5 ms·

It never seems like any of these opensource accounting solutions have bank feeds? Why would anyone manually import bank info when an automatic feed exists.

api 3y ago
Back in the day bank feeds were horrific to develop but these days I think there are aggregate feed services. Seems like you could just implement support for one of those?
- upon_drumhead 3y ago
  Are there any feed services that would sell an individual (person or business) license? It seems like they all strive to be a backend for a SAAS.
  - api 3y ago
    They probably don’t want to deal with individual subscribers but if enough open source users wanted feeds you’d create a niche for a SaaS that does nothing but provide bank feeds for a few bucks a month. That’s the kind of micro SaaS one person could run. There are some things that are “natural SaaS” and interoperability with ugly services run by huge banks that are probably moving targets and probably have administrative overhead to use is one example.
    - ajdude 3y ago
      This seems to be exactly what the creator of SimpleFIN is doing with their "SimpleFIN bridge". Pay a small price and you can use the simplefin API to access any banks that they've supported so far.
  - citelao 3y ago
    I haven't used it, but the team (person?) that makes Buckets (https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com) makes SimpleFIN (https://www.simplefin.org https://www.simplefin.org), which seems like it exposes exactly what you want: simple transaction data from arbitrary banks. Plaid offers transactions APIs (https://plaid.com/products/transactions/ https://plaid.com/products/transactions/), but I guess to your point these APIs are geared towards fintech companies, not personal use. EDIT: I don't know how well it works in general, though. You'd have to test it yourself.
    - cyberax 3y ago
      Plaid works great, but their API access is too pricey for an individual/small business.
    - xvilka 3y ago
      This SimpleFIN blog looks dead - last article is from 2016. Not exactly encouraging.
      - ajdude 3y ago
        I'm currently writing a library that implements SimpleFIN. While the main website hasn't been updated in a while (even the demo endpoints are out of date, and I've written to the maintainer last month about it[1]), the demo endpoint described on the Simplefin Bridge the docs still works[2] so hopefully there's still movement. [1] https://github.com/simplefin/simplefin.github.com/issues/14 https://github.com/simplefin/simplefin.github.com/issues/14 [2] https://beta-bridge.simplefin.org/info/developers https://beta-bridge.simplefin.org/info/developers
    - dzelzs 3y ago
      Nordigen supports transactions as well (and for free), I personally use it with firefly for personal budgeting
  - mthoms 3y ago
    Fintable offers the service but it only interfaces with Airtable. You can easily download a csv from there, or use the Airtable API. It's not for those who don't want their data in the cloud, but I've found the service to be pretty good.
- molsongolden 3y ago
  Even Plaid regularly fails to sync and they still rely on screen scraping for many banks. It might get better though, with the CFBP open banking initiative.
- jwlake 3y ago
  Keep meaning to look into if you can get this through Stripe. :)
pylua 3y ago
Gnucash has an ofx client . They can be tricky to configure .
suddenclarity 3y ago
My understanding is that automatic import through a third party cost a small fortune. YNAB promoted not having it, as a feature. They claimed it would make you more responsible by taking 30 seconds after every purchase to open the app and add the purchase. Then they went from a one time fee ($30) to SaaS and began charging $100 + VAT a year, with automatic bank import being the only new feature. Either they are making bank, or it's insanely expensive.
- coolestguy 3y ago
  I don't know why you need a third party. In Aus all our major software providers do it directly with a bank connection - why can't this program.
  - molsongolden 3y ago
    Banks don’t all offer API access in the USA. It’s getting better but can still be a mess of needing to use Plaid, Yodlee, screen scraping, etc… for bank data access.
  - mustardo 3y ago
    Banks don't give out access to this API easily. Unfortunately it's not some OAuth thing that a new upstart accounting software could easily hook into, therefore the banks gate keep feeds to major accounting providers and no doubt charge excessively for the privelage. We need regulation to open feeds to anyone willing to consume them, or a bank to add it as a feature but why would they when they can charge Xero and MYOB to access proprietary feeds

api 3y ago

Back in the day bank feeds were horrific to develop but these days I think there are aggregate feed services. Seems like you could just implement support for one of those?

upon_drumhead 3y ago
Are there any feed services that would sell an individual (person or business) license? It seems like they all strive to be a backend for a SAAS.
- api 3y ago
  They probably don’t want to deal with individual subscribers but if enough open source users wanted feeds you’d create a niche for a SaaS that does nothing but provide bank feeds for a few bucks a month. That’s the kind of micro SaaS one person could run. There are some things that are “natural SaaS” and interoperability with ugly services run by huge banks that are probably moving targets and probably have administrative overhead to use is one example.
  - ajdude 3y ago
    This seems to be exactly what the creator of SimpleFIN is doing with their "SimpleFIN bridge". Pay a small price and you can use the simplefin API to access any banks that they've supported so far.
- citelao 3y ago
  I haven't used it, but the team (person?) that makes Buckets (https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com) makes SimpleFIN (https://www.simplefin.org https://www.simplefin.org), which seems like it exposes exactly what you want: simple transaction data from arbitrary banks. Plaid offers transactions APIs (https://plaid.com/products/transactions/ https://plaid.com/products/transactions/), but I guess to your point these APIs are geared towards fintech companies, not personal use. EDIT: I don't know how well it works in general, though. You'd have to test it yourself.
  - cyberax 3y ago
    Plaid works great, but their API access is too pricey for an individual/small business.
  - xvilka 3y ago
    This SimpleFIN blog looks dead - last article is from 2016. Not exactly encouraging.
    - ajdude 3y ago
      I'm currently writing a library that implements SimpleFIN. While the main website hasn't been updated in a while (even the demo endpoints are out of date, and I've written to the maintainer last month about it[1]), the demo endpoint described on the Simplefin Bridge the docs still works[2] so hopefully there's still movement. [1] https://github.com/simplefin/simplefin.github.com/issues/14 https://github.com/simplefin/simplefin.github.com/issues/14 [2] https://beta-bridge.simplefin.org/info/developers https://beta-bridge.simplefin.org/info/developers
  - dzelzs 3y ago
    Nordigen supports transactions as well (and for free), I personally use it with firefly for personal budgeting
- mthoms 3y ago
  Fintable offers the service but it only interfaces with Airtable. You can easily download a csv from there, or use the Airtable API. It's not for those who don't want their data in the cloud, but I've found the service to be pretty good.
molsongolden 3y ago
Even Plaid regularly fails to sync and they still rely on screen scraping for many banks. It might get better though, with the CFBP open banking initiative.
jwlake 3y ago
Keep meaning to look into if you can get this through Stripe. :)

pylua 3y ago

Gnucash has an ofx client . They can be tricky to configure .

suddenclarity 3y ago

My understanding is that automatic import through a third party cost a small fortune. YNAB promoted not having it, as a feature. They claimed it would make you more responsible by taking 30 seconds after every purchase to open the app and add the purchase. Then they went from a one time fee ($30) to SaaS and began charging $100 + VAT a year, with automatic bank import being the only new feature. Either they are making bank, or it's insanely expensive.

coolestguy 3y ago
I don't know why you need a third party. In Aus all our major software providers do it directly with a bank connection - why can't this program.
- molsongolden 3y ago
  Banks don’t all offer API access in the USA. It’s getting better but can still be a mess of needing to use Plaid, Yodlee, screen scraping, etc… for bank data access.
- mustardo 3y ago
  Banks don't give out access to this API easily. Unfortunately it's not some OAuth thing that a new upstart accounting software could easily hook into, therefore the banks gate keep feeds to major accounting providers and no doubt charge excessively for the privelage. We need regulation to open feeds to anyone willing to consume them, or a bank to add it as a feature but why would they when they can charge Xero and MYOB to access proprietary feeds