How do I set up a bank connection with Plaid?

Plaid, one of our third party connectors, can help you get your expenses automatically imported from your bank accounts, credit cards, and PayPal accounts. Crypto, investment, loan, and line of credit accounts will not be imported. These transactions are imported into your account through a mix of data sharing methods like Open Banking and data extraction depending on the financial institution.

All accounts you set up will appear in the Bank Connections section, and any newly imported expenses up to 90 days - 2 years of activity will appear in the Expenses section for you.
 

The below steps are for specific users in certain supported countries. If you’re not sure which bank connection partner to use, look for your supported country here.

Bank Connections can pull up to a maximum of 2 years of activity, if you're looking to import older transactions, review How do I import expenses from a file? instead.

 

• Add a Bank
• Automatically Categorize Imported Expenses
• FAQs

 

Add a Bank

1. Before beginning, ensure you’re using the correct steps by confirming which partner supports connections for your country here
2. Using a web browser, select the Bank Connections section
3. Then select the Connect My Bank button
4. Read the Before You Connect pop-up about selecting the accounts to start importing transactions, then select Let’s Go to continue
   
5. A pop-up will appear letting you know about Plaid linking to your bank, select Continue to confirm
   
6. Select your bank or enter in your bank’s name in the search bar
7. Make sure the result matches the URL you normally log into your bank with online, and select the result
8. Enter your bank’s login credentials and select Submit
   
9. Plaid will send your credentials to the bank and authorize with their servers, this can take a few minutes
10. Verify your identity if prompted to by answering any security questions - select the Next or the Answer button as needed
11. Once all verification is complete, Plaid will send this over to your bank, this can take a few minutes
12. Next, scroll and select the account(s) you want to import transactions from
13. Select Continue
14. A pop-up will ask you to how far back to import expenses from - choose between Today, 7 Days ago, 30 Days ago, 90 Days ago, 2 Years Ago, or Custom
    
15. Then select Done.

Your account(s) will now be connected, and take up to 30 minutes to initially import new transactions up to 90 days - 2 years of activity into your Expenses section. The connection(s) will refresh every 4-12 hours for new expenses, depending on the bank.

 

To look for expenses that have not been assigned a category, select the Advanced Search button, choose Uncategorized Expenses in the Category field, and select Apply.

 

Notes:

• Check your bank connections on a regular basis to ensure your expenses are consistently importing with no errors or actions required by you
• Credit card payments imported in as expenses can be deleted, or marked as transfer if using bank reconciliation

 

Automatically Categorize Imported Expenses

If you have expenses imported that belong to the same category each time it's imported, you can mark them to automatically apply the category for future imported expenses. This requires future imported expenses to have the exact same merchant name every time for it to be automatically categorized for you.

 

Automatic categorization relies on consistent and accurate transaction data from Plaid. As a result, imported expenses from Plaid may not have the remembered category applied each time.

 

Use the below steps: 

1. Select the Expenses section
2. Select the expense you want to edit
3. If the expense does not have a category yet, select Add a category and pick one
4. If no merchant is listed, select Add Merchant and enter in a new merchant or choose from an existing list
5. Check the box off next to Apply to future expenses
   
6. Select the checkmark button to save. 

 

FAQs

How do I troubleshoot my bank connection to bring in missing or new expenses?

1. Select the Bank Connections section
2. Under the bank account that's experiencing an issue, select the Reconnect link. Stay on the page or leave it open and come back later to review the results of the new reconnection attempt.
   

 

How do I disconnect my bank?

Note that disconnecting a bank will not remove expenses that have already been imported for that account. To disconnect, follow these steps:

1. Select the Bank Connections section
2. Then select the bank itself to show the connected accounts
3. Next to the account you want to remove, select the Disconnect link
4. Select OK to confirm the disconnection.
   

If you're trying to re-add this bank, there is a chance of duplicate expenses being imported again upon connection. We recommend checking your Expenses section afterwards to delete any duplicates that appear.

 

Can I use bank connections to add other logins to other accounts from the same bank?

Currently Plaid can only store one set of login credentials for one financial institution at a time. If you have multiple logins with the same financial institution, Plaid will only be able to connect to one of your logins.