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The Control dialog is displayed whenever QIF Wizard has input to process. QIF Wizard can receive input from a file or via the clipboard. QIF Wizard processes a file when:

  • a file is dropped on its icon,
  • a file with the extension .qif .QIF, .qfx, .QFX, .ofx. or .OFX is double-clicked,
  • started via a browser download when QIF Wizard is configured as a helper application for files of type application/QIF , application/qfx, or application/ofx or
  • when using the Process File... command under the File menu.

QIF Wizard processes the clipboard when:

  • QIF Wizard is started without a file and the clipboard contains text with a date,
  • QIF Wizard is brought forward and the clipboard contains text with a date, or
  • when the Process Clipboard... menu item is selected.

QIF Wizard looks at the input--whether from a file or from the clipboard--to determine whether it contains QIF. If it does, it is processed as described in Processing QIF Input below. If the input does not contain QIF, QIF Wizard determines whether it is in the QFX or OFX format. If it is, the QFX/OFX is converted to QIF and processed. If the input is neither QIF nor QFX/OFX, QIF Wizard attempts to extract QIF from the text using an import format, as described below in Extracting QIF From Text.

As you process transactions they are placed in the output file you specify. If you cancel out of processing transactions, you have the option of producing a Continuation File (which has the extension.qifm). You can open the Continuation File later to continue processing the transactions, For more information on Continuation Files, click here.

Processing QIF Input

What if my QIF has the description in the memo field?

What if QIF Wizard Incorrectly Assumes a File Contains QIF?

Converting QFX/OFX to QIF

What if my QFX/OFX has the description in the memo field?

Extracting QIF From Text

Defining Input Formats For Extracting QIF

Producing Output In Formats Other Than QIF

Using The Same Date For All Output Transactions

Using The Same Number For All Output Transactions

Stopping in the Middle of Your Transactions (Continuation Files)


Processing QIF Input

An example Control dialog for a QIF input is shown at the below. The Control dialog has four distinct areas.

The Input area displays information about the input being processed. In the case of a QIF file, it contains the name of the file, the format of the file (QIF), and the type of account specified in the file (if any). The type can be Bank or Credit Card. If the input case from the clipboard, Clipboard would appear instead of the file name after From.

The second area concerns the account for which the transactions in the file are intended. If you have not selected the Give me the option to append output to the same file used last time preference, then this area reminds you that you must ensure you import into the proper account in your financial software when importing the QIF. See below for an example where this preference is checked.  If you have specified a non-QIF output format (e.g., to produce csv--comma separated values), and the output format specifies to put an account name in the output, then you will be able to enter an account name here.

The third area allows you to specify which transactions from the input to process. You have three options.

  1. You can process all of the transactions. For bank and credit card QIF you will probably use this option, since your website likely allows you to specify which transactions you want to downloaded.
  2. You can specify that last month's transactions should be processed. This option makes sense if you process transactions monthly, and your bank or credit card company has an option to download the last 60 or 90 days transactions. You might find this easier to use than specifying a custom date range in your bank or credit card's website.
  3. The can specify a custom date range. If you click the Continue From Where I Stopped Last Time button the custom date range will automatically be set to continue the day after your last usage of the custom date range. This is useful if you download your transactions at irregular intervals and want QIF Wizard to remember where you stopped last time. See below for an example of what a custom date range looks like.

The fourth area concerns the format of the output, the date used for output transactions, the number used for output transactions, and the file for output of the processed transactions. The default output format is QIF. However, if you want to produce output in comma-separated or tab-separated values, you can define an output format other than QIF. The rest of this section describes the use of the Control dialog when producing QIF output. For information on producing output other than QIF, click here.

If you have not selected the Give me the option to append output to the same file used last time preference, then this area reminds you that you must specify the output file after you click the Process The Transactions button. See below for an example where this preference is checked.

The dialog below shows the same QIF file being processed as above except that the Give me the option to append output to the same file used last time is checked in the Preferences and a custom date range has been specified.

With this preference checked, you must specify the account for the transactions. This account will automatically be stored in the output QIF, and will be used by your financial software to direct the transactions to the account. (If you specify this preference you must export your accounts from your financial software into a QIF file and then take the resulting file and drop it on the QIF Wizard icon or open it from within QIF Wizard.) You can enter the name of the proper account in the highlighted field. As you type, the name of the first account that matches what you have typed will be auto-completed. You can also select the down-arrow and select an account from the list that appears. The Process Transactions button will remain dimmed until you enter an account name.  If your input was QIF and contained an account name, that account name is automatically

This list will normally contain only accounts of the type shown in the Input area. You can force all bank or credit card accounts to be shown if you check the Let me choose from all bank/credit card account names preference.

Note that you also have the option, in the Output area, to specify whether you want to append the transactions from this file to the same file that you used the last time. By default, this option is checked. The purpose of this option is to allow you to download transactions for several account at the same time, into the same file, and then do a single import into your financial software. You will have this option only if the file you used last time still exists.

When you click Process Transactions the transactions you specified will be processed as described in Bank/CC Transactions.


What if my QIF has the description in the memo field?

Some bank and credit card companies produce QIF that has the description in the memo field, and something less meaningful, such as "Purchase" as the description. In this case, you may want to swap the description and memo fields so that categories are chosen based on the more meaningful memo field. To do this, select QIF (Swap Description And Memo) or QIF (Swap Description/Memo & Change Signs) in the Format popup menu (see screenshot below). The two fields will be swapped only if the memo is non-blank.

Note that there is a preference that performs a similar, though different function. See the If description is blank, treat memo as description preference.

You can also swap the description and memo on a per-transaction basis. For example, consider the transaction shown in the following dialog.

In this case, the meaningful information is in the memo, and you have already defined an instruction for "Staples". So you can just click the Swap Description and Memo button, and you will no longer need to specify an instruction, because the instruction for "Staples" will be used. The result is the following dialog, assuming that you were confirming all transactions.

Note that you can also swap the description and memo from the Confirm Transaction dialog.

 

You can also change the sign of QIF amounts. To do this, select QIF (Swap Description And Memo) or QIF (Swap Description/Memo & Change Signs) in the Format popup menu (see screenshot below).


What if QIF Wizard Incorrectly Assumes a File Contains QIF?

In rare cases QIF Wizard might assume that file contains QIF when it does not. This could occur if the first few characters of the file appear to be valid QIF. If this happens, just select Don't Treat As QIF in the Format popup menu (see screenshot below) and QIF Wizard will treat the file as text from which you can extract QIF, as opposed to QIF itself.


Converting QFX/OFX to QIF

If the input has the QFX or OFX format, QIF Wizard will automatically recognize the format and convert it to QIF. In this case, the Control dialog will indicate the format as QFX/OFX as shown below.


What if my QFX/OFX has the description in the memo field?

Some bank and credit card companies produce QFX/OFX that has the description in the memo field, and something less meaningful, such as "Purchase" as the description. In this case, you may want to swap the description and memo fields so that categories are chosen based on the more meaningful memo field. To do this, select QFX/OFX (Swap Description And Memo) in the Format popup menu (see screenshot below). The two fields will be swapped only if the memo is non-blank.


Extracting QIF From Text

An example Control dialog for non-QIF non-QFX/OFX text is shown below.

The Account, Transactions To Process, and Output areas are exactly the same as for QIF input (see above). It is the Input area that is different. The input area in this case specifies that the input came from the clipboard. If the input came from a file, the file name would be shown instead. The Format specifies that the clipboard came from the American Express Brokerage web site. The Account Type specifies that the clipboard contains investment transactions.

The Format could have been specified by the user, or it could have been guessed by QIF Wizard. When you create an Input Format, you give QIF Wizard a text string that appears in downloads of the format, if possible.  When QIF Wizard encounters this text in a clipboard, it fills in the Format field accordingly. This is only a guess though, and you need to make sure that the correct Input Format is specified before processing the transactions.

By default, the guess is the Input Format whose match string has the longest match in the input text. This scheme works well in many cases when extracting from web sites. If you find that this scheme does not work well for you, you can go to the Extracting tab in the Preferences and turn on the Match formats with FIRST MATCH instead of LONGEST MATCH preference. With this preference on, the format whose match string matches nearest the beginning of the input text is guessed.

When you click on Process Transactions, the transactions you specified are processed in a manner depending on their type. If they are investment transactions, they are processed as described in Investment Transactions. If they are bank or credit card transactions, the are processed as described in Bank/CC Transactions.


Defining Input Formats For Extracting QIF

The first time you process a particular type of input text, you must teach QIF Wizard the format of the text by creating an Input Format. To do so, enter a new format name in the Format field and hit return while the cursor is in the field. For more information, see Defining Formats For Investment Transactions, Defining Formats For Bank/CC Transactions, or Defining Formats For CSV/SSV Transactions.


Producing Output In Formats Other Than QIF

Normally, QIF Wizard produces QIF output, placing the output in a new file or appending to the file used previously. Optionally, you can produce CSV or tab-separated output. To produce these types of output, QIF Wizard needs to know which fields you want in the output, and in what order each field should appear. You must define output formats to produce output other than QIF. To define an output format, type the name of the format you want to define in the Format field of the Output section, as shown below.

After entering the format name, you hit return and the following dialog appears.

In this dialog you specify 1) whether you want fields separated by commas or tabs, 2) the transaction type for this format, 3) whether you want a single "Amount" field in the output, or separate "Credit" and "Debit" columns, 4) the specific fields you want in the output (including blank ones),  5) the order you want those fields to appear, and 6) whether or not you want the date reformatted upon output.

Once you have defined an output format, you can select it as the output format.

Had you specified to output the account in the output format, you would be able to enter an account in the control dialog.

When you are using an output format other than QIF, your options for appending to existing files are different than for QIF. If the file QIF Wizard used for output last time no longer exists or is not of the same type as the output format, then the control dialog will appear as above, giving you the option to append to a file you select. If however, you produced CSV output last time (in a .csv file) and are producing CSV output this time, then the Control dialog will appear as follows:

You now have the option to append to the same file as last time (QIF Wizard.csv in the example above) or, by pulling down the menu, a file you specify.

Click here for information on how to edit an output format once you have defined it.


Using The Same Date For All Output Transactions

By default, the date of each input transaction is used in the output. However, if it is your custom to use the end of the month or the date you actually process the transactions, you can specify that a particular date be placed in every output transaction. To do so, check the "Use same date for each transaction" option in the Output portion of the Control dialog and enter the date you want to use, as shown below.

If you specify to use the same date, the confirmation dialog will not contain the control to allow you to adjust the date, but will indicate the original date and the date that will be used for the output, as shown below.


Using The Same Number For All Output Transactions

Some transactions, including credit card and some bank transactions, contain numbers, such as check numbers or credit card reference numbers. Normally, these numbers appear in the output. However, you can optionally specify a constant number to be used instead in the output. To do so, check the "Use same number for each transaction" option in the Output portion of the Control dialog and enter the number you want to use, as shown below.

In this example, by leaving the number blank, you would be suppressing the numbers in the output.


Stopping in the Middle of Your Transactions (Continuation Files)

If you Cancel while processing transactions, by default you are given the option to create a Continuation File so you can continue later where you left off. When you click Cancel you get the dialog shown at the right. If you click Continue Later, a Continuation File will be created. You can change the behavior of the Cancel button in this dialog or in the Preferences.

When you Continue Later, you are prompted to specify the name and location of the continuation file, which is created with the extension .qifm. When you create a Continuation File, the output file is not changed. Continuation files contain the transactions you have already processed as well as those yet to be processed.

When you open a Continuation File, all of the Control dialog settings are the same as when you created the Continuation File, and cannot be changed. All you can specify is the output file. You continue exactly where you left off. If you were confirming all transactions, you can even use the Back button to revisit transactions you had already completed. You can also Cancel and create yet another Continuation File.

Continuation Files contain all the information needed to complete the transactions. For investment transactions, this includes the Input Format you used. When you process investment transactions, you can change the format under certain circumstances (e.g., if you redefine a type or a security). For this reason, the real format will be used and modified if it still exists when you process the Continuation File. If the format does not exist, the one in the Continuation File is added back as a format and used.