Intuit has provided two integrated ways to import Journal Entries from Excel that cost nothing:

1) IIF Files. These delimited text files can be challenging to implement, but they are well documented, provide a solution to many import tasks, and there are lots of users that have provided videos to help walk you through the process.

2) QuickBooks SDK.  Intuit has made their software development kit for QuickBooks Desktop available to anyone who wants to use it.  Yes, it is quite technical to go down this path, but it is very powerful if you want to take the time to learn how to use it.

For more integrated solutions, Intuit has left this function to third-party developers.  There are costs generally associated with these solutions, but some are quite inexpensive. LeftBrainLogic has one that is very simple and inexpensive.