Convert IIF to XML Online

Paste an IIF table below, edit it if you need to, and get XML back. The conversion runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded, there is no size limit and there is no signup.

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What IIF is

IIF is QuickBooks Desktop's import and export format: tab-separated, with several tables interleaved in one file. A line starting with an exclamation mark defines the columns for a record type, and the data lines that follow begin with that type's keyword.

QuickBooks Desktop users, and the bookkeepers who have to move data into and out of it.

What XML is

XML marks up data with nested named tags and optional attributes. It is verbose, strict about being well-formed, and can carry a schema that says what shape a document must have.

Enterprise integrations, government data feeds, RSS, SOAP services and older document formats.

What changes when you convert IIF to XML

The largest table in the file is used, which is almost always the transactions. A typical export holds TRNS rows for the transactions and SPL rows for their split lines; those are two tables, not one, and combining them would produce a column layout that fits neither.

Each row becomes an element with one child per column. Header names are rewritten where they have to be, because an XML tag cannot start with a digit or contain a space, so a column called 2024 Sales becomes _2024_Sales.

What carries over from IIF to XML

IIF records 2 things about a table that XML has no way to hold.

IIF distinguishes a number from the text of a number; XML does not, so every value arrives as text and has to be re-parsed by whatever reads it next.

XML has no header row. The column names are repeated as keys on every record instead, which is why the result is bigger on disk than the table it came from.

A worked example

Three rows of staff data, with an identifier that has a leading zero, a value containing a comma, a value containing quotes and one blank cell. Those are the four places formats disagree, so they are the four places to look.

IIF in
!TRNS	TRNSTYPE	DATE	ACCNT	NAME	AMOUNT	MEMO
!SPL	TRNSTYPE	DATE	ACCNT	NAME	AMOUNT	MEMO
!ENDTRNS
TRNS	CHECK	01/15/2026	Checking	Greenfield Grocers	-42.50	Weekly shop
SPL	CHECK	01/15/2026	Groceries	Greenfield Grocers	42.50	Weekly shop
ENDTRNS
TRNS	DEPOSIT	01/16/2026	Checking	Acme Ltd	1850.00	January salary
SPL	DEPOSIT	01/16/2026	Salary	Acme Ltd	-1850.00	January salary
ENDTRNS
XML out
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<staff>
  <row>
    <id>007</id>
    <name>Halima Yusuf</name>
    <role>Analyst, data</role>
    <started>2024-03-15</started>
    <hours>38.5</hours>
  </row>
  <row>
    <id>012</id>
    <name>Jonah &quot;Jo&quot; Pryce</name>
    <role>Engineer</role>
    <started>2025-11-02</started>
    <hours></hours>
  </row>
  <row>
    <id>104</id>
    <name>Wei Chen</name>
    <role>Manager</role>
    <started>2023-06-30</started>
    <hours>40</hours>
  </row>
</staff>

Questions

How do I convert IIF to XML?

Paste your IIF into the box above or drop the file onto it. Check the table in the grid, then copy or download the XML from the output panel. It takes one step and the data never leaves your browser.

Why does my IIF file have two sets of headers?

Because it holds two tables. TRNS lines are transactions and SPL lines are the splits belonging to them, and each has its own column definition. They are separate exports that happen to share a file.

Will my numbers still be numbers?

They will read the same, but XML stores them as text. Anything that sorts or sums the result will need to parse them first, and a leading zero or a currency symbol is the usual place that goes wrong.

Is there a limit on file size?

No. The work happens on your own machine, so the limit is your machine's memory rather than an upload cap. A file with tens of thousands of rows converts in a second or two.

Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. The parsing and generating are done by JavaScript running on this page. You can watch the network tab while you convert and see that nothing is sent.

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