Connecting a bank

FlyBudget can import transactions automatically through three services. All are optional: importing files (CSV, or CAMT.053 statements) works with almost every bank and costs nothing.

	Plaid	SimpleFIN Bridge	Enable Banking
Banks	US and Canada	Mostly US	Europe (EEA)
Cost	Free Plaid developer account	$1.50 per month, paid to SimpleFIN	Free for your own accounts
Setup	Sign up for a Plaid developer account, request Production access, then enter your keys	Create an account at SimpleFIN Bridge, then paste a setup token	Create an Enable Banking application, link your accounts, then add its key
Best for	People comfortable with developer dashboards	Most people in the US	Most people in Europe

Connect any of them from Settings → Connected Banks, the + next to Accounts in the sidebar, or the welcome screen.

Plaid

Plaid gives you two sets of API keys:

• Sandbox keys work as soon as you sign up, but only with Plaid's test banks and made-up transactions. Use them to try FlyBudget's bank sync.
• Production keys connect your real banks. They aren't available at signup: you request Production access in the Plaid dashboard, answering a few questions about how you'll use it, and Plaid reviews the request. That can take anywhere from minutes to a few days.

Plaid's plans and limits for personal use change from time to time; check Plaid's pricing for what applies to you.

1. Create a free developer account at Plaid.
2. Request Production access in the Plaid dashboard, and wait for Plaid to approve it.
3. Copy your client ID and your Production secret, and enter them in Settings → Connected Banks with the environment set to Production (or use your Sandbox secret with Sandbox to try it out first).
4. Choose Connect Bank. Plaid's sign-in opens in your web browser, which is how banks that use their own login page (like Chase) are supported.
5. Choose which FlyBudget account each bank account belongs to.

Disconnecting a bank revokes its access at Plaid before FlyBudget forgets it.

SimpleFIN

1. Sign up at SimpleFIN Bridge and connect your banks there.
2. Create a setup token and paste it into FlyBudget.
3. Choose which FlyBudget account each bank account belongs to.

FlyBudget exchanges the one-time token for a private access link, stored encrypted. To stop syncing completely, disconnect in FlyBudget and remove the app in SimpleFIN Bridge.

Enable Banking

Enable Banking connects to banks across the European Economic Area through PSD2, the EU rules that let you share your own bank data with apps you choose. You use your own Enable Banking application, which is free for linking your own accounts, so there's no FlyBudget service in the middle: it's just you, Enable Banking and your bank.

Setting it up

1. Sign up at the Enable Banking Control Panel and add a new application.
2. Choose Production (Sandbox only reaches Enable Banking's test banks). Give it any name and description; Enable Banking shows the name when you log in at your bank.
3. Under the allowed redirect URLs, add the address FlyBudget shows in Settings → Connected Banks → Enable Banking:
   • In the desktop app: https://flybudget.org/bank-callback/ (see why below).
   • On a self-hosted server: your server's own address, like https://budget.example.com/api/enable-banking/callback. It must be https.
4. Create the application. Your browser downloads a .pem file: that's the application's private key, and Enable Banking can't show it again, so keep it.
5. Choose Activate by linking accounts and log in at your bank. Free applications can only read the accounts you link here, so link every account you want in FlyBudget. If you skip this, FlyBudget's list of banks stays empty.
6. In FlyBudget, paste the application ID and choose the .pem file. FlyBudget checks them with Enable Banking before saving them.

Connecting a bank

1. Choose Connect Bank, your country and your bank, then Log in at your bank.
2. Your bank's login opens in your web browser. Log in and confirm there; your bank sends you back and FlyBudget carries on by itself.
3. Choose where each of the bank's accounts goes. An account you've already imported CAMT statements into is picked for you, by its IBAN.

When you link a bank account to a FlyBudget account that already has transactions, FlyBudget starts a week before the latest one and recognises transactions you already imported from a file or typed in (the same amount dated at most 3 days apart, or the same bank reference as a CAMT statement), so nothing comes in twice. Tick Also bring in older transactions to fetch everything the bank has; the same check applies. A new account gets everything the bank has.

Good to know

• Only booked transactions are imported. Pending ones can change or disappear, and some banks give them a new ID once they're booked, which would import them twice.
• Your bank asks again every 90 to 180 days. That's PSD2: the access you give ends, and you confirm it at your bank again. FlyBudget shows when it ends and warns a week before; choose Reconnect, log in at your bank, and syncing carries on with the same accounts and history.
• Banks allow only a few automatic updates a day (usually four). FlyBudget syncs when it starts, unless it synced in the last 6 hours, and whenever you choose Sync now; updates you start yourself don't count against that limit.
• The bank account's currency. A new account gets the bank account's currency (see Currencies). Transactions the bank lists in another currency than the bank account itself are left out, and the sync says how many.
• Transactions a bank sends without a date or a readable amount are left out and counted, never guessed.

The redirect URL

After you log in, your bank sends your browser back to the redirect URL with a one-time code. Enable Banking only accepts https addresses, and the desktop app runs on your computer at http://localhost, which can't have one. So the desktop app uses a small page on flybudget.org that passes the code on to FlyBudget on your computer (http://127.0.0.1). The page only ever sends you to your own computer and keeps nothing, and the code is useless to anyone without the private key, which never leaves FlyBudget. Its source is a few lines.

If the page can't reach FlyBudget (FlyBudget was closed, or your browser blocks it), it shows the address instead: choose Logged in, but FlyBudget didn't continue? in FlyBudget and paste it. That also works on a self-hosted server without https.

If something goes wrong

What FlyBudget says	What to do
No banks to choose from	Link your accounts in the Enable Banking Control Panel (step 5), then try again.
The redirect URL isn't registered in your application	Add the exact address FlyBudget shows to the application's allowed redirect URLs.
Enable Banking didn't accept the application ID or key	Check the application ID, and choose the .pem file of that same application.
Your bank allows only a few updates a day	Wait until tomorrow, or choose Sync now yourself.
Your bank access has ended	Choose Reconnect and log in at your bank again.

Disconnecting a bank ends its access at Enable Banking before FlyBudget forgets it. If Enable Banking can't be reached, the connection is kept so you can try again. If you connected the same bank twice, disconnecting one only removes it from FlyBudget and its access ends on its own date: banks end the access for all your connections to them at once, which would stop the other one too.

How syncing works

• New transactions are imported when FlyBudget starts and whenever you choose Sync Now (for Enable Banking, at most every 6 hours on start; see above).
• Your rules run on every imported transaction.
• Reconciled transactions are never changed by a sync.
• Account balances are adjusted to match what your bank reports.

Your credentials

Bank tokens never leave the FlyBudget server, and they are encrypted at rest. They are never included in backups. See the security overview for details.