The transaction-data format banks hand off to accounting software — imported by Quicken, GnuCash, and Xero, never opened like a normal document.
OFX (Open Financial Exchange) is the file format banks and financial institutions use to hand structured transaction data to personal finance software. Instead of a flat list of numbers, an OFX file encodes each transaction with a date, amount, payee, and unique ID, so programs like GnuCash, Xero, or Quicken (which uses a near-identical variant called QFX) can import a full statement in one step instead of you retyping every line. Most online banking portals that offer OFX bury the option under an 'Export,' 'Download transactions,' or 'Quicken/Web Connect' menu, separate from the PDF statement button. The format itself dates back to the 1990s — originally SGML, later XML — and is unglamorous by design: it exists purely so two pieces of software agree on what a bank transaction looks like, not for anyone to read directly. The catch is that not every bank offers it, and the one statement format every bank does offer, PDF, carries none of that structure, which is why so many people search for a way to turn a PDF statement into something their accounting software can actually import.
OFX is not a file you open to read — it is a file you import. GnuCash, Xero, and Quicken (via its QFX variant) all have a File → Import → OFX or 'Web Connect' option, and most small-business accounting tools that support bank reconciliation accept it too. On an iPhone or Mac, Files and TextEdit can display the raw XML or SGML markup inside an OFX file, but that only shows the underlying code, not a readable statement.
Banks that only publish PDF or CSV statements leave you retyping each transaction by hand into your budgeting or bookkeeping software. An OFX (or QFX) import brings in the date, payee, category, and amount for every line at once, which is the entire point of converting toward it — the file itself means nothing to a human, only to the software reading it.
QFX is Quicken's own variant of OFX, using a different header and the .qfx extension so Quicken can tag it as coming from a specific bank. Most other software, GnuCash included, reads plain OFX, and often opens QFX files too, since the underlying transaction structure is nearly identical.
Filemorph extracts the text from a PDF bank statement on-device for free, but it does not currently export that data as an OFX file — you would need to reformat the extracted transactions yourself before importing them into finance software. Check your bank's export menu first; some offer a direct OFX or QFX download alongside the PDF.
Some banks only expose OFX or QFX downloads on business or premium account tiers, or hide the option under 'Quicken' or 'Web Connect' rather than 'Export.' If you only see PDF or CSV, check your bank's help center for those terms before assuming OFX is not available at all.