What Citi lets you export
Citi's help lists five formats for exporting transactions from the Account Details page:
| Citi's format | In UrBudget |
|---|---|
| Quicken (QFX) | Pick this one, or OFX. Standard signs and a Citi ID on every transaction. |
| OFX/Microsoft Money | Just as good. QFX is OFX with a few Quicken additions, and UrBudget reads both the same way. |
| CSV | Imports if the columns fit. Citi doesn't publish its CSV layout, so check the signs in the preview. |
| QuickBooks (QBO) | Not supported. UrBudget doesn't open .qbo files. |
| TXT | Not a format UrBudget is built to read. Export QFX or OFX instead. |
Export from Citi Online
- Sign on at citi.com. Go to your Account Homepage.
- Select the account name. That opens the account's Account Details page. Your transactions are in the bottom half of it.
- Set the filters. Citi's filters change which transactions are shown, by time period among other things. Choose the period since your last export, and clear any category filter so nothing is left out.
- Export as Quicken (QFX) or OFX/Microsoft Money. Use the export option on the same page, pick the format and save the file. Repeat for each Citi account.
Citi's help also explains how to download into Quicken directly from inside Quicken. That's a Quicken feature; UrBudget doesn't connect to Citi and only reads the file you export.
Why QFX or OFX beats the CSV
- The signs are standard. A purchase on your Citi card is money out and a payment to the card is money in, with no column guessing.
- Every transaction has an ID. If two exports overlap, UrBudget recognizes the rows it already has from Citi's IDs and skips them.
- No date order to set. OFX dates are written one fixed way, so there's nothing to pick.
A CSV works when its first line names a date, a description, and either Amount (money out negative) or Debit and Credit columns. If you try it, check one purchase and one payment in the preview. If a single Amount column has purchases as positive numbers, tick Purchases are positive (UrBudget 1.0.3 and later). If separate Debit and Credit columns come out wrong, export QFX or OFX instead.
Import it into UrBudget
- Go to the account. Select the matching account in UrBudget, your Citi card for example, and choose Import file above its transactions.
- Pick the file. Choose the .qfx or .ofx file, or drag it onto the box. UrBudget detects the format from the name.
- Preview. Choose Preview transactions. Only a CSV asks for the date order; for US dates, choose Month/day/year.
- Go through the rows. Rows already imported are marked and skipped. Rows that look like ones you typed in (same amount, within 10 days) are offered as matches, so the transaction you entered gets the bank's details instead of a twin.
- Import. Choose the import button. The transactions wait in the register for your approval.
If something looks wrong
- UrBudget says the file's currency differs from the budget's. QFX and OFX files name their currency, and UrBudget only imports a file in the budget's currency. Check the budget's currency in Settings.
- Some purchases are missing. Check that no filter was set when you exported. Citi lets you narrow transactions by category, time period and cardmember; clear them and export again. Importing the overlap again is safe.
- You saved a .qbo file. That's the QuickBooks format. Go back to Account Details and export QFX or OFX.
- You need a statement to check a balance. Citi's statements are on the Account Statements page. They're PDFs, so they're for reading, not importing.
- Every row says already imported. Those transactions came in with an earlier export, so there's nothing new to add.
Budget from your Citi file
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