BMO Harris CSV to QBO Converter: Convert a BMO Bank CSV to QuickBooks

Sometimes, but not reliably since the platform migration. BMO business customers frequently report that QuickBooks Online either refuses the connection or reconnects without pulling any transactions. Common symptoms are Error 350 with the message that QuickBooks cannot connect to accounts from this provider right now, and Error 185, a security prompt the bank sends that stalls the sync. When the feed will not cooperate, downloading a CSV and importing a converted .qbo gets your BMO activity into QuickBooks without waiting on the connection.

Because BMO changed platforms. When the bank rebranded from BMO Harris to BMO Bank and migrated accounts onto its new digital banking system, the login flow, security prompts, and data feed all changed, and QuickBooks connections that worked before started failing. This is a change on the bank side, not a setting you can fix in QuickBooks. Exporting a CSV and importing a .qbo built from it sidesteps the broken connection entirely and gives you a file QuickBooks always accepts.

Export your BMO checking, savings, or credit card activity as a CSV, then upload it in the converter at the top of this page. The tool detects the date, description, and amount columns, normalizes the dates to the format QuickBooks expects, strips dollar signs and commas, and checks the parsed total against your file before it writes the .qbo. Download the .qbo and import it into the matching BMO account in QuickBooks. The whole pass takes under a minute, with nothing typed by hand.

Sign in to BMO Digital Banking, open the account you want, and go to its transaction history or activity view. Choose a date range or a specific statement period, then select the download or export option and pick the CSV or spreadsheet format. For a BMO credit card, open the card account and export its activity the same way. If a particular view only offers a PDF statement, download that and turn it into a spreadsheet first, then convert that file here. Pull each period you still need to record, since the on-screen history only goes back so far.

With the automatic feed unreliable after the migration, the realistic choice is between a connection that may drop or return nothing and a clean manual import you control. This table lays out what a BMO account supports today and what each option means for your books.

Yes. BMO business checking, BMO business savings, and BMO credit card accounts all export activity as a CSV, and the converter handles each one. For the credit card, set it up as a Credit Card account in QuickBooks so purchases increase the balance you owe and payments reduce it. Convert the exported CSV to a .qbo and import it into the matching BMO account, and the running balance reconciles against your BMO statement.

Add the BMO account with the right type before you import: checking and savings as Bank accounts, and the BMO card as a Credit Card account. In QuickBooks Online, open the Chart of Accounts, add a new account, choose the type, and name it for the BMO account. Then import the converted .qbo into that account. Setting the type correctly up front keeps the running balance matching your statement and avoids sign errors during reconciliation.

In QuickBooks Online, open Transactions, then Bank transactions, select the matching BMO account, and use the upload option to add the .qbo file from your computer. QuickBooks reads the file, shows the deposits, withdrawals, and charges for review, and posts them once you accept. Because it is a Web Connect file rather than a raw CSV, you skip the column-mapping screen that raw CSV uploads force you through.

In QuickBooks Desktop, go to File, then Utilities, then Import, then Web Connect Files, and choose the .qbo you downloaded here. QuickBooks Desktop has no native import for a plain CSV of bank transactions, so a .qbo is the only file it accepts for this. Match it to the correct BMO account when prompted and the transactions post straight to that register.

QuickBooks Online caps a raw CSV upload at 350 KB, roughly a thousand rows, which forces you to split a long history into several files. A .qbo import is not held to that CSV limit, so converting lets you bring a full year of BMO activity into QuickBooks in one file. To process several statements at once, the bulk CSV to QBO converter handles them in a single batch.

Yes, and the accuracy check is the point. Before the .qbo downloads, the converter totals every transaction it parsed and compares that against your BMO file. If a row is missing or misread, you see it in the preview instead of during reconciliation weeks later. The tool only reads the transaction rows, date, description, and amount, to build the file, and never asks for your BMO login.