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Wouldn’t importing a credit card statement eliminate the need for manual entries? I don’t use an expense tracking tool - apologies if my question may is missin

Wouldn’t importing a credit card statement eliminate the need for manual entries? I don’t use an expense tracking tool - apologies if my question may is missing context.

TechDebtDevin 2y ago
Easier said then done. Most softwares Ive used that attempted this did so poorly. However it is getting better.
- aperrien 2y ago
  Whatever happened to the Quick Interchange Format(.qif)? It used to be common for all banks to support that. A modern variant today could just be a XML or JSON export, and I hardly see that either.
junon 2y ago
Most banks don't have an API, and statements are (often) lagged, sometimes even by a week or a month depending on how archaic the systems are.
- satvikpendem 2y ago
  Lots of providers exist for bank information, Plaid is one of them. That's what many of these auto import personal finance softwares use.
  - junon 2y ago
    Having used Plaid, it is essentially web scraping as a service. It's an API built on top of very questionable access. It itself is not a formal API provided to you by the bank.
    - satvikpendem 2y ago
      Yes it is (I never said it wasn't), but it works. They are working with banks to modernize their APIs as well.
- jellyfishbeaver 2y ago
  The Canadian government has apparently introduced a framework for sharing your banking data securely with third parties (budgeting apps, financial products) in an effort to eliminate this shady screen scraping and credential sharing that a lot of these kind of apps do. Hoping they actually follow through... https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/banking/open-banking.html https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/...
hexnuts 2y ago
Actual Finance (similar open source software) does this via SimpleFIN Bridge. It even supported connecting a credit card option that rocket money doesn't.
RealStickman_ 2y ago
I did that for a while, but I always spent a lot of time retracing my steps to properly label most transactions. I think I'll try the tool listed here, if it is simple enough to manually enter transactions I can do that every evening and get better data in the end than a monthly review.
- import-base64 2y ago
  i agree, intention behind this project is - select a category add cost and done! no tags, no wallets, no budgets
tomcam 2y ago
How does one import credit card statements reliably in the USA?

Wouldn’t importing a credit card statement eliminate the need for manual entries? I don’t use an expense tracking tool - apologies if my question may is missing context.

TechDebtDevin 2y ago

Easier said then done. Most softwares Ive used that attempted this did so poorly. However it is getting better.

aperrien 2y ago
Whatever happened to the Quick Interchange Format(.qif)? It used to be common for all banks to support that. A modern variant today could just be a XML or JSON export, and I hardly see that either.

junon 2y ago

Most banks don't have an API, and statements are (often) lagged, sometimes even by a week or a month depending on how archaic the systems are.

satvikpendem 2y ago
Lots of providers exist for bank information, Plaid is one of them. That's what many of these auto import personal finance softwares use.
- junon 2y ago
  Having used Plaid, it is essentially web scraping as a service. It's an API built on top of very questionable access. It itself is not a formal API provided to you by the bank.
  - satvikpendem 2y ago
    Yes it is (I never said it wasn't), but it works. They are working with banks to modernize their APIs as well.
jellyfishbeaver 2y ago
The Canadian government has apparently introduced a framework for sharing your banking data securely with third parties (budgeting apps, financial products) in an effort to eliminate this shady screen scraping and credential sharing that a lot of these kind of apps do. Hoping they actually follow through... https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/banking/open-banking.html https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/...

hexnuts 2y ago

Actual Finance (similar open source software) does this via SimpleFIN Bridge. It even supported connecting a credit card option that rocket money doesn't.

RealStickman_ 2y ago

I did that for a while, but I always spent a lot of time retracing my steps to properly label most transactions. I think I'll try the tool listed here, if it is simple enough to manually enter transactions I can do that every evening and get better data in the end than a monthly review.

import-base64 2y ago
i agree, intention behind this project is - select a category add cost and done! no tags, no wallets, no budgets

tomcam 2y ago

How does one import credit card statements reliably in the USA?