QFX files are associated with Quicken financial software and are frequently used by financial institutions to maintain accurate records of credit card transactions and other data related to the field of finance. Files that contain the file extension .QFX are created by Intuit, hence the reason the letters QFX in the extension stand for Quicken Financial Exchange.
The primary purpose of a QFX file is to store data, so the file can be imported and exported into programs such as Quicken and GnuCash. Files with the QFX extension store financial data and do not contain other files or code which can be executed for the purposes of running a program or application. QFX files are not as common as other financial software files, so you may have trouble opening and viewing them if you do not have the appropriate software application installed.
How to Open QFX Files
If you have received a QFX file, you can try double clicking on it to see if it automatically finds the default program for opening and viewing the file. Since QFX files are not as common, this may not be possible, but at least you can rule out this possibility while saving yourself time in the event a program such as Quicken is installed on the PC you use.
If you are trying to open a QFX file using Windows, it is necessary to install Intuit Quicken or GnuCash on your PC. You can also opt to try the Fund Manager or Home Budget programs and in some cases you may be able to open QFX files with Excel provided you are using Microsoft Office.
For Mac OS X you can use Intuit Quicken Essential for Mac or GnuCash to open QFX files. GnuCash also works with the Linux operating system.
QFX Files and Microsoft Money
If you understand how to modify file associations, you can also open a QFX file in Microsoft Money to enable the QFX file to act as a form of an OFX (Open Financial Exchange) file. This is achievable especially when your financial institution provides you with a way to download the QFX file.
In order to use this method, you must have knowledge of working with registry files. If this is the case, you can create a .REG file in the root folder and then place the following registry instructions into the file: REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.qfx] “Content Type”=”text/qfx” @=”ofx.Document” [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.qfx\ofx.Document], [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.qfx\ofx.Document\ShellNew], [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\application/x-qfx] “Extension”=”.qfx” [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type\text/qfx] “Extension”=”.qfx”
Once you add this file to your registry, any QFX files you download to your PC will be converted to OFX files which will then be accepted by Microsoft Money.
Also, it is important to mention that this method is not recommended if you have other applications on your PC that utilize QFX files. Additionally you should never alter the registry in your PC if you do not understand how it works.
The last alternative is you can use a file conversion program which will convert a QFX file to a CSV file for use with a spreadsheet program such as Excel or OpenOffice Spreadsheet.
