Importing Budgets into QuickBooks Desktop from Excel (or Spreadsheets) via IIF

[@JessicaA-dg6fv]

hey yeah spent 3 hours digging through the Intuit forums...so 9 years later this video is STILL SAVING LIVES

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Cant belive its been 10

[@JessicaA-dg6fv]

@@HectorGarciaCPA hey i'm back! my imports failed miserably. i did not build my budget in the same exact way as you did but I did match to trial balance GL accounts and then created my own budget via budget export...when i import, only around 20% of the budget is being imported correctly...the rest of the GL accounts end up creating bank accounts for expenses!!!! what am i doing wrong?!?!?

[@JessicaA-dg6fv]

it looks like the bulk of my GL accounts are importing as BALANCE SHEET budget....how do i change this??

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

@@JessicaA-dg6fv i would need to see it, not sure what could be happening. Maybe the accounts names dont match

[@JessicaA-dg6fv]

@@HectorGarciaCPA quickly figured out that my budget template had included GL numbers whereas the export did not!!!

[@SusanAbel-k6c]

You are a very talented and knowledgeable instructor. Thank you for this and all of your accounting related videos!

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Glad you like them!

[@jacksonmacd]

This is fantastic. Until a week ago I had no idea that qb could do this month-by-month reporting, let alone create monthly budgets. I was duplicating so much stuff inside a spreadsheet. Then to discover this video about importing a budget from a spreadsheet is just the icing on the cake. I am going to revaluate my workflow. Thank you very much for an extremely useful video.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Awesome!

[@khandakermominur2649]

Hi man, I am facing a problem when importing IIF file to P&L. I found that some are not inputted at all also found that in Chart of Accounts these list are creating multiple. It would be grateful if you have a solution in this regards. Thanks from Bangladesh.

[@daviddasilva836]

Hector!! Thanks again! These sessions have been very useful. Definitely saving me more time to relax and spend time with the family.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

That’s the idea.

[@aliciachafin8120]

Thank you! You just saved me HOURS of work. 57 classes, I really did not want to hand enter all that!

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

That’s great.

[@beckeda1]

So you were able to upload the budget with classes? I could not get that to work

[@KJ99otis]

Thank you, Hector!! You are an excellent trainer. This video is concise and easy to follow. You have saved me hours of research and trial and error. 😊

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

great!

[@lucywoolums3708]

Thank you! Excellent tutorial!

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

:)

[@henryrobertsonneufvillejr3969]

Thanks Hector. You're awesome, sir. The video is an excellent tool.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

You welcome

[@jeffryjohn2508]

Can someone explain why the Sales/Revenue seems like negative in the budget? in the profit and loss in quickbooks, Landsape is showing as revenue. At first I thought it was an expense since it's showing as Credit on trial balance. But then in quickbook it is a revenue, but I was confused why it's set as negative in the budget. Appreciate it if Hector can reply to this or someone out there. Thanks!

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Its an accounting concept. Income, liabilities, and Equity are “credit accounts” which means they are negative in a trial balance when they are positive in the report Ignore what credit/debit means in the banking world.

[@helenamehr7554]

Does this method work for fiscal year budgets? I noticed that the demonstration was for calendar year. Some viewers comments appeared to notate that for fiscal year budgets the import does not allocate to correct time periods. Curious to know if there has been an update or work around for fiscal year end budget when using the import feature. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Calendar only :(

[@anntruongcpambaea7693]

Hi Hector - I followed your instructions carefully step-by-step. I kept getting this error message: "; [ERROR] It's a list or transaction that is not supported by the IIF import process. " What did I do wrong? Thank you for your help.

[@byronraco2545]

Hi Ann, did you figure this out? I get the same error.

[@cynnabon6200]

Hi everyone! I dont know if you will see but sharing. You have to choose "I'll fix it later" before import

[@shaneikakelly2202]

@@cynnabon6200thanks so much for this! Kept getting the same error!

[@mattyork4646]

@@cynnabon6200 You helped atleast one person. I was having this same issue. Thank your for your comment.

[@christinesullivan3508]

This was awesome information Hector. Thank you!

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

You welcome

[@carloscerezo5958]

Great Video Hector. Was able to import budget by class. I actually set up the new budget in the wrong year so I exported the file and then changed the year and then imported it. Worked perfectly. I had to hit fix errors later.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Oh ok, cool

[@moezbawania]

Hi Carlos, do you have some tips on how to import budget by class? I see in the comments here that Hector notes he hasn't tried it.

[@bassemtawadros7387]

Do I have to include the acct# next to the account name in the template?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

no, do account number or name.. not both

[@dougsmith5690]

Great tutorial Hector. I exported the Trial balance by month into 12 separate sheets, and then put them into another sheet to get all the actual numbers by month. It was a little more work, as the totals by month are cumulative, which meant that you have to subtract the previous month's amount to get the sales/expenses by month. It was nice to have the actuals for each month to work with to create the budget.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Doug Smith yes.. it took some finagling.. but good you were able to get it

[@oludarebalogun2440]

I have been having issues importing my data using the template described, this is an error each time I try to import it - It's a list or transaction not supported by the IIF import process. How can I solve this?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

The problem is Intuit doesn’t support it any more :(

[@mnclupo04]

@@HectorGarciaCPA does this no longer work? I keep getting this same error

[@hectorgiron1877]

Thank you, Hector, what if you have labor distributions or classes, how do you set that up?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

You can do a budget by class as well.

[@hectorgiron1877]

@@HectorGarciaCPA Thanks, Hector. I just tried doing IIF export and my brain was going in circles, we have over 30+ classes, so I think I will stick to the old manual entry on the budget screen, and divide the numbers by twelve, we also have multiple revenue and expense accounts. I appreciate your fast response

[@stevelanders4183]

Hi Hector, I love your videos. However I can't get this one to work. I get the error "; [ERROR] It's a list or transaction that is not supported by the IIF import process. " Any ideas?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Did you try the second IIF option? The one that said “I’ll fix it later”?

[@anntruongcpambaea7693]

Hi Hector, I encountered the same error message as Steve. I followed your instructions carefully and kept getting the same error. What did I do wrong?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Ann Truong, CPA, MBA, EA dis you try the “I’ll fix it later” option when importing?

[@anntruongcpambaea7693]

Hector Garcia CPA, thanks for the quick response. I did see “I’ll fix it latter” option but will look for it tomorrow and update you. I really appreciate your videos.

[@stevelanders4183]

Hector & Ann - I tried again today & don't see a "fix it later" option. It just says "we weren't able to import your file." Only options are "review now", "open in folder" & "close". When I download the error it says "; [ERROR] It's a list or transaction that is not supported by the IIF import process. "

[@AccurateLedgers]

Thank you for this helpful video. One question though. Credits represent the income accounts. Why are the credits negative?

[@lazarustawasha5315]

Hie Hector and thank you very much. Can an 18 month budget be created in Quickbooks?

[@johnscibal]

Can this work with a Mac using Numbers?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Not sure

[@rebeccaraige6595]

I kept getting errors. and when I tired to just have it upload it did not get the numbers at all. Is this still a valid way to do this?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

This is still valid. Not sure how you are doing it

[@madlene2011]

Thank you so much, great information

[@vijaypandey_vj]

Hi Hector, thanks for such a great content...i am facing an issue while uploading a bill on qb as an IIF file....IIF file for purchase bill has quanity details for the purchsed product but when i upload the IIF file, quantity details for the product are not being uploaded and qb is not even showing any kind of error...can you please help with what could be the possible reason and how to resolve the same. Thanks

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

probably an issue with your IIF file

[@thomasscaria9803]

Fantastic, it is a great tutorial.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

thomas scaria thanks, glad you like it

[@katiebolen-irwin9048]

Can you import a budget that is on a fiscal year? When I export my budgets it shows a 1/1 start, but our fiscal is 12/1 - 11/30. I import the new budget and it only fills in December for my fiscal year budget and updated my prior year budget in error. Thank you!

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

I have never tried it.

[@emoflo63]

Hi Katie, did you ever find a fix for this? Dealing with the same issue now..

[@emoflo63]

@@HectorGarciaCPA Hi Hector - has this option ever been explored? Have an October fiscal year end

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

@@emoflo63 i don’t think this has been fixed :(

[@daisybassgirl]

Our fiscal year starts in April. I had already started entering some figures when I found this tutorial, so when I exported the budget list as IIF, I noticed that the last 9mos of the first calendar year are on start date 2022-01-01 and the last 3 months are on a second line for 2023-01-01. Not sure how to quickly duplicate this though (we have over 800 lines in ours.)

[@maxamedcawil4564]

Thanks for effort to us.Allah helps you ever time.

[@chiragtolia]

Thanks, for the tutorial, Hector. The IIF file once exported from the file section is empty. The are no account names. How do I get the account names? Will it work if I copy and paste all the account names from the trial balance?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Chirag Tolia not sure what you are exporting

[@chiragtolia]

@@HectorGarciaCPA , I am exporting the IIF file by selecting budgets. However, when I export the file and open it in excel the column under ACCNT is blank. Thanks for checking :)

[@chiragtolia]

@@HectorGarciaCPA , it would be great if we can connect over email/phone so you can see my screen. I really need the help . Thanks.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Chirag Tolia if you need support, call my office to schedule

[@byambaah8332]

Hi Hector, I have watch your video and am doing the same. The issue that I am having is that when I import I get some duplicated accounts get created in the Chart of accounts, I have found that account names with less than 31 characters are ok, if over then Quickbooks creates a new account with abbreviated name. Can you please advise on how to fix, is there any settings?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Byambaa Oktyabri 31 characters is the limit of account name

[@byambaah8332]

@@HectorGarciaCPA Thank you for your reply. Since we have over 31 characters can you suggest what we can do?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Byambaa Oktyabri limit the account names to 31 characters.

[@wendymortus5371]

Thank you Hector! The video was very helpful. I was curious if you could import using account # vs account name?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Yes, you can use just the acct #

[@nickyrobinson9025]

@@HectorGarciaCPA Could you say how do you get the Budget to be exported with the account codes. Thanks so much

[@yolandacruz6121]

Hector I tried importing my IIF file but the numbers do not change in the budget. I didn't have a budget before and when I set it up it asked me if I wanted to set it up using data form last years P&L and those are the numbers in the budget. I have tried clearing it and importing the IIF file but I can't get it to work. Espero que contesta

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

It sure I could help this way.. i would have to login to see...

[@yolandacruz6121]

Hector Garcia CPA ya I just inputted it manually 😣

[@peatearY]

Awesome video! Very informational and learned a ton! I have a quick question though, I already have a budget that is created already from a different workbook on excel, would I need to invert all the values (positives into negatives and negatives into positives) before importing?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Not all the values.. just the ones that warrant it

[@Nicole-oo6xx]

Hector, are the steps the same for creating the IIF File by class?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Nicole never done it.

[@Nicole-oo6xx]

Thanks!

[@jawsilent13]

@Nicole, where you able to import a budget by class?

[@mandyuwu1817]

Hi Hector, how can i contact you for special training?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

[e-mail] Be specific if you need Desktop or online.

[@jeann165]

What if I was asked to do Budget by Class?

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

jeann165 never tried importing that...

[@aliciachafin8120]

you totally can, just change the class column to reflect which class. I did one import 3 different classes.

[@CaugustusWhite]

Great system for running bake sales, tracking your Etsy account activity, or operating a cleaning business. If you're a real company QB is absolutely useless compared to Sage or Oracle.

[@HectorGarciaCPA]

Sage and Oracle are also 10x to 100x the price, its not apples to apples comparison

[@CaugustusWhite]

@@HectorGarciaCPA thank you for validating my point that only those running home-based businesses and mom and pop shops should use QB, but if you have to run a real business you’ll put out the money for a real system.