Accounting technology / Glossary / Bank feeds

What are bank feeds in accounting software?

Definition

Bank feeds are automatic connections that bring transactions from a business's bank accounts and cards into its accounting software, usually daily. Each transaction arrives with its date, amount and description, ready to be matched to invoices and bills or categorised, which replaces downloading and importing statement files and is the basis of bank reconciliation in cloud accounting.

Also calledbank feedbank connectiondirect feed

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Frequency: Usually daily
Types: Direct and open banking feeds
Used for: Matching and reconciliation

How bank feeds work

There are two main kinds. Direct feeds are set up between the bank and the accounting software provider, often for business accounts, and deliver transactions under an agreement between them. Open banking or aggregator feeds use the customer's consent to read account data through the bank's API or a data provider, and must be re-authorised periodically, which is a common reason feeds stop. Larger companies use bank statement files in formats such as camt.053 or BAI2 delivered over host-to-host or SWIFT connections instead. Feeds can duplicate or miss transactions after a broken connection, so balances should be checked against the bank statement at month end. Xero, QuickBooks and Pennylane connect to banks and card providers through feeds; Kick builds its categorisation on them.

Common questions

Why has my bank feed stopped?+

Usually because the consent behind an open banking feed has expired and needs re-authorising, or because the bank changed its connection. Transactions missed in the gap may need importing from a statement.

Is a bank feed the same as bank reconciliation?+

No. The feed brings transactions in; reconciliation confirms each one is matched or categorised and that the ledger balance agrees with the bank statement.

Are bank feeds secure?+

They give read-only access to transaction data, granted by the account holder and revocable. Open banking feeds in the UK and EU run under regulated access rules.