What is OFX Format?
OFX stands for Open Financial Exchange, a standard announced by Microsoft, Intuit, and CheckFree on January 16, 1997. It was created to establish a universal format for transferring financial data between banks, accounting software, and personal finance applications.
The format uses XML (Extensible Markup Language) tags to structure financial information. Early versions (1.0 through 1.6) relied on SGML for data exchange, but later versions adopted XML for better compatibility. In 2019, the OFX consortium joined the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) consortium, which now manages the OFX specification.
What OFX Files Contain
- Transaction details (date, amount, description, payee)
- Account information (account number, type, institution)
- Balance data (opening balance, closing balance)
- Bill payment information (if applicable)
Why Use OFX Format?
OFX is the preferred format for importing bank statements into QuickBooks, Xero, Microsoft Money, Quicken, and most accounting software. Unlike CSV files that require manual column mapping, OFX files contain standardized tags that accounting software recognizes automatically.
This means faster imports, fewer errors, and no manual field matching. When you import an OFX file, your accounting software reads the XML structure and maps transactions to the correct accounts immediately.
Bank Statement to OFX Conversion Methods
There are several ways to convert PDF bank statements to OFX format. Each method has different requirements for technical expertise and time investment.
| Method | Time Required | Technical Skill | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual Entry | 2-3 hours per statement | Low | Prone to errors |
| Python Scripts | Setup: 4-8 hours, Run: 15-30 min | High (coding required) | 70-85% |
| Generic Converters | 20-45 min per statement | Medium | 75-90% |
| Zera Books | 30-60 seconds | None (automated) | 99.6% |
Step-by-Step: Converting Bank Statements to OFX
Get Your Bank Statement PDF
Download your bank statement from your bank's online portal. Most banks provide statements in PDF format. You can also use scanned copies or photos of paper statements.
Upload to Zera Books
Sign in to Zera Books and upload your bank statement PDF. The platform automatically detects the bank format using Zera AI, trained on millions of financial documents.
AI Extracts Transaction Data
Zera AI processes your statement and extracts all transaction data with 99.6% accuracy. This includes dates, amounts, descriptions, running balances, and account information. The system handles both digital PDFs and scanned documents.
Select OFX as Output Format
Choose OFX from the export format options. Zera Books structures the data according to the Open Financial Exchange specification, creating properly formatted XML tags for your accounting software.
Download and Import to Accounting Software
Download your OFX file and import it directly into QuickBooks, Xero, or any accounting software that supports OFX format. The file is ready to use with no additional formatting required.
Pro tip: For QuickBooks, you can rename the .ofx file to .qbo or .qfx - they use the same specification and QuickBooks will recognize any of these extensions.
OFX vs. QBO vs. QFX: What's the Difference?
You may encounter three file extensions for bank statement imports: .ofx, .qbo, and .qfx. All three share the same Open Financial Exchange specification with minor differences:
- .OFX - Generic Open Financial Exchange format, compatible with most accounting software
- .QBO - QuickBooks-specific extension with additional QuickBooks metadata
- .QFX - Quicken-specific extension with Quicken application details
In practice, these files are interchangeable. QuickBooks Online supports OFX imports generally, so it will accept QFX and QBO files similarly. You can rename a .ofx file to .qbo for QuickBooks Desktop compatibility.
