Open banking - your transactions in untied
untied uses a way of bringing in transactions from your bank or building society account called open banking. It can also be used for some card accounts.
It's the same technology used across major accounting platforms, and the UK has been a leader in introducing open banking.
Open banking is a standard that varies between banks
All major banks and building societies are required to offer bank connections. But the amount of data they share can vary - some may offer 15 months of transactions, others 7 years. The way they share data can vary as well. We help it make sense to you.
We can do this directly, but normally go via an aggregator
We sometimes do this directly with banks. More commonly we use "aggregators" which are specialist companies that link to banks, and take steps to send the data to us in a consistent way. It costs us money to do this, but also saves us time. The main ones we use are TrueLayer and Plaid.
It is highly regulated - and the are other requirements we must meet
We and the partners we use are highly regulated.
There are also requirements around how often we can request data (no more than four times a day), and how often you need to refresh your connections.
How transactions come in
The first time you link your bank
When you connect your bank, you need to select to link all the accounts you want to bring into untied from that bank in one go. Otherwise if you link one, and then come back to link another, it may end up disconnecting the first one.
When you first create a connection to a bank, we are given a short window when we can bring in transactions. In this window we bring in whatever the bank is providing. However, the technical architecture of the feeds means that if there is a glitch in the connection, we may not get all your transactions. If we don't pick up transactions in this window, we will need a new connection to be in place to do so.
Transactions won't come in immediately
Once you are connected, we don't get transactions immediately - they need to "clear" and be finalised before we can display them.
New transactions
We automatically check for new transactions, but are only allowed to do so four times a day - the same restriction applies across the inudstry. That's one reason why you may not see things appearing in untied immediately.
You need to refresh your connections every 90 days
It's a regulatory requirement that you need to refresh your bank connections every 90 days. We'll send you a reminder! This can be done just by tapping on the bank connection to refresh data. Normally this won't require you to log into your institution. But some banks do require it - and we will also do so if it is a while since you last refreshed your connection.
What to do if your transactions aren't coming in
See this article - you may need to re-add your account (don't delete it first!).
It's not perfect
The data that we get from banks is not perfect - some help us with running balances and unique IDs, and others don't. There may be duplicates or missing transactions despite all we and other accounting software do to avoid them. See below for the Bank reconciliation in untied.
How we try to help you get things right
We have controls in place to help you. But we can only show you the data we get from the banks, and if something isn't there we don't know it
Checks we would do in a company accounting system are harder for personal accounts.
And sometimes we don't get what you may expect.
Pots and pending transactions
Banks treat things differently - like pots or pending transactions. They have different ways of identifying transactions. And some banks give us running balances to help us keep on top of each transaction, while others don't (this means there's a greater chance of duplicates or missing transactions). They can also change references on transactions when they move systems.
Overall open banking is a good way to keep track of transactions. We and others work so that everyone is aware of the strengths and limitations of doing it this way - including HMRC. But you also need to keep an eye on things in case something significant is missing. If in doubt, get in touch and we can help you look into it.