Quicken is the most popular personal finance software in the United States, but the Mac version has historically been lacking compared to its Windows counterpart. Dunn is confident that the.
Intuit is not a Mac friendly company. They make an OS X version of Quicken, but it is artificially crippled in order to try to get banks to pay them money. Intuit will only let you import files from banks that pay extra to let their customers download transactions into Quicken for Mac. The fact that you paid for Quicken and the bank paid for a Quicken server isn’t enough. They want the banks to pay another fee for their Mac users–even though there is no additional hardware or software involved. The end result is that Mac users get a product that will only work with a handful of banks.
This article discusses a method to get around this limitation. Me: Why can’t I import a QFX file into Quicken Mac. Quicken: Because your bank doesn’t support Mac QFX files. Me: But they are both text files based on the OFX standard.
Quicken: But banks decide which formats they want to support. Me: Are you telling me that there is a difference between an QFX file for a Mac and one for a PC. Quicken: Yes they are different. Me: Why would people use OFX if it was limited to only one platform? Quicken: I don’t know. Me: Ok on a bank that supports the “Mac format” there is only one link to download. How can it be a different file?
Quicken: I don’t know, but banks have to support the Mac format for Mac users. Me: I’m looking at a QFX file right now from a bank that supports Macs and one that doesn’t. The file format is identical. Quicken: No they are different. It was at this point that I realized I was not going to get anywhere with tech support. So I started trying to figure out what was causing the problem myself. I don’t know what it is like to use their PC product, but from an OS X standpoint Quicken is Evil.
It isn’t that their product is bad, it is that they follow absurd business practices that will make your life miserable if you are using something other than Windows. If you go to the Quicken site and look at their list of supported banks, it looks very good and reassuring. Most major banks are listed, so it should be no problem to download and import transactions. The problem is in the fine print. Very few of the banks support “Quicken for Mac”. This seems odd because the OFX, QFX and QIF file formats are completely independent of the operating system.
In fact that is the whole point of OFX–to have a platform independent way of representing financial data. It should work on PalmOS, OS X, Windows, Linux, HPUX, anything. In older versions of Quicken and other money management software, you’d simply download a.QIF file and import it. QFX can work the same way, but it contains additional information about your account and bank.
Most banks have upgraded to using QFX (WebConnect) because it helps prevent repeat transactions so you don’t have to be as careful about selecting the exact dates for import. It turns out that when you try to import a QFX file, Quicken looks at the ID of the banking institution in the file and then goes to the Intuit web site and asks if it should allow you to import the file. Intuit’s site sees that the request is coming from a Mac and then checks to see if the bank with that ID is listed as supporting the Macs. If they don’t Intuit sends back a message telling Quicken to not allow the file to be imported. Banks have to pay Intuit extra money to say that they support Mac. Since the number of Mac users is smaller than PC users, many banks don’t pay the extra fee.
In my opinion this amounts to artificially crippling their product for Mac users. The files are identical for any type of computer. Whenever the Quicken application transmits a ‘Request for Authorization to Permit’ (call it a RAP) to Intuit, it takes time for the message to travel to Inuit, more time for Intuit to process the message and formulate the response, and still more time for the responding message to travel back to the user’s computer and be gated into the application. During all that time, the application sits idle awaiting Intuit’s message. When it does arrive, the application compares what it receives with its built-in rules to decide whether it is authorized to proceed with the download. Once authorized, it will stop watching for a ‘letter from home’, and it will proceed with the download.
Any conversation that goes on between the Quicken application and Intuit must follow standard OS X communications protocols and travel on the same internal hardware bus that is used by every software application that talks over a modem port So: What if a hack where designed to:. Detect whenever Quicken sends a RAP to Intuit;. Whenever such is detected, the hack Immediately puts the desired response onto the bus, addressed to the Quicken application. It would seem that Quicken would process the message just as if it came from Intuit. By the time Intuit’s transmission arrived, it would be too late — the Quicken application would already have smiled upon the OFX file and would be busy with the download. Intuit’s message would probably not even reach the user’s Mac until it was all over.
Would that be practical? I think that is definitely something that would work. However injecting something back into the running program without crashing it seems like it might be pretty difficult.
As far as I can tell the easiest solution would be to setup a server that will respond to any request as if it was Intuit saying that the bank supports Macs. This server wouldn’t even need to look at the contents of the request, it would just need to respond “yes” in whatever manner the client is looking for. Once the server was in place, users would just need to trick OS X into routing the requests to this server instead of to Intuit. This is fairly trivial and amounts to adding a line in the hosts file. Something like: authserver.intuit.com 67.123.123.123 where the ip address is the address of the server that will allow any bank code. Once this type of server was in place, everyone could use it by simply adding a single line to their host file.
I tried changing the ofx file as indicated, using Merrill Lynch for Vanguard. I did not change broker id which is long. I continue to get the financial institution cannot be verified message. I cannot import a qfx file, or open the qfx file, only import a webconnect file that is on my desktop, but the message seems to indicate it is going to the institution on the web., Any ideas? Thanks for the info so far. I’ve just switched to Mac and except for the quicken problem, I’m very happy.
But quicken is a real disadvantage. I’m keeping my windows pc just to be able to use quicken on windows to manage my finances. But I keep trying to get mac quicken to at least minimally work. It sounds like people are having trouble getting this method to work with investment accounts. My first guess is that the numbers I provided in this article are for a checking/savings account. Investment accounts may require using the BID and USERID for a company that is setup for Quicken and uses Investment accounts. Also, Melanie, you have to manually download the QFX file from Chase Bank’s website.
You don’t want Quicken to automatically open the file, so you’ll have to do a “Save As” or “Download File” from your browser. Finally a better solution for investment accounts (for me, at least). There’s a shareware program mentioned in a Macworld article — find it here: It requires some first-time setup and may have some quirks to be found. But for me, at least, it’s a lifesaver.
It will let me take the downloaded QFX file from my investment account and convert it to a QIF file that I can then import into Quicken. Much better than manually entering 20 transactions or more each month. I think this guy has earned his shareware price from me. Many thanks – the Wash Mutual info did the trick for my checking account. I too despise Intuit’s business model and have looked for alternatives to it for Mac, such as iBank and Moneydance, but they are not there yet. Too bad, because Quicken and Quickbooks, which I use for business make no attempt to serve Macs.
Their updated programs seem to be half-hearted patches – rotten meat for an unwanted pet that can’t break free rather than juicy steaks for a pet that is so loved it doesn’t want to run away! So, there is a program that can really help with this conversion. It even has an option for adding a custom bank ID to the file as it converts it from OFX to QFX. It takes some digging to find it, but you bascially have to set one of the parameters to the ‘OFX’ default script to the BID you want in the file. I am also having trouble with UK currencies.
There’s a sweet list of ID’s ALREADY on your HD. C: Documents and Settings All Users Application Data Intuit Quicken Inet Common Localweb Banklist fidir.txt Thanks to this guy:. I went through that tech support nightmare four years ago — Bank of America said it was an Intuit issue.
Intuit said it was a Bank of America issue They adamantly denied it was any problem of Intuit’s, which I could just not see. The missing piece was the extra fee the greedy buggers charge.
Now it makes sense. I attempted this hack myself, but didn’t have the codes right to trick the server.
I’ve used QIFMaster for three years now. Works great once you set it up. There is a big setup time as you train QIFMaster on how to read and then export the transactions in the data file.
But once you do that, it makes things really quick. I tried letting it run on auto a couple of times, but I prefer to manually review each entry as QIFMaster converts it for the small things (getting the date right). One thing of note about QIFMaster is that it is just a translator — if you give it bad data, you’ll get bad results. I’ve d/l the transactions from my bank on occasion with overlapping periods with the result of having duplicate entries end up in the Quicken file. Not QIFMaster’s fault, mine, but something to watch out for. I appreciated the article MacWorld did showing alternatives to Quicken. I want a viable alternative to Quicken.
Intuit bought out and then drove out all decent competition on the mac and then let the product rot : They fail to follow Apple user interface guildlines routinely — the print dialog anyone? The current version I’m using will be my last version of Quicken — it came with my last iMac I bought 4 years ago. I’ve already received the eol notices from Intuit — upgrade or be exiled/left out in the cold/excommunicated.
I need to look at iBank again and check out Moneydance. Just hate converting to a new system. Now, if only Intuit had not bought up ItsDeductible!, I’d be ready for an Intuit free world However, we donate too many things to not use ItsDeductible which is tied to MacInTax, oh no wait, TurboTax for the mac grrrrrrrrrrfffffffff Thank you for the informative article! I have Quicken 2002 Deluxe for Windows.
I download Web Connect Files (files ending with QFX) onto my computer hard drive. Then I open Quicken, click on a suitable account and click on FileImportWeb Connect File and navigate to and click on the QFX file. The last time I was able to do this was in Nov2007. I tried this again on 03feb2008 and Intuit CRIPPLED my Quicken program. Here is how it happens. After I navigate to and click on the QFX file for FinancialInstitution1 (FI#1), Quicken (that is QW.exe) connects thru the internet to ofx-prod-brand.intuit.com, and then thru the internet to a web site for FI#1.
Then a message from FI#1 (really it from intuit.com) that says “INTUIT HAS DISCONTINUED ONLINE SERVICES FOR QUICKEN 2002”. Then another message that says “Quicken is unable to verify financial institution information for this download. Please try again later.” Now my Quicken is CRIPPLED for FI#1. After that, whenever I navigate to and click on a QFX file for FI#1, Quicken does not connect thru the internet, and only the 2nd message appears. But if I navigate to and click on a QFX file for FI#2, the complete process as described above is repeated. Now my Quicken is CRIPPLED for FI#2.
Here is how I recovered from this unfair and unethical action of Intuit. I had a BACKUP of key Quicken Files. I restored 5 files (Q3.DIR, files ending with QEL,HCX,QSD,QDF). I download QFX files onto my computer hard drive as before. I instructed my firewall to block Quicken (QW.exe) from connecting to any address on the internet. Then I open Quicken and import the QFX file for FI#1 into the Quicken account for FI#1.
Another way to block Quicken from connecting thru the internet is to disconnect the internet cable or the phone cable from your computer before opening Quicken for importing the QFX file. Alas, I suspect the majority does not have a BACKUP. Then perhaps an uninstall and reinstall of Quicken might work. This is speculation on my part as I have not tried it.