quicken. If you are going the other direction, the differences between the three variants are laid out in OFX vs QFX vs QBO.

Why won't my file import into Banktivity?

Most failed imports come down to four things. The file is empty because the date range you selected at the bank had no activity in it. The date format in a CSV is ambiguous and the day and month have been read the wrong way round. The file is actually an HTML page the bank served instead of a download, which happens when a session expires mid click. Or the amounts carry currency symbols and thousands separators that turn a number into text.

The fix for all four is the same: open the file in a text editor and look at it before blaming the app. An OFX or QFX is plain text, and thirty seconds of reading usually tells you exactly what went wrong. For OFX specifically, a missing closing balance block or repeated transaction IDs will also cause trouble, and both are documented in the OFX file format reference.

What if my bank only gives me a PDF statement?

This is now the common case rather than the edge case. Most US banks keep a downloadable OFX or QFX available for a short window, often ninety days, and then offer nothing but a PDF for anything older. Banktivity cannot read a PDF, and it should not be expected to, because a PDF describes where text sits on a page rather than what a transaction is.

The route that works is to convert the statement first. A PDF to OFX converter reads the transaction table out of the statement and writes a valid OFX file with the posting date, description, signed amount and running balance for every line, which is exactly the format Banktivity prefers. Import that file the same way you would import one straight from the bank. Because the conversion does not depend on the bank's download window, this is also how you backfill years of history into a new Banktivity file rather than starting from whatever the last ninety days happen to contain.

Scanned and photographed statements convert too. Those go through OCR before the table is extracted, which is the same underlying approach used for extracting structured data from scanned documents in other back office work, and the accuracy you get depends mostly on how straight and evenly lit the capture is.

Which format should you actually pick?

Take OFX when you have the choice. It is an open standard, so nothing about it is tied to one vendor, it needs no column mapping, it carries the unique transaction IDs that make duplicate detection reliable, and it is the only route for investment accounts if CSV is your alternative. QFX is fine when that is what the download button produces. QIF is for legacy files and migrations. CSV is what you use when the bank has left you nothing else, and it is worth the extra mapping work only in that situation.

If you are converting statements yourself, the same rule applies to what you export. Produce OFX for Banktivity, GnuCash, Moneydance, MS Money and Xero, and produce QFX only when Quicken is the destination. The bank statement to OFX converter covers the broader workflow, and if you want to see what a transaction looks like before it reaches Banktivity, here is how to open an OFX file in Excel.

Sources: Banktivity support documentation on importing QIF, OFX, QFX, QMTF and CSV files, including its stated preference for OFX, QIF or QFX over CSV and the note that investment data cannot be imported from CSV.