.iif file upload problem

PalmettoCommerce · ‎January 31, 2019

We recently changed banks. Our .iif file downloads worked fine from the old bank but we have been having problems with the downloads from the new bank. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to identify the problem and think that I may have a clue at this point.

Our .iif file has three heading lines:

!TRNS TRNSID TRNSTYPE DATE ACCNT NAME AMOUNT MEMO DOCNUM CLASS
!SPL SPLID TRNSTYPE DATE ACCNT NAME AMOUNT MEMO DOCNUM CLASS
!ENDTRNS

When downloading the .iif file we get messages like
Error on Line 6: Can’t record invalid transaction and
Error on Line 73: You can’t change the type of a name or add duplicate name.

At the end of the upload, we end up with ‘two’ new bank accounts:

Unknown
9_____835-Demand Deposit

The two bank accounts show the same totals but one is a negative number and the other a positive.

Based on my own review, it seems that there are two problems:

Two bank accounts are being generated instead of one.
In the .iif file it looks like any transaction that has an TRNSTYPE of “PAYMENT” results in an error (Can’t record invalid transaction)

(I think that I can address the ‘You can’t change the type of a name or add duplicate name’ error message).

We first encountered this problem with a company file that he was working with so decided to try it with a QuickBooks sample company account and ran into the same problem…so I don’t think that it’s a problem with the software (QB Premier Ed. 2016).

Any insight into the problem would be appreciated. Screen shots associated with this problem can be seen on the attached.

Anonymous · ‎February 02, 2019

On issue is that the transaction types in the IIF file are wrong. A "PAYMENT" is a customer payment on account and will always use an A/R account on the SPL line, and never "Unknown", unless you've named your A/R account "Unknown". Also, each Payment should use a known customer name in QB.

It is unlikely that your bank will have any knowledge of your PAYMENT transactions, which won't use your bank account directly. PAYMENTS should not be in an IIF file from a bank.

Also, unless you have named your bank account "[removed]-Demand Deposit" then the remaining transactions, which can be imported, will be imported into that account. Really, the bank should ask you what your bank account is called and put that in the IIF file.

QB is auto-creating new accounts when they are encountered in the file. Since they're not explicitly added, QB adds them using the default type, which is bank.

View solution in original post

BettyJaneB · ‎January 31, 2019

Hello there, @PalmettoCommerce.

It's nice to have you in the Community today. I'd be glad to assist with uploading your bank transactions into QuickBooks.

If the transactions are coming from your bank, you'll need to reach out to our financial institution to verify why is it showing on the incorrect account. This is because QuickBooks is only dependent on the transactions that were transmitted from your bank.

However, if the transactions are from a third party application, you'll need to check on the settings to map the accounts correctly. QuickBooks Desktop does not receive data through automatic sync since it's an offline product. Data is instead exported to an Intuit Interchange Format (IIF) file, which you will then download and upload it to your QuickBooks Desktop account.

To learn more about importing files in QuickBooks, please check out this article: Import Intuit Interchange Format (.IIF) files.

There you have it!

Please let me know if you're referring to something else by replying into this thread. I want to make sure everything is accurate on your end. Have a good one!

Anonymous · ‎February 02, 2019

On issue is that the transaction types in the IIF file are wrong. A "PAYMENT" is a customer payment on account and will always use an A/R account on the SPL line, and never "Unknown", unless you've named your A/R account "Unknown". Also, each Payment should use a known customer name in QB.

It is unlikely that your bank will have any knowledge of your PAYMENT transactions, which won't use your bank account directly. PAYMENTS should not be in an IIF file from a bank.

Also, unless you have named your bank account "[removed]-Demand Deposit" then the remaining transactions, which can be imported, will be imported into that account. Really, the bank should ask you what your bank account is called and put that in the IIF file.

QB is auto-creating new accounts when they are encountered in the file. Since they're not explicitly added, QB adds them using the default type, which is bank.

Anonymous · ‎February 02, 2019

@BettyJaneB

RE " QuickBooks Desktop does not receive data through automatic sync since it's an offline product."

My QuickBooks Desktop does. I download data from banks directly into QB all the time. My QB is not an offline product.

qbteachmt · ‎February 03, 2019

@BettyJaneB

Please learn from this input. You seem to be confusing Direct Connect (for desktop, this is a synchronized hot connection when you open Banking Center) and Web Connect (the import of the qbo banking file) and this .iif question, which bypassed Banking Downloads entirely and is Encoded data.

@PalmettoCommerce

It appears you have a couple of things here.

The Banking is using Account Names you don't have in your file, so it creates them as Bank. For example, the Demand Deposit seems like a lockbox or EFT Clearing account; that means this Is the Source account as Bank Type (the actual Transaction account), and the Unknown is the Checking account; I am doing my best to interpret what I see, of course. The PAYMENT as transaction type is a problem at your Bank; they used the wrong Coding for QB .iif. I have been hired by US Bank to help their programmers on this exact type of issue, so you would need to communicate to your Bank about this. Where they show "Payment" is probably your Check Entry = Your spending.

Does your bank not provide ".qbo" data? Using .iif is cumbersome and really old school.

MarieBookkeeper · ‎April 08, 2019

Thank for an easy fix to my iif file import problem when upgrading to 2019 Pro

kushwahdiv · ‎May 31, 2019

If you have face the same problem again in future than you have to visit my site(open dll file) to fix the error permanently.

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