What an OFX file is
OFX (Open Financial Exchange) is the format banks have long used for transaction downloads. Instead of columns, it holds tagged records: the account the statement belongs to, the currency, and for each transaction a date, an amount, a payee name and a unique transaction ID. It ends with the balance on the statement date. Because the file says what every value means, accounting software can import it without asking you to match columns or pick a date format, which is the usual reason people want OFX rather than CSV.
Many banks offer OFX (or the Quicken and QuickBooks flavours, QFX and QBO) only for recent months, and some not at all. Older months are often available only as PDF statements. That's the gap this converter fills.
Convert a PDF to OFX in four steps
- Drop the PDF statement into the box above, or choose it. Text PDFs are read in your browser in a few seconds.
- Look at the bar above the rows. "Every balance checks" means each running balance printed on the statement matches the transactions read, and opening plus transactions equals closing.
- If a row is highlighted, compare it with the statement and fix it in place: dates, descriptions and amounts are all editable, and the checks rerun as you type.
- Choose OFX. The same statement can be downloaded again, in any format, without using another credit.
What goes into the file
- Account ID. The account number printed on the statement, or the visible digits of a masked one (a card "ending 0942" becomes 0942). If no number is printed, Tallyrows uses a fixed 10-digit number worked out from the bank's name, so statements from the same bank get the same ID each month. Accounting apps use this ID to tell accounts apart.
- Bank ID. The sort code when a UK statement prints one, otherwise zeros.
- Transaction IDs. Every row gets an ID (FITID) that stays the same each time you export the same statement. The OFX standard uses these IDs so software can recognise transactions it has already imported.
- Payee and memo. OFX limits the payee name to 32 characters, so longer descriptions are cut there and the full text goes in the memo.
- Credit cards are written as credit card statements, so purchases come in as spending and payments as money in.
The file is OFX version 1.0.2, the plain-text SGML form. Accented letters are written without accents (Ó becomes O) because the file declares a plain ASCII character set.
Importing the OFX file
In most accounting software the import sits on the bank account itself. In Xero it's under the bank account's Manage account menu as Import a statement (step-by-step on the Xero page). Sage Accounting and FreeAgent both list OFX among the files their bank statement upload accepts. Pick the account the statement belongs to, choose the file, and check the date range before you confirm.
For QuickBooks, download QBO instead: it is OFX with the extra details QuickBooks' Web Connect import expects.
Limitations
- Quicken for Windows doesn't import plain OFX files (Quicken's own help says so); it takes Web Connect (.qfx) files from participating banks.
- An OFX file holds what the statement prints: dates, descriptions, amounts and the closing balance. Categories, cheque numbers and VAT aren't on the statement, so they aren't in the file.
- Scanned statements are read by the AI reader, which needs a credit pack once the daily free allowance is used.
Your first statement is free (every format, up to 30 pages, no sign-up). After that a credit pack is 10 statements for £9 or 50 for £29, with no subscription.
Related: Import a PDF bank statement into Xero · PDF statement to QBO (QuickBooks) · PDF to QIF converter