The short answer
The Starling Bank file has 7 columns, dates written as DD/MM/YYYY and one signed amount column. QuickBooks Online wants a CSV with the columns Date,Description,Amount. So the date is kept as it is, the amount is written as one signed number, and the text columns are moved as in the table below.
Paid pack. The Starling Bank profile is one of the 35 profiles unlocked by a licence (9 US dollars, paid once; see the terms). Without a licence you can still convert this file with the free manual column mapper, using the column table on this page, within the free limit of 25 rows per file.
The converter runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded.
What the Starling Bank CSV looks like
- Country: United Kingdom.
- Account type: not stated by source (config file is named default).
- Header row: yes, one row before the first transaction.
- Columns: 7, separated by commas.
- Date format: DD/MM/YYYY, for example 04/03/2024 (the source writes it as d/m/Y).
- Amounts: one signed amount column. Evidence for the direction: it is inferred from the role the open-source importer gives the column; no sample row confirms it.
- Header text: the source gives column positions and meanings only, not the header names.
Note kept with this layout in the profile data: The csv2ofx mapping reads these header names from a Starling export: Date, Counter Party, Reference, Amount (GBP). It does not give the full header row.
What QuickBooks Online accepts
- File type: CSV.
- Header row: yes, with the column names of one of the two layouts.
- 3-column layout: Date, Description, Amount. The vendor's example row: 1/1/2018,Example of a payment,-100.00
- 4-column layout: Date, Description, Credit, Debit. The vendor's example row: 1/1/2018,Example of a deposit,200.00,
- Required columns: Date, Description, Amount.
- Amounts: 3-column layout: one signed Amount column, a payment is negative (the vendor's example payment is -100.00). 4-column layout: separate Credit and Debit columns.
- Dates: one consistent format; the global edition of the page recommends dd/mm/yyyy, and its example rows use 1/1/2018.
| QuickBooks Online column | Required by QuickBooks Online | Filled from the Starling Bank file |
|---|---|---|
| Date | required | column 1 |
| Description | required | column 2 and column 3 |
| Amount | required | column 5 |
From the vendor's help page: "QuickBooks accepts CSVs with either the 3-column or 4-column format": Date, Description, Amount; or Date, Description, Credit, Debit.
Column-by-column mapping
Every column of the Starling Bank file, left to right, and where it ends up in the QuickBooks Online file.
| Column | Header text | What it holds | Where it goes in the QuickBooks Online file |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | not given by the source | Transaction date | Date, rewritten as DD/MM/YYYY |
| 2 | not given by the source | Payee or counterparty | Description (first part) |
| 3 | not given by the source | Description | Description, after the payee |
| 4 | not given by the source | Tag or type label | Not copied |
| 5 | not given by the source | Amount, signed (negative is money out) | Amount, sign kept (money out is negative) |
| 6 | not given by the source | Not used | Not copied |
| 7 | not given by the source | Category | Not copied |
Pitfalls for Starling Bank to QuickBooks Online
Dates
- Same date layout on both sides: the bank file and the QuickBooks Online file both use DD/MM/YYYY. No reordering is needed.
- QuickBooks Online on dates: one consistent format; the global edition of the page recommends dd/mm/yyyy, and its example rows use 1/1/2018. The converter writes dd/mm/yyyy as the fetched page recommends and offers mm/dd/yyyy as an option, because QuickBooks reads dates according to the company's region. The US edition of the page could not be fetched on the checked date.
Amounts and their direction
- Both sides use one signed amount column where money out is negative, so the sign is kept as it is.
- QuickBooks Online's own rule: 3-column layout: one signed Amount column, a payment is negative (the vendor's example payment is -100.00). 4-column layout: separate Credit and Debit columns.
- How sure the direction is: it is inferred from the role the open-source importer gives the column; no sample row confirms it. Compare two rows you recognise with the preview before importing; the converter has a switch that flips the sign of every amount.
Other QuickBooks Online import rules
- Remove any zeroes (0) from the file and leave those cells blank.
- Remove the word 'amount' if it appears in the Credit or Debit column header.
- Remove the day of the week from dates (for example 20/11/2018 TUE).
- Correct any transactions that display numbers in the Description column.
- Mac users must save the file as a Windows CSV file.
- CSV files for credit card accounts may display transactions in reverse order.
Before and after: an invented example
Invented sample data. These four rows were made up for this page. They are not from a real Starling Bank export and hold no real account, name or balance.
The source gives column positions only, so the headings below are the column number and what the column holds, not the bank's header text. The 1 unused column of the file is left out of the table.
| 1: transaction date | 2: payee or counterparty | 3: description | 4: tag or type label | 5: amount | 7: category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 04/03/2024 | Coffee Corner | COFFEE CORNER MAIN ST | sample | -4.50 | Eating out |
| 05/03/2024 | Example Co | PAYROLL EXAMPLE CO | sample | 2500.00 | Income |
| 07/03/2024 | Sample Landlord | RENT MARCH | sample | -1234.56 | Housing |
| 11/03/2024 | Example Shop | REFUND EXAMPLE SHOP | sample | 15.25 | Shopping |
| Date | Description | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 04/03/2024 | Coffee Corner - COFFEE CORNER MAIN ST | -4.50 |
| 05/03/2024 | Example Co - PAYROLL EXAMPLE CO | 2500.00 |
| 07/03/2024 | Sample Landlord - RENT MARCH | -1234.56 |
| 11/03/2024 | Example Shop - REFUND EXAMPLE SHOP | 15.25 |
Do it by hand in a spreadsheet, free
These steps need no tool from this site. The cell references follow the column positions of the profile above; if your spreadsheet uses semicolons between formula arguments, replace the commas.
- Open the Starling Bank CSV in a spreadsheet program through its import dialog. Set the date column (column 1) to Text so the program does not reinterpret it, and leave the amount columns as numbers.
- Row 1 is the header and the transactions start in row 2.
- Date: the bank already writes DD/MM/YYYY, which is what the QuickBooks Online file uses. Copy column A as it is.
- Amounts: column E is already signed the way QuickBooks Online wants (money out negative). Copy it as it is.
- Text columns: fill Description (from column 2 and column 3). Where several bank columns feed one column, join them with a separator such as " - ".
- Apply QuickBooks Online's own rules from its help page: Remove any zeroes (0) from the file and leave those cells blank. Remove the word 'amount' if it appears in the Credit or Debit column header. Remove the day of the week from dates (for example 20/11/2018 TUE). Correct any transactions that display numbers in the Description column. Mac users must save the file as a Windows CSV file. CSV files for credit card accounts may display transactions in reverse order.
- Keep only the new columns, put the header row Date,Description,Amount on top, save the sheet as a comma-separated CSV, and compare the dates, the direction of the amounts and the number of rows with your statement in QuickBooks Online's import preview.
Or use the converter
Load the file, choose the Starling Bank profile in the bank list and the target QuickBooks Online, read the preview, then download. The conversion runs locally in your browser: the file is not uploaded, and only the licence key is sent for unlocking.
Paid pack. The Starling Bank profile is one of the 35 profiles unlocked by a licence (9 US dollars, paid once; see the terms). Without a licence you can still convert this file with the free manual column mapper, using the column table on this page, within the free limit of 25 rows per file.
Where this layout comes from
No bank supplied or approved this layout. It was copied on 5 October 2026 from a public open-source importer file kept by volunteers: firefly-iii/import-configurations, file gb/starling/default.json
Also read: reubano/csv2ofx, file csv2ofx/mappings/starling.py
The lines used from the source: "headers": true, "date": "d/m/Y", roles: date_transaction, opposing-name, description, tags-comma, amount, _ignore, category-name
The QuickBooks Online rules come from the vendor's own help pages: quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-global/help-article/bank-transactions/format-csv-files-excel-bank-transactions-quickbooks/L4BjLWckq_ROW_en (named as text, not linked). The official page was fetched and read on the checked date.
Bank formats change. Banks alter their CSV exports without notice and vendors change their import rules, so this mapping can be out of date. If the preview looks wrong, use the manual column mapper.