How to import Quicken QIF files into TallyMint

QIF (Quicken Interchange Format) is the file format Quicken and many older desktop finance apps use to export data. If you are moving to TallyMint, a QIF import is the fastest way to bring your accounts, transactions, categories, splits, and transfers across. This guide walks through the whole process, including the import plan that lets you decide exactly where each account lands. It applies to both the Windows app and TallyMint Web: the importer is the same in both.

Step 1: Export a QIF from Quicken

Use Quicken's File → Export to create a QIF file that includes your accounts, transactions, and categories. Quicken's exact menu wording and options vary by version, so follow whatever export path your copy of Quicken offers under the File menu. Save the QIF file somewhere you can find it easily, like your Desktop.

Exporting does not change your Quicken file, so you can keep Quicken installed and re-export any time if you want to redo the import.

Step 2: Open Settings then Import

In TallyMint, open Settings and go to the Import / Export tab. Click Choose File and select the QIF you exported. TallyMint reads the file and moves you to a preview and mapping step. The same Import tab also handles OFX/QFX and CSV files, so it is where all imports start.

Step 3: Review the import plan

TallyMint shows an import plan with one row per account found in the file. Each row has:

• A checkbox to include or skip that account.
• The account in the file, with its type and transaction count.
• An "Import into" selector that chooses the target account.

TallyMint matches accounts by name: if the file's account name matches one of your existing TallyMint accounts, that account is preselected as the target. Everything else defaults to creating a new account with the name from the file. You can override any row: point it at a different existing account, or leave it set to create a new one. Every account is included by default, so importing all of them is just a matter of confirming.

Step 4: Choose how categories are handled

When the file contains categories that do not already exist in TallyMint, you will see a "Create missing categories automatically" option, which is on by default. Leaving it on means TallyMint creates those categories for you during the import, including nested category hierarchies, so your transactions land in the right place. If you turn it off, TallyMint shows a mapping table where you can point each unmatched category at an existing one or leave it uncategorized.

Categories created this way arrive typed as income or expense the way Quicken had them, so a paycheck category does not land as an expense and throw off your budgets. Tax-relevant markings come across as well: when the file marks a category as tax related, TallyMint ticks Tax relevant on the matching category so it counts in your Tax Report, and the completion screen tells you how many categories were marked.

Both of those work the same way, and it is worth knowing the rule: the file describes, it never overrules. A category you already have keeps the type you gave it, even if the file disagrees. Importing can only add a tax marking, never remove one you set yourself. And in a file that also contains transactions, a category the file merely describes is never created on its own, only the ones your transactions actually use.

Importing a category list on its own. Quicken can export just your categories, with no transactions attached. TallyMint accepts that file too: it shows you how many categories it would create and how many you already have, lists the new ones, and the button reads Import categories so you know nothing else is coming across. Here every category in the file is created, since that is the whole point of the file, and the same describe-never-overrule rules apply to the ones you already have. This is a good way to bring your category structure over first and import transactions afterwards.

Step 5: Transfers between accounts

Cross-account transfers pair automatically. When you import several accounts from one file, TallyMint links the two sides of a transfer so it is recorded once as a movement between your accounts rather than twice as unrelated entries. Transfers display with the bracketed [Account Name] convention, the same way Quicken shows them, so the other side of each transfer is easy to read at a glance. If a transfer's counterpart account was not part of the import, that side still comes in as a single bracketed entry, so nothing is lost.

Transfers inside split transactions come across too. A Quicken split line that points at another account imports as a real transfer line within the split, with its matching entry created in the other account, so a paycheck split that sends part of the deposit to savings survives the move intact.

Step 6: Investment accounts

If the file contains investment accounts, TallyMint flags them with an Investment account badge and shows a note explaining how they import. They are included by default, just like your other accounts. Buys, sells, reinvested dividends, and stock splits come in as cost-basis transactions that build each account's holdings and value it at market value. Share removals (the one action QIF cannot describe with enough detail to compute basis) are skipped and listed as warnings, so nothing imports with made-up tax numbers. Cash movements still come across: contributions, withdrawals, transfers in and out, and miscellaneous income and expense land in the account's cash balance rather than on the holdings side. To learn what happens after the import, see the investments guide.

Step 7: Run the import and review the results

Run the import. When it finishes, the completion screen shows a per-account table of how many transactions were imported and how many were skipped, with a total at the bottom. If anything generated a warning, for example an investment row that could not be imported, you will see a list with a button to copy all the warnings so you can review them later. Open an account and check that the transaction count and ending balance match what Quicken showed.

QIF quirks TallyMint handles

Real-world QIF files from Quicken have a few undocumented formatting habits. TallyMint's importer is built to handle them:

• Space-padded dates. Quicken sometimes pads single-digit months and days with spaces. TallyMint reads them correctly.
• Apostrophe year separators. Dates written like MM/DD'YY are normalized during import.
• Category hierarchies. Nested categories written with colons come across as parent and subcategory.
• Splits. Transactions split across several categories keep their split lines, and a split line that is a transfer to another account keeps its transfer link.

TallyMint reads QIF dates in US month/day/year order. If transactions land on the wrong day, the source file is likely using day/month order; re-export from Quicken with US date settings and re-import.

Other formats TallyMint imports

QIF is not your only option. From the same Settings → Import / Export tab, TallyMint also imports:

• OFX / QFX: the formats most banks use for downloadable transaction files.
• CSV: useful for spreadsheets or exports from apps that do not offer QIF. TallyMint finds the header row and works out which column is which, so a file that opens with a few lines of account information above the headings, or one that names its columns differently, still imports.

Between QIF, OFX, and CSV, you can bring history in from almost any source.

Frequently asked questions

Related: What is a QIF file? · How to move off Quicken · Track investments · Quicken alternative