BooksReady

Square CSV to QBO for QuickBooks

In short: Square's transactions CSV has one row per payment or refund with dozens of columns: gross sales, tax, tips, total collected, fees and net total, the tender used, and the deposit that paid it out. A .qbo file is Intuit's Web Connect format: an OFX bank statement that also carries an Intuit bank identifier (INTU.BID). QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop read it without a column-mapping step. Drop the file below. It is converted on your device and never uploaded.

Convert your file

Square to QuickBooks (.qbo Web Connect)

transactions-<start date>-<end date>.csv

Your file stays on this device

It is read and converted by this page, inside your browser. Nothing from the file is uploaded, and the converter keeps working offline once the page has loaded.

One email when it ships. The address is used for nothing else. Details.

1. Export the file from Square

  1. Sign in to the Square Dashboard on a computer.
  2. Open Transactions and choose the date range.
  3. Click Export and choose Transactions CSV.
  4. Upload the downloaded file here.

Why a raw Square export fails in QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop

The Square transactions export is a CSV, not a bank statement file, so it has to be rebuilt as a statement of the money that went through your Square balance.

QuickBooks cannot read a payment app CSV as a .qbo file, and renaming the file does not help. A .qbo file needs the OFX statement structure, an account type that matches the QuickBooks account you upload into, and an Intuit bank identifier.

What is unusual about the Square file

  • One row per payment or refund, newest first, with Gross Sales, Tax, Tip, Total Collected, Fees and Net Total columns.
  • Amounts look like "$1,234.56" and "-$184.28"; fees are negative and Net Total is Total Collected plus Fees.
  • Sales paid in cash, by Square gift card or another non-card tender never reach a Square deposit, so they are left out; mixed payments keep only their card part. Gift card payments are not new income: the money came in when the card was sold.
  • Tips and gift card sales are not sales revenue: journal entries book them to their own accounts (Tips owed to staff, Gift card liability).
  • A non-zero Partial Refunds cell gets a warning, because it is not confirmed whether Square also lists that refund as its own row.
  • Deposit ID and Deposit Date say which deposit paid each row; rows not yet deposited have none.
  • Dates and times are in the Square account time zone and are used as written.
  • The file does not name its currency; amounts are treated as US dollars unless they show pounds or euros.

What QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop requires

  • OFX 1.0.2 SGML file carrying an Intuit bank id (INTU.BID 3000, a bank Intuit's published list shows as active for Web Connect).
  • QuickBooks US needs US dollars; QuickBooks Canada takes CAD or USD with bank id 2.
  • QuickBooks Online: up to 1,000 transactions and 350 KB per upload (we split bigger files between days where possible).
  • Each transaction id is built from its date, amount, description and platform id, so the same row in two overlapping exports gets the same id.
  • Credit card accounts must be exported with account type "credit card".
  • QuickBooks Desktop only imports Web Connect in its supported (recent) releases.

2. Before and after

Before: the Square transactions CSV as downloaded

Date,Time,Time Zone,Gross Sales,Discounts,Service Charges,Net Sales,Gift Card Sales,Tax,Tip,Partial Refunds,Total Collected,Source,Card,Card Entry ...
2024-08-24,15:20:01,Pacific Time (US & Canada),$19.05,$0.00,$0.00,$19.05,$0.00,$0.95,$0.00,$0.00,$20.00,Point of Sale,$20.00,Tapped,$0.00,$0.00,$0....
2024-08-24,12:00:00,Pacific Time (US & Canada),$15.00,$0.00,$0.00,$15.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$15.00,Point of Sale,$0.00,N/A,$15.00,$0.00,$0.00,...
2024-08-23,18:30:00,Pacific Time (US & Canada),$50.00,$0.00,$0.00,$50.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$50.00,Point of Sale,$30.00,Keyed,$20.00,$0.00,$0....
2024-08-23,10:00:00,Pacific Time (US & Canada),-$35.00,$0.00,$0.00,-$35.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,-$35.00,Point of Sale,-$35.00,Tapped,$0.00,$0.00...
2024-08-22,09:15:00,Pacific Time (US & Canada),"$1,234.56",$0.00,$0.00,"$1,234.56",$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,"$1,234.56",Point of Sale,"$1,234.56",Ke...
2024-08-21,08:00:00,Pacific Time (US & Canada),$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,Point of Sale,$0.00,,$0.00,$0.00,$0.00,,,$0.00...

After: what QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop receives

...
<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>CREDIT</TRNTYPE>
<DTPOSTED>20240822120000</DTPOSTED>
<TRNAMT>1234.56</TRNAMT>
<FITID>B9419E042A32B49BG</FITID>
<NAME>=HYPERLINK("http://example.inval</NAME>
<MEMO>=HYPERLINK("http://example.invalid") - Table, oak</MEMO>
</STMTTRN>
<STMTTRN>
<TRNTYPE>DEBIT</TRNTYPE>
<DTPOSTED>20240822120000</DTPOSTED>
<TRNAMT>-32.72</TRNAMT>
<FITID>B9419E042A32B49BF</FITID>
<NAME>Fee</NAME>
<MEMO>Fee: =HYPERLINK("http://example.invalid") - Table, oak</MEMO>
</STMTTRN>
...

Synthetic sample data that follows the real export layout, not a real account. The "after" output was produced from it by the same converter this page runs.

3. Import the converted file into QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop

  1. QuickBooks Online: go to Transactions > Bank transactions, click Link account (or Update) > Upload from file.
  2. Choose this .qbo file, pick the QuickBooks account to put it in, and click Continue.
  3. QuickBooks Desktop: File > Utilities > Import > Web Connect Files, choose the file, then pick or create the account.
  4. Review the transactions under For review and add or match them.

Questions

What happens to cash sales in the Square export?
Cash, Square gift card and other non-card payments never pass through your Square balance or a Square deposit, so the converter leaves them out and gives the total for each kind. When a sale was paid partly by card, only the card part is kept. Record cash with your cash takings. A gift card payment is not new money: it came in when the card was sold, so move it from your gift card liability account to sales instead of recording it again.
What does "QuickBooks is unable to verify the financial institution" mean?
It is commonly reported when the bank identifier (INTU.BID) inside a .qbo file is missing or not one QuickBooks recognizes. Files from this converter use 3000, an id listed as active for Web Connect in Intuit's published bank list. Intuit does not document exactly how QuickBooks Online checks the id.
Is the sales tax in the Square export my income?
Sales tax you collect through Square is part of the totals in the export. The converter keeps it inside the sale amount and tells you how much it is, so you can move it to a sales tax account. How to treat it is a question for whoever prepares your return.
Should I use .qbo or the QuickBooks Online CSV?
For QuickBooks Desktop, use .qbo: Web Connect is how Desktop brings in bank transactions. For QuickBooks Online either works. The .qbo file skips the column-mapping step, and each transaction carries an id built from its date, amount, description and platform id, so the same row converted from two overlapping exports gets the same id.

Other ways to convert Square

Other exports to QuickBooks (.qbo Web Connect)

Common import problems