1. Your chart of accounts CSV
A CSV saved from Excel, Google Sheets, another accounting package or a QuickBooks export. For customers, vendors and items use the QuickBooks import CSV check.
Choose a file or paste the text, then click Check file.
Result
Rows
| Line | Name | Detail |
|---|
Safe fixes
The model, and what it leaves out
- Account Name is required and unique; a sub-account is written
Parent:Child, with the parent's row first. Number is optional but unique when used. - Type must be one of the fifteen QuickBooks account types, and each account needs a Detail Type; a near miss is reported with the likely type.
- Balance and Balance As Of: only balance sheet accounts carry an opening balance, it must be a plain number, and it needs an as-of date in one consistent date order.
- Headings are advisory. QuickBooks lets you map columns by hand, so an unfamiliar heading is a note, not an error.
- Safe fixes change only delimiter, heading capitals, stray outer spaces and money formatting. It never edits an account name, number, type, detail type or date.
- Not checked: that QuickBooks will accept the file today, whether each detail type fits its account type in your edition, tax mappings, and anything Intuit changes in its importer. Import a few accounts first.
Common questions
Why does my QuickBooks Online chart of accounts import fail or skip accounts?
The usual causes are an account type QuickBooks does not recognise (Expense instead of Expenses, Checking instead of Bank), a detail type left blank, an account name or number used twice, a sub-account listed before its parent, and an opening balance on an Income or Expense account. This tool tests each of them and names the line.
What are the QuickBooks account types?
Bank, Accounts receivable (A/R), Other Current Assets, Fixed Assets, Other Assets, Accounts payable (A/P), Credit Card, Other Current Liabilities, Long Term Liabilities, Equity, Income, Cost of Goods Sold, Expenses, Other Income and Other Expense. A near miss such as Expnses is reported with the likely type.
How do I import sub-accounts?
Write the full name as Parent:Child in the Account Name column, and put the parent's row first. If the parent already exists in the company it need not be in the file. The tool notes a parent that is not in the file and flags a child that comes before its parent.
Can I import opening balances with a chart of accounts?
Only on balance sheet accounts, and with a balance as-of date. Income, Cost of Goods Sold and Expense accounts take their balances from transactions, so a balance on them is flagged. Balances must be plain numbers; the safe fixes turn $1,200.00 into 1200.00 and (300.00) into -300.00.
What does Apply safe fixes change?
Only things with one reasonable reading: the delimiter, heading capitalisation, stray spaces around a cell and money formatting. It never edits an account name, number, type, detail type or date.
Is it safe to put my chart of accounts into a web page?
The page runs in your browser, the file is read locally and nothing is uploaded; a test in the code asserts there are no network calls.
What does this not check?
Whether QuickBooks will accept the file today, whether each detail type is valid for its account type in your edition, tax mappings, or anything Intuit changes in its importer. A clean result is not a promise of success: import a few accounts first.