Connecting a bank

How it works#

Connecting a bank links its accounts to EscBooks through Plaid, a service many banking and money apps use to connect to banks. From then on, each account's transactions come in on their own as they post, and wait for you to review them a month at a time. Nothing goes into your books until you've looked it over and approved it.

• Up to two years of history comes in when you first connect, as far back as your bank allows.
• New transactions arrive as your bank posts them. Pending ones wait until they post.
• The bank's balance (for a card, what's owed) becomes the account's balance, on Accounts and the account's page, refreshed with each sync. A small bank icon beside it says it's the bank's; hover over it, or tap it, for when it's from. A statement's own closing balance is still what that statement reconciles to. If the feed stops syncing for 7 days, your latest statement's closing balance takes over (see When a bank feed stops).

Safe by design#

• You sign in to your bank in Plaid's own secure window. EscBooks never sees or stores your bank username or password.
• The connection only reads transactions and balances: EscBooks can't move your money.
• The key that keeps a connection open is stored encrypted, and it's never shown in the app, to your accountant or to an assistant.
• Only an owner of the business can connect, reconnect or disconnect a bank. Your accountant sees the feed but can't change it. US banks only, for now.

Connecting#

Accounts

Accounts

Your business bank and credit accounts, with their statements and balances.

Add ManuallyConnect a Bank

Business Card···7710Credit account · owes $1,842.16 as of Sep 30$14,306.52212 expenses in 2026

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1 month without a statement yet. Last charge Oct 27.Expenses

Step 1 of 7PauseStart over

1. 1On Accounts, click Connect a Bank.
2. 2A secure window from Plaid opens. Find your bank.
3. 3Sign in with the username and password you use at your bank. EscBooks never sees them.
4. 4Choose the accounts to share, and continue.
5. 5Back in EscBooks, say what each account is: a new account, one you already have, or left out.
6. 6Click Connect. The first sync starts at once, and a green dot shows the feed is working.
7. 7Open an account. Each month from the bank waits on its Bank Feed card, to Bring In and review.

1. On Accounts, click Connect a Bank. (Add Manually offers it too: "Faster: connect your bank".)
2. Plaid's window opens. Find your bank, sign in with the username and password you use at the bank, and choose the accounts to share.
3. Back in EscBooks, Accounts at your bank lists each account it shared. Choose what each one is (below).
4. Click Connect. The first sync starts straight away, and EscBooks says how many transactions came in so far. If none have yet, the account says "The first transactions are on their way."

For each account the bank shared:

• Add as a new account: EscBooks makes the account for you, named after the bank and the account ("Cedar Bank Business Checking"), with its last four digits.
• One of your accounts already in EscBooks: pick it, and the feed fills that account. EscBooks picks it for you when the kind and last four digits match.
• Leave it out: for an account that isn't the business's, like a personal savings account. Investment, retirement and loan accounts start out left out.

Already connected that bank? EscBooks says so rather than connecting it twice: use Sync Now on its accounts instead, or Reconnect if it's asking you to sign in again.

Bringing a month in#

On a connected account, the Bank Feed card lists each month with lines waiting, newest first: "October 2026 · 38 lines from the bank". Click Bring In beside a month to review it (see Reviewing and approving). From then on, that month shows as waiting for review on the account's month strip, and filled once you approve it (see Your accounts). When there's nothing waiting, the card says "Everything from the bank is in your books or waiting for review."

Card payments and transfers between your own accounts are already set aside when you open the month, and familiar vendors and categories are filled in, from your vendors, your earlier choices and your import rules.

You can bring a month in before it ends. Lines that post after that wait on the card as the same month again, to bring in when you're ready.

The Bank Feed card#

• Connected, Not syncing or Sign in again: how the feed is doing, with a dot (green when it's working, amber when it needs a look). The same dot is beside the account's name on Accounts.
• Which bank and account it's from, when it last synced, and the bank's balance (or, for a card, what's owed).
• Sync Now checks the bank straight away. It also syncs on its own whenever the bank has something new, and once a day.
• Reconnect takes the place of Sync Now when the bank wants you to sign in again (see When a bank feed stops).
• Disconnect stops the feed for every account at that bank.

Disconnecting#

Disconnect asks you to confirm, then stops new transactions for every account at that bank. Everything already in your books stays, and so do the accounts and their statements; lines from the bank that you hadn't brought in yet are deleted.

You can connect again any time, and the history comes back in. Months you'd already approved can show on the Bank Feed card again: when you bring them in, lines already in your books are flagged as already recorded, so they aren't added twice.

Months before the feed#

Need statements from before what your bank shares? Download them from your bank and import them (see Importing statements). Lines you already have are flagged, so nothing comes in twice.