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valeriedelaney
Level 1

Is it possible to import a chart of Accounts in Excel into Quickbooks for Mac? Under File->Import options, Chart of Accounts is not listed as an option.

I am setting up a new company and have received the existing company accounting info in Excel (chart of accounts and all general ledger activity since the beginning of time.  At the very least, I'd like to be able to import the Chart of Accounts....best case scenario would be to be able to import the GL transactions as well so I can run comparative reports. 

4 Comments 4
westplumbing
Level 1

Is it possible to import a chart of Accounts in Excel into Quickbooks for Mac? Under File->Import options, Chart of Accounts is not listed as an option.

To export the chart of accounts to excel, open the chart of accounts, go to File, Print Lists.  Under Print to, choose File.  The default is ASCII so drop the menu down and change to comma delimited file and click print.  This will export it to Excel as a CSV file.  In excel: File, Save As, chose .xlsx

IntuitBrooks
Level 9

Is it possible to import a chart of Accounts in Excel into Quickbooks for Mac? Under File->Import options, Chart of Accounts is not listed as an option.

You can use the iif format and import it that way.  The best way to see what the iif should be is to export the chart of accounts to iif from one of the sample companies (or from your company).  You will then have to massage the Excel file after exporting it to a text file format. 

nomisela
Level 1

Is it possible to import a chart of Accounts in Excel into Quickbooks for Mac? Under File->Import options, Chart of Accounts is not listed as an option.

having the same problem. The video tutorials make it sound so easy for the Windows version: File-->import-->excel. I cannot find a single tutorial where they explain that it is different for Mac users and how to go around it.  It took a lot of searching just to get to this question you posted and a not so easy solution. Why is it not available in the Mac version?
IntuitBrooks
Level 9

Is it possible to import a chart of Accounts in Excel into Quickbooks for Mac? Under File->Import options, Chart of Accounts is not listed as an option.

There's always multiple reasons for feature disparity. In this case the primary one is it is much easier to implement this on Windows as the Windows OS has something called OLE that is used to do inter application communication. OLE, being a Microsoft thing, is very well supported by Excel, a Microsoft product.

It is possible to do something similar on the Mac OS using AppleScript but it isn't particularly well supported. But beyond that it comes down to feature requests from users. We did add support on the Mac for importing things in a spreadsheet like manner (File->Import Contacts/Transactions etc) but we don't allow import that way of accounts for some reasons.  

In any case, you can import accounts using File->Import IIF.   The best way to see the format you need is to open a Sample Company file and choose File->Export->IIF.  Choose Accounts.  That will give you a file you can look at too see how it is formatted.

As always when importing IIF make sure you make a backup prior to importing.  That way if something goes wrong you can go back to the backup and lose nothing.

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