CSV to QIF Conversion for Fidelity into Quicken/Windows

Derz

After Quicken was forced to abandon Direct Connection to Fidelity, and due to security concerns I have with the replacement Express Web Connect+ (EWC+), I decided to look into alternatives for getting Fidelity transactions into Quicken.

None of the CSV to QIF conversion programs I could find worked well. The effort to use them was not worth it. So I wrote one that is almost effortless. I am willing to offer what I have “as is” to anyone who might want to try it without cost. If interested, respond to this post. If there is interest, I will document and make the program available.

The Windows program will import a CSV downloaded from Fidelity and convert it into directly usable QIF Format for Quicken import without user modification. It supports multiple accounts, dividend merging, 12 transactions, Memos, Payees, and Categories- but only for Fidelity formatted CSV files.

Chris_QPW

That is really the key, that yours works only for Fidelity. Since there is no standard for the columns in a CSV file and none for the terms used for the transaction action terms (like buy, sell, …) any conversion generic conversion program has to push that complexity on to the user. Another approach is what I see Quicken added and that is pretty much a fixed format and leave it up to the user to somehow reformat the CSV file they have to this format and also deal with the different term problems. I have even seen financial institutions that don’t even have a transaction action field and one has to extract that out a description field.

One note to people that are going to go the CSV to QIF route. Starting with Quicken Subscription QIF file imports go directly into the register without any processing. This means no matching to existing transactions manually entered into the register (and for non-investment accounts no payee renaming of categorization using memorized payees).