Looking to streamline the process of entering your transactions? You can link your bank in Aplos to pull in a list of your most recent transactions using Bank Integration. Navigate to Bank Integration from the Fund Accounting tab -> Transactions -> Bank Integration.

Connect Your Bank to Import Transactions

The first step is to search for your financial institution.

When searching for your institution, you will notice two bank integration providers are offered. You can either search globally by typing in the name of your institution, or you can click on one of the providers to search for it individually.

If you search globally, type the name of your institution within the search field. Then choose the provider you'd like to continue with. You'll notice in the example below that the institution being searched for is Chase Bank.

View the results for your institution and choose the appropriate option from one of the two providers. Depending on which provider you continue with, the login process will be a bit different. Once connected successfully, you will see your institution populate in the Connected Institutions section

Connecting With Plaid

If you choose to connect with Plaid:

1. Click on the institution name you'd like to integrate with.
   • This will open a new window to continue with your login process.
2. Click on the institution you are attempting to integrate with, or search for it by typing the name of the institution within the search field.
3. Enter the login credentials requested
   
   
   
4. After you have entered your user credentials correctly, you will receive a success message. Click "Continue" to move to the next step.
   
   
   
5. Wait for the screen to process and then view your institution shown on the list of Connected Institutions.

Connecting With Finicity

If you choose to connect with Finicity:

1. Click on the institution name you'd like to integrate with.
2. Accept the terms of use by clicking the next button.
   
   
3. Enter in your online banking login credentials and click submit.
   
   
4. It will then ask you to verify your identity by receiving a code to the method of choice you have on file with your bank. If there is more than one you have available, select which one you would like to receive the code to and click continue
   
   
5. Enter in the received code to the "answer here" box and click continue.
   
   
6. Wait for the screen to process and then view your institution shown on the list of Connected Institutions.

Reauthorizing or Reconnecting to Your Bank

For security purposes, you may need to periodically reauthorize your bank to retrieve your transactions. The system will send you a notification if this is needed. If you navigate to your bank integration screen you will see an "update login" button that will prompt you to refresh your bank connection. If you have difficulty connecting to your bank, you may need to log in directly to your bank account to clear a prompt or message first. Once you have successfully logged in, connect to your bank again in Aplos.

To learn more about troubleshooting any errors you receive, check out our Bank Integration Troubleshooting resource.

Importing Transactions From Your Bank

Once you have successfully linked to your institution, you'll see it listed under Connected Institutions.

• Click "Show Accounts" to view the retrieved accounts from your institution.
• Click "Import Transactions" to continue the steps to download transactions from your institution.
  • If you are importing for the first time it may take a little longer for the data to be pulled over. You can always exit the bank integration screen and navigate back to this page if it seems to be taking longer than a minute.
• Click "Delete Account" to remove any individual accounts on your institution's connection that you do not need to import data for.
  • only available with connection through Finicity

Set Up Your Bank Account to a Register

Now that you are on the manage transitions screen, you can begin importing in transactions from your bank straight into Aplos!

Please Note: Transactional data will typically only come in 30-90 days back depending on your bank's connection. If you would like to bring in transactions further back, you can utilize our register import tool.

Once on the Manage Transactions screen, you will notice at the top there is a Source box on the left and a Target box on the right.

• Source Box: where you will see your bank account that is currently queued to pull over transactions from your bank.
• Target Box: the asset or liability register your transactions will be imported into in Aplos

You will want to ensure you match your bank account (source) up with the asset/liability account (Target) associated with it in your Aplos account. You'll see in the example below that the target account register is 1000 - Checking. This means any imported transactions will be saved within that asset account. So be sure before you import anything in you get this set up first. If you have multiple bank accounts you are planning to bring transactions in from, you will use the "switch account" option to toggle between all of them. 

Retrieve Transactions

Once you have matched all of your bank accounts to their respective register accounts, click "Retrieve Transactions" to download a list of transactions from your financial institution. You will notice once you retrieve your transactions, the Payee box (and possibly the Note Memo box) will auto-populate data based upon what comes over from your bank. Whatever is populated in the Payee box when you import, will become a contact in your Aplos system, so you will want to be sure to change this to an existing contact if needed. When you first begin to use bank integration, these payee names may be very long and unique, but as you use it more, the system will begin to learn what contacts you are connecting these transactions to and begin to populate the contact rather than the unique name from your bank. If you would prefer to enter in this information manually, you can uncheck the "Guess Payee Name" box to the right under the Search Transactions button

Assign Accounts and Funds to Import Transactions

To successfully import your transactions, you will need to select an account and fund.

Note: It's important that the account you choose differs from the Target account.

This account should define the purpose of the transaction (reflecting the other side of the debit and credit chart). Typically, you will assign either an income or an expense account, depending on the nature of your transaction.

• Splitting Transactions: If you need to split a transaction, you will see a plus (+) icon on the right of the transaction. Click this to add as many splits as you need.
  
  
• Preventing Duplicates: You can also click the magnifying glass icon to search for transactions you've already recorded in your accounting. A red alert to the left of the transaction indicates the transaction may be a potential duplicate. Click on the alert to see more information about the potential duplicate.
  
  
• Single or Batch Import: Once you have chosen an account and fund for each transaction, you can either click "Import" to the right of each individual transaction, or click the "Select All" box on the top left of the header. Then click the Import Selected button.
  
  
• Hide Transactions: You can also hide any transactions you do not need to import. This will move these to a hidden page, where you can access them by searching for hidden transactions.

Accessing Hidden Transactions

If you need to access entries you have hidden, you can do so by:

1. click the "Search Transactions" button to the right
2. In the search section that populate, check the "Hidden"
3. Click Search

This will take you to a page of any transactions you have previously hidden.

If there are any transactions you need to unhide, do the following:

1. Locate the transaction you would like to unhide
2. Click the green "unhide" button to the right of that transaction under the actions column.
3. Once completed, click the "reset" button to be taken back to your pending transactions for import.

You can click the "search transactions" button again to remove the search fields from your screen.

Managing Your Institutions

Now that you have your bank accounts connected and you are actively using the bank integration tool, when you access the bank integration screen it will take you straight to the manage transactions screen.

If at any point, you need to update your existing institution or add a new institution, you can do so by clicking the box with a down arrow at the top right corner of the screen (you may need to scroll to the right on your screen to see it) and select "Manage Institutions".

Can't Find Your Bank?

If our providers do not support your bank, or if you need to bring in any past transactions, you can import a file of transactions.

See more about that process on the importing screen.