What is an OFX file

Updated August 2026 · 5 minute read

An OFX file carries bank or card transactions in Open Financial Exchange , the specification Microsoft, Intuit, and CheckFree created in 1997 so institutions and finance software could exchange data directly. It is the format behind most banks' download-to-financial-software buttons, and QFX and QBO are its Quicken and QuickBooks flavors.

What is the OFX format and who created it

Before OFX, getting transactions out of a bank and into software meant proprietary formats or retyping. In 1997 Microsoft, Intuit, and CheckFree published Open Financial Exchange as a shared answer: one specification a bank could implement once and any compliant program could read. Early versions used SGML-derived markup; later versions moved to XML, which is why two valid OFX files can look quite different in a text editor.

An OFX statement file identifies the institution and account, states the period it covers, and then lists transactions, each carrying a posted date, an amount, a type, and a unique transaction id. The id is the quiet workhorse of the design: it lets software recognize entries it already imported, so overlapping downloads reconcile instead of double-counting.

Banks serve OFX two ways. Direct connect lets software log in and pull transactions over the OFX protocol itself, while web download hands you a file from the online banking export screen. The file you get from either path is the same kind of document.

OFX vs QFX vs QBO: one family, three names

The confusion around these extensions dissolves once you see them as one specification and two licensed dialects of it.

The OFX family of formats and which software each targets
Format	Relationship to OFX	Target software	Typical source
OFX	The open specification itself	Any finance tool that implements the standard	Bank export screens and direct connect
QFX	Quicken's licensed dialect	Quicken	The bank download option labeled for Quicken
QBO	The QuickBooks Web Connect dialect	QuickBooks Online and Desktop	The bank download option labeled for QuickBooks

The dialects add product-specific expectations on top of the shared structure, so each product wants its own flavor and a swapped file extension is not a conversion.

What opens an OFX file

Desktop personal finance managers and a good share of accounting packages import OFX statements natively, which is exactly what the standard was for. Spreadsheet software does not: Excel has no built-in understanding of OFX, so double-clicking one gets you markup, not a table. When the destination is a spreadsheet, a CSV download from the same bank screen is the shorter road.

For a look under the hood, any text editor works. OFX is structured text, and the account number fragment, date range, and transaction list are all legible once you scan past the header tags.

Can you convert OFX to QBO

Structurally the two are siblings, and utilities exist that rewrite one flavor into another. LedgerBox is not among them and does not try to be: it reads no data file at all, OFX included, in any direction. Its input is always a document, meaning a PDF, scan, or photo of a statement, and its outputs are CSV, Excel, JSON, and the QuickBooks formats.

That distinction points each reader at the right tool. Holding an OFX file and needing QBO, you want a format utility. Holding the statement itself, you can skip the intermediate file entirely: LedgerBox extracts the transactions from the PDF and writes a Web Connect QBO directly, checked against the printed balances on the way.

One status note for completeness: LedgerBox does not currently offer an export with an .ofx extension. Its QBO export is an OFX document under a QuickBooks name, tested only against QuickBooks, and the OFX exports page tracks whether a general-purpose .ofx file has shipped.

Questions people ask

Is OFX still used?

Yes. Nearly three decades on, OFX remains a common way banks hand transaction history to software, both as downloadable files and through direct connections, and its QFX and QBO dialects are still the import route Quicken and QuickBooks prefer.

What is the difference between OFX and QFX?

OFX is the open standard; QFX is Quicken's licensed dialect of it. A QFX file follows the same structure with Quicken-specific expectations layered on, so Quicken wants QFX even though the files look nearly identical inside.

How do I open an OFX file in Excel?

Not directly, because Excel does not parse OFX. Either import the file into a finance tool that reads OFX and export a spreadsheet from there, or go back to the bank's download screen and pick CSV, which Excel opens natively.

How do I convert an OFX file to QBO?

With a format conversion utility built for the OFX family; LedgerBox is not one and cannot read the file. If you still have the underlying statement PDF, upload that instead, since LedgerBox writes a QBO from the document with no OFX step in between.

Does LedgerBox import or export OFX files?

It imports none, because its input is statement documents rather than data files. On the export side there is no .ofx file today, but the QuickBooks QBO export is an OFX document, and it is the one to try if your tool reads the OFX family.

Why does my bank offer QFX and QBO but not plain OFX?

Download screens tend to be labeled by destination product rather than by specification, so the Quicken and QuickBooks options are the OFX family wearing product names. Some banks do also list a plain OFX or generic download; coverage simply varies by institution.