Viewing your .IIF file / Previewing transactions before importing
You can examine the converted transactions before importing by opening the IIF file using Excel:
- Start Excel and select FILE > OPEN.
- 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.
- Click the .IIF file you wish to examine and click the OPEN button.
- Excel will probably show its "Import Wizard" screen. Simply click the FINISH button and the file should open.
- 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."
- 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.