Skip to content

Importing, exporting, and backups

How data moves in and out of Chord — statements in, backups out, and getting a book back.

Last updated October 23, 2026

Your books are a local file, and Chord is built so data moves in and out without holding anything hostage. This article is the overview; each job has its own guide.

Getting data in

  • Bank statements — download a QFX file from your bank and import it. Re-importing is safe (Chord de-duplicates on each line's FITID). Importing a QFX file from your bank walks through it step by step.
  • An existing chart of accounts — coming from GnuCash, import its account CSV to rebuild the tree (⇧⌘I). This imports the chart, not GnuCash transactions.
  • A whole book — a .chordbackup file can be loaded as a new profile. See below.

Getting data out

Choose File ▸ Export Book…, or Export… in Settings ▸ Data, and Chord writes a single .chordbackup file — a consistent copy of the book you can keep anywhere. It is never pruned; it's the copy you keep.

Keep a .chordbackup in a synced folder like iCloud Drive if you like. Don't put the live database file in a synced folder; a finished backup is safe, an open database is not.

Chord exports books as .chordbackup. It does not export transactions as CSV — CSV appears only as the format GnuCash uses for chart import.

Loading a book back

Choose File ▸ Import Backup, or Import… in Settings ▸ Data. Chord validates the file, shows you what's inside, and waits for confirmation. An import always lands as a new profile, so the book you're working in is never replaced.

Backups

On top of manual exports, Chord keeps automatic snapshots of each profile and can restore one in place. See Backups and restore.

Related

Still stuck?

Email [email protected] with your macOS version and what you were doing.