How to export and import account information in Microsoft Money

This article describes how to export your account information from any version of Microsoft Money, and then import the information into an earlier version of Money.

Note Any version of Money can automatically convert .mny files that were created in any earlier version of Money that were created for the same region (country).

Overview

All versions of Money except Microsoft Money Essentials can read and write Quicken Interchange Format (QIF) files. You can use this feature to export your account information from one version of Money and then import the information into any other version of Money.

Money cannot export a closed account to a QIF file. Reopen any closed account that you want to export before you try to export it. After you import the account into the new Money file, you can close the account again.

Money cannot export a loan account to a QIF file. If you want to move information about a loan account to a different version of Money, you must re-create the loan account in the new Money file. You may want to print your loan information, and then use the printed information to re-create the loan account in the new Money file. To do this, create and print a Loan Terms and Loan Transactions report.

If you want to transfer several accounts to a different version of Money, you may want to print a list of accounts, and then mark off each account on the list as you export it.

To do this, create and print a Customized Net Worth Report that is organized by Accounts (not Account Types).

For information about how to create and print reports, see your Money printed documentation or Money Help file.

How to export accounts from Money

1. Use your current version of Money to open the file that you want to export.
2. On the File menu, click Export.
3. Click Loose QIF, and then click OK.
4. In the File Name box, type the name for the account that you want to export, and then click OK.
5. When you are prompted to select the type of account that you want to export, click the appropriate account type (Regular or Investment) for the account that you want to export, and then click OK.
6. In the Account List box, click the account that you want to export, and then click Continue.
7. When Money is finished exporting the account, click OK.

Repeat these steps for each account that you want to export.

Click the Play button to view this streaming media demonstration.

Note When you are exporting multiple accounts from Money, you must name each file according to the account that you are exporting. For example, see the following scenario. You have three accounts in your current Money file that you want to export. The accounts have the following names:

• Woodgrove Bank Checking
• Woodgrove Bank Savings
• Woodgrove Bank Investment

When you follow the previous steps to export each of your accounts, in step 4 where it asks you for a file name, name each file according to the account that you are exporting. For example, the first exported file will be called Woodgrove Checking.qif.

How to import accounts into Money

1. Click File, and then click New.
2. In the File Name box, type the name that you want to use for the new file, and then click OK.
3. Open the Account List.
4. Create a new account that has an opening balance of zero for each account that you exported from the other version of Money.
   
   Note If you exported multiple accounts from the other version of Money, you must create all these new accounts with zero balances before you go to step 5 to avoid problems with your transfer transactions. You can delete unwanted accounts later.
5. On the File menu, click Import.
   
   For Microsoft Money 2005 and later versions of Money, click File, click Import, and then click Recover Accounts.
6. In the list of files, click the QIF files that you want to import.
   
   To select multiple files, press and hold down the CTRL key as you click to select each file.
   
   Note If you want to import multiple accounts into your new Money file, you must import all the files at the same time to avoid problems with your transfer transactions. You can delete unwanted accounts later.
7. Click Import.
8. Click As a new or recovered account, and then click OK.
   
   Note You will not be prompted to choose a new or recovered account in the following scenarios:
   • You are using Money 2005 and later versions of Money.
   • You are importing multiple accounts at the same time.
9. In the Select Import dialog box, match the QIF file to the correct account, and then click OK. Repeat this step for each QIF file that you import.
   
   Note Read each Select Import dialog box very carefully to learn about the information that you are importing, and where you are assigning the information in Money.
10. When Money is finished importing the files, click OK.

Click the Play button to view this streaming media demonstration. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

QIF file information

QIF files do not contain all the information that is stored in Money files. Therefore, you will lose some information if you import the QIF file into a different Money file. In particular, you will lose some "extra" information that is stored with categories, payees, accounts, and classes. For example, you will lose budget amounts and tax flag on categories, shortcuts, comments, payee telephone numbers and addresses, and so on.

Note If you are using ":" or "/" characters in account names or category names, those characters will be replaced with "#" in the QIF file. This occurs because ":" and "/" are used as separators in QIF files, even though they are not reserved characters in Money's account and category names.

When you export the selected account to a .QIF file in Money, one of the choices that you have in the Export dialog box is the Strict .QIF Compatibility option. If you will import the file into older versions of Quicken, select the Strict .QIF Compatibility option to receive the following differences:

• Category names longer than 15 characters are truncated.
• Extended characters (> 127) anywhere in the file are replaced with "#".
• Voided transactions are written with an amount of $0.00.
• Only the first Classification group (if one exists) is written. Any transactions that have a second classification will not have the later classification information written.

If you will re-import the file into Money, do not select the Strict .QIF Compatibility option.

How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you import files

For more information about problems that may occur when you import or download your statement from your financial institution, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about how to troubleshoot problems that may occur when you restore a Money backup file, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about how to convert Quicken data files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: For more information about how to export Money data to Excel, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: