CSV format reference

Almost every bank, card issuer, payment processor, and spreadsheet can produce a CSV file. Solid Accounting imports them with File → Import → Import Transactions… — the same wizard that reads OFX, QFX, IIF, and PDF statements — and exports reports to CSV from the Reports window.

CSV import brings in transactions for one account at a time: a bank statement, a card statement, a processor's activity list. It doesn't carry a chart of accounts, customer and vendor details, or reconciliation history. To move a whole company, see Migrate from QuickBooks® Desktop.

Supported files

The delimiter is detected automatically from the first few lines. .txt is accepted because some banks export statements that way.

Encoding. UTF-8 (with or without a BOM) is read first; files that aren't valid UTF-8 fall back to Windows-1252, which covers older bank and Excel exports. For anything else (Shift-JIS, Big5), open the file in a text editor and save it as UTF-8 first.

Quoting. Standard CSV rules: fields with delimiters or quotes are quoted ("Smith, John"), and quotes inside quoted fields are doubled ("He said ""hi""").

Import a CSV file

1. File → Import → Import Transactions…, then Import from file. You can pick several files at once, but import CSV files separately from bank (OFX/QFX) and IIF files.

2. Map Columns. The wizard asks Which columns are date, amount, and description? and pre-selects its best guess from the header names:

   • Date (required)
   • Description
   • Amount (one column) — or separate debit and credit columns when the file has them
   • Memo

   Tick Flip signs (credits are listed as positive) if deposits and withdrawals come out backwards.

3. Map Accounts. Say which of your accounts the file belongs to. Solid Accounting remembers this for future imports from the same source.

4. Review. Check the rows, uncheck any you want to skip, and post. Likely duplicates — including rows you've imported before — are flagged so they aren't posted twice.

Date and amount formats

Dates. These are recognized automatically:

A date that could be read either way, like 04/05/2026, is read US-style (April 5). If your bank uses day-first dates, change the export to ISO (YYYY-MM-DD) if it offers that option.

Amounts. A single signed column (-642.18), currency symbols ($1,234.56), parentheses for negatives ((642.18)), a trailing minus, and European decimals (1.234,56) are all handled.

Common bank export quirks

Export to CSV

In the Reports window, the CSV button saves the report you're viewing, at the Summary or Detail level shown — Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, A/R and A/P Aging, Trial Balance, General Ledger Detail, and the other row-based reports. The Business overview has no rows, so it has no CSV button.

Common errors

• A date can't be parsed. Usually one bad row — a manual edit, a footer line, or a second header. Fix or delete the row in the file and import again.
• An amount isn't a number. Often a header or total row. Delete it from the file and import again.
• Wrong number of columns in a row. Almost always an unescaped comma or quote in a payee name. Fix the quoting in that row.
• Duplicates detected. The review step lists likely re-imports so you can confirm them. Nothing is posted twice without your say-so.

Related: Import & Export overview · OFX / QFX format · IIF format · Banking (bank feeds instead of manual files)