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I would like to use finance tracking products like GNUCash. But I don't have the patience to download the csv for half a dozen accounts every month (Products li

I would like to use finance tracking products like GNUCash. But I don't have the patience to download the csv for half a dozen accounts every month (Products like plaid are a no go from a basic security perspective). I am in Canada, and there seems to be no hope that I will have API access to my bank accounts anytime soon. Also, did I mention how much it annoys me that the transaction description differs between the CSV and the PDF statement for pretty much all banks I use.

vitalikpie 4mo ago
Agree. I wish banks have their APIs open. It's 2026 and we have OIDC. But I used to actually pull the CSV once a week and feed it to GnuCash. It's pretty good at auto-categorization. Also I simplified my finances to only a couple of checking accounts and only one credit account (for car rentals).
- rbanffy 4mo ago
  > I wish banks have their APIs open There needs to be a lot of investment in training and safe defaults though. Most people are not ready to automate even a little of their banking like that. I would even prefer banks had the option to push data to trusted feeds than having open APIs you could call on your own.
  - abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
    Only need a read only API for financial analysis. I definitely do not support an API for doing financial transactions. That will result in so much hacking and theft.
    - doodlesdev 4mo ago
      Yup or restrict API usage to trusted providers. In Brazil, we have a system called Open Finance [1] which allows you to connect bank account, so you can see investments, money spent, credit card spending and limit, etc. from your other bank accounts. Some local personal finance systems integrate into Open Finance to pull all of this data for you. [1]: https://openfinancebrasil.org.br/ https://openfinancebrasil.org.br/
  - vitalikpie 4mo ago
    Agree on this. Current situation is kinda broken: - people do not trust Plaid and Finicity - data is captive inside of bank portals - each damn CSV has it's own format
phyzix5761 4mo ago
I simplified to just 2 accounts and I enter them manually twice a week. I keep a detailed budget so it helps to do it that frequently.
- vitalikpie 4mo ago
  Do you do budget in GnuCash or somewhere else?
vsviridov 4mo ago
I'm using self-hosted Sure.am and also using SimpleFin to connect to Canadian banks. It works, but barely, since it effectively scrapes with no real API access. I have to login daily to update 2-FA on various accounts, and have suffered account lockouts a couple of times, due to "suspicious activity". But it still beats downloading multiple exports from the bank and importing it manually...
bregma 4mo ago
Well, there is legislation before Committee to mandate open APIs that any accredited institution can use. As a consumer you will not be eligible, but you will be allowed to pay some third-party to pull your data from your bank and save it in their database, after which maybe they might allow you to download it in their proprietary format should they choose. Me, I use plain-text accounting (hledger) that automatically imports the CSVs from my bank and categorizes transactions automatically, and I wrote some quick scripts using Python to import the PDFs from my brokerages and paystubs. It's not automated pulls but I only have a handful of accounts so it's really not a pain to manually pull statements once a month and run the import scripts. It takes me longer to reconcile everything to the penny then it does to do the imports, and it's a whale of a lot faster than manually entering through GNUCash. Plus, it's plain text so all you need is vim, git, and the command line.
- vitalikpie 4mo ago
  I was contemplating between hledger and GnuCash for a while and then choose GnuCash because it has pretty good UX for transactions entry. The missing piece for me was a mobile app. So trying closing this gap with HandsOnMoney. But I'll be honest - I'm putting off the statement import as much as I can until my financial anxiety kicks in.
- abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
  The openbanking thing has been going on for 4-5 years now, with no end in sight. The banks simply do not want to enable a system which allows third party apps to step into the space, and they are too large and lobby a lot. I don't expect anything to happen for a while still.
neilv 4mo ago
Import-only is the lazy way. :) If you want, GnuCash also has features to support manually entering each transaction as it occurs. Then GnuCash has features to match up financial institutions data exports against your transaction splits, see the discrepancies, and then reconcile against their PDF statements. It's a way of life, but you always know what money you have, where. Although that sounds like something for wealthy people, I'd say it's actually more important the less money you have.
- abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
  When I was a poor student, I carried around a small notepad in my pocket and a pencil and wrote down every transaction. Only way I ensured discipline to not waste money and then go hungry later. But now I am ruined by smartphones, which are way too slow to type in every transaction manually.

vitalikpie 4mo ago

Agree. I wish banks have their APIs open. It's 2026 and we have OIDC. But I used to actually pull the CSV once a week and feed it to GnuCash. It's pretty good at auto-categorization. Also I simplified my finances to only a couple of checking accounts and only one credit account (for car rentals).

rbanffy 4mo ago
> I wish banks have their APIs open There needs to be a lot of investment in training and safe defaults though. Most people are not ready to automate even a little of their banking like that. I would even prefer banks had the option to push data to trusted feeds than having open APIs you could call on your own.
- abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
  Only need a read only API for financial analysis. I definitely do not support an API for doing financial transactions. That will result in so much hacking and theft.
  - doodlesdev 4mo ago
    Yup or restrict API usage to trusted providers. In Brazil, we have a system called Open Finance [1] which allows you to connect bank account, so you can see investments, money spent, credit card spending and limit, etc. from your other bank accounts. Some local personal finance systems integrate into Open Finance to pull all of this data for you. [1]: https://openfinancebrasil.org.br/ https://openfinancebrasil.org.br/
- vitalikpie 4mo ago
  Agree on this. Current situation is kinda broken: - people do not trust Plaid and Finicity - data is captive inside of bank portals - each damn CSV has it's own format

phyzix5761 4mo ago

I simplified to just 2 accounts and I enter them manually twice a week. I keep a detailed budget so it helps to do it that frequently.

vitalikpie 4mo ago
Do you do budget in GnuCash or somewhere else?

vsviridov 4mo ago

I'm using self-hosted Sure.am and also using SimpleFin to connect to Canadian banks. It works, but barely, since it effectively scrapes with no real API access. I have to login daily to update 2-FA on various accounts, and have suffered account lockouts a couple of times, due to "suspicious activity". But it still beats downloading multiple exports from the bank and importing it manually...

bregma 4mo ago

Well, there is legislation before Committee to mandate open APIs that any accredited institution can use. As a consumer you will not be eligible, but you will be allowed to pay some third-party to pull your data from your bank and save it in their database, after which maybe they might allow you to download it in their proprietary format should they choose. Me, I use plain-text accounting (hledger) that automatically imports the CSVs from my bank and categorizes transactions automatically, and I wrote some quick scripts using Python to import the PDFs from my brokerages and paystubs. It's not automated pulls but I only have a handful of accounts so it's really not a pain to manually pull statements once a month and run the import scripts. It takes me longer to reconcile everything to the penny then it does to do the imports, and it's a whale of a lot faster than manually entering through GNUCash. Plus, it's plain text so all you need is vim, git, and the command line.

vitalikpie 4mo ago
I was contemplating between hledger and GnuCash for a while and then choose GnuCash because it has pretty good UX for transactions entry. The missing piece for me was a mobile app. So trying closing this gap with HandsOnMoney. But I'll be honest - I'm putting off the statement import as much as I can until my financial anxiety kicks in.
abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
The openbanking thing has been going on for 4-5 years now, with no end in sight. The banks simply do not want to enable a system which allows third party apps to step into the space, and they are too large and lobby a lot. I don't expect anything to happen for a while still.

neilv 4mo ago

Import-only is the lazy way. :) If you want, GnuCash also has features to support manually entering each transaction as it occurs. Then GnuCash has features to match up financial institutions data exports against your transaction splits, see the discrepancies, and then reconcile against their PDF statements. It's a way of life, but you always know what money you have, where. Although that sounds like something for wealthy people, I'd say it's actually more important the less money you have.

abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
When I was a poor student, I carried around a small notepad in my pocket and a pencil and wrote down every transaction. Only way I ensured discipline to not waste money and then go hungry later. But now I am ruined by smartphones, which are way too slow to type in every transaction manually.