QuickBooks™ bank CSV, 3 columns: dates, amounts and zeros
You build or tidy a bank file in a spreadsheet, save it as CSV, and QuickBooks Online (UK) refuses it or shows lines you did not expect. With the 3-column layout (Date, Description, Amount) the cause is usually in the spreadsheet.
Zeros have to be blank
Intuit's help says to leave an amount of zero blank, not to type 0 or 0.00. A bank export or a hand-built sheet is easy to fill with zeros, and an upload with them in the Amount column can fail.
Check by hand: filter the Amount column for 0, select those cells and clear them. Import Cleaner for QuickBooks does this for you, with a preview first and an Undo.
A day of the week in the date
A date written as Tue 03/03/2026 carries the weekday as text. Intuit's help asks for the date without it. The weekday is not lost by cleaning: the add-on moves it into a new Weekday column and leaves the date column clean.
A date can also look clean while its display format shows the weekday. The add-on tells those apart and changes only the format.
One date format, read the right way round
Use one date format throughout the file. Intuit recommends dd/mm/yyyy for a UK company. A date such as 06/03/2026 reads two ways, and a spreadsheet in a US locale will quietly read it as 3 June. Open the file you will actually upload, not the spreadsheet view, and check a date you know.
The ambiguity report lists every date that reads two ways, before anything is written.
The sign of the Amount
A 3-column file has one Amount column, with money in and money out told apart by sign. Intuit's one example shows a payment as a negative number, but its help does not spell out the rule beyond that. The add-on warns when a file has no negative amounts at all, and does not flip any signs for you.
Size, spaces and line breaks
- Intuit's help gives a limit of 1,000 lines and 350 KB per bank upload (500 lines on the Sole Trader plan). Split a longer file before you upload it.
- A space in a cell that looks blank is not blank to an importer, and trailing spaces can cause trouble. Removing them is free in the add-on.
- A line break inside a Description can break a CSV row apart.
- A file that arrives with semicolons between the fields, which Intuit's help mentions for Mac, lands in one column when opened in Sheets.
What a spreadsheet cannot tell you
Intuit's pages do not say which characters count as special in a Description, or how QuickBooks matches headings that differ only in case. The add-on explains these as warnings and leaves your cells alone. Its checks follow Intuit's published help as at the build date, which can change.
Check the file before you trust it
Import Cleaner for QuickBooks™ scans a QuickBooks export, or a sheet you are about to upload, and explains every finding. The full scan, every explanation and Undo are free, and your data stays in your Google™ account. It edits the spreadsheet only and never connects to QuickBooks.
About Import Cleaner for QuickBooks — not yet on the Google Workspace™ Marketplace.
Google, Google Sheets™ and Google Workspace™ are trademarks of Google LLC. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Intuit Inc. QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Import Cleaner for QuickBooks is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.