Viewing your .IIF file / Previewing transactions before importing

You can examine the converted transactions before importing by opening the IIF file using Excel:

  1. Start Excel and select FILE > OPEN.
  2. Change the criteria "Files of Type:" selection to "ALL FILES" (on Mac, select "All files," not "All readable files"). You should now see a list of all files in the folder.
  3. Click the .IIF file you wish to examine and click the OPEN button.
  4. Excel will probably show its "Import Wizard" screen. Simply click the FINISH button and the file should open.
  5. Scroll through the file to get familiar with how the transactions are set up:
    • the first rows indicate the QB Accounts which are affected by this import. 
    • the next set of rows may indicate the QB Vendors or Customers that are affected by this import (these rows may or may not be in your file)
    • the bottom rows are the transactions.  The control account is on the TRNS row and the distribution account is on the SPL row.
    • If you are using the Lookup feature and want to know how the transactions were or were not matched, look through the transactions under the columns labeled "ACCT" and "NAME." 
  6. If you like what you see, close the file (without saving it) and use QB to import it. If you want to adjust the conversion, close the file and re-convert (do not edit the .IIF file).

NOTES:

1.  Do not double-click an .IIF directly from the folder to open it. That will start QB and that's not what you want. Start Excel > File > Open.

2.  Do not edit the .IIF. To make changes, adjust your conversion settings and/or lookup file and then re-convert until you obtain the desired result.