Open Banking in Accounted: How Bank Feeds Work

Your Bank Account Is the Foundation

Every bookkeeping system starts with the same raw material: your bank transactions. The money coming in and going out of your business account is the single source of truth for your financial records. The question is how your bookkeeping software gets access to that data.

For years, the answer was screen scraping -- software that logged into your online banking using your actual username and password, then copied the data. It worked, but it was fundamentally insecure. You were handing your bank login credentials to a third party and trusting them not to misuse them. If their systems were compromised, your bank account was exposed.

Open Banking changed everything. Since its introduction in the UK in 2018, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), there's been a proper, secure, standardised way for authorised software to access your bank data -- without ever seeing your login details.

Accounted uses Open Banking exclusively. We never ask for your bank credentials. Here's how it all works.

What Open Banking Actually Is

Open Banking is a UK regulatory framework that requires banks to share customer data (with the customer's explicit consent) through secure, standardised APIs (application programming interfaces). Think of an API as a secure doorway between two systems -- your bank and your bookkeeping software.

The key principles:

• Customer consent: Your bank shares data only because you've explicitly authorised it. You can revoke access at any time.
• Regulated providers: Only FCA-authorised companies can access Open Banking APIs. They must meet strict security, data protection, and operational standards.
• Read-only access: Open Banking for bookkeeping is read-only. Accounted can see your transactions but cannot move money, make payments, or modify your account in any way.
• No credential sharing: You authenticate directly with your bank. The bookkeeping software never sees your username, password, or security codes.

How Accounted Connects to Your Bank

When you sign up for Accounted, connecting your bank takes about 60 seconds:

Step 1: Choose Your Bank

Accounted supports all major UK banks and building societies through our Open Banking partner, TrueLayer -- an FCA-regulated provider used by hundreds of financial services companies. Select your bank from the list.

Step 2: Authenticate with Your Bank

You're redirected to your bank's own login page. This is your bank's website or app -- not ours. You log in with your normal credentials and approve the data-sharing request. Your bank verifies your identity using their existing security (password, biometrics, two-factor authentication) and creates a secure connection.

Step 3: Data Starts Flowing

Once authorised, your bank sends transaction data to Accounted through TrueLayer's secure API. Transactions typically appear within minutes of clearing in your bank account. From this point, Penny receives your transactions automatically and begins categorising them.

Step 4: Ongoing Sync

Your bank feed updates automatically. New transactions flow into Accounted as they clear, usually within a few hours. There's nothing for you to do -- no manual imports, no CSV file uploads, no reconciliation.

What Data We Receive

Through Open Banking, Accounted receives:

• Transaction date -- when the payment was made
• Transaction amount -- how much was spent or received
• Merchant or counterparty name -- who the payment was to or from
• Transaction description -- any reference or description attached to the payment
• Account balance -- your current and available balance

We do not receive:

• Your bank login credentials
• Your PIN or security codes
• Direct debit mandates or standing order details (unless part of the transaction feed)
• Access to other accounts you haven't authorised

The data is read-only. Accounted cannot initiate payments, set up direct debits, or modify your account in any way.

Why Open Banking Is Safer Than the Alternatives

Before Open Banking, there were essentially two ways for bookkeeping software to access your bank data:

Screen Scraping (The Old Way)

Screen scraping software logs into your online banking portal using your actual credentials, navigates the pages as you would, and extracts the transaction data. The problems:

• You share your password with a third party
• If they're breached, your bank account is exposed
• Banks can't distinguish between you logging in and the scraper logging in
• It breaks frequently when banks update their websites
• It's increasingly banned -- many UK banks now block screen scraping tools

Manual CSV Import

Some sole traders download CSV files from their bank and import them into bookkeeping software. This works but is entirely manual -- you have to remember to do it, and there's no real-time data flow. It also introduces errors if the CSV format changes or if imports are missed.

Open Banking (What Accounted Uses)

• No credential sharing -- you authenticate directly with your bank
• FCA regulated -- the provider must meet strict security standards
• Read-only -- nobody can move your money
• Reliable -- standardised APIs don't break when banks update their websites
• Real-time -- transactions flow automatically, no manual action needed
• Revocable -- you can disconnect at any time through your bank or through Accounted

The security difference between screen scraping and Open Banking is like the difference between giving someone your house key and letting them look through a window. One grants full access; the other provides only what's needed.

Bank Feed Health Monitoring

A bank feed that silently stops working is worse than no bank feed at all, because you might not notice for weeks that your transactions aren't being imported. Accounted includes bank feed health monitoring to prevent this:

• Continuous monitoring -- Accounted checks your bank feed status every 15 minutes
• Automatic reconnection -- if a connection drops due to a temporary bank issue, Accounted attempts to reconnect automatically
• Proactive alerts -- if your bank feed stops working and can't be automatically restored, Penny tells you via WhatsApp:

Penny: Heads up -- your Starling bank feed hasn't updated since yesterday. This sometimes happens when your bank requires re-authentication. Can you reconnect? It takes 30 seconds. [Reconnect here]

• No silent gaps -- if transactions are missed during a disconnection, Accounted back-fills them once the connection is restored

This monitoring ensures your records are always complete and up to date -- which matters for MTD compliance and accurate tax estimates.

Supported Banks

Accounted supports all major UK current account providers through TrueLayer's Open Banking integration, including:

• High street banks: Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, TSB, Halifax, RBS
• Digital banks: Starling, Monzo, Revolut, Tide, Chase UK
• Building societies: Nationwide, Yorkshire, Coventry, and others
• Business banks: Mettle, Anna Money, Cashplus, CountingUp

If your bank supports Open Banking (which all major UK banks are required to), it works with Accounted. The full list is available during sign-up.

Multiple Bank Accounts

Many sole traders use more than one bank account -- perhaps a business current account and a savings account, or a main account and a secondary account for a specific purpose. Accounted supports multiple bank connections:

• Connect as many accounts as you need
• Penny processes transactions from all connected accounts
• Each transaction is tagged with its source account
• Your real-time tax position reflects all accounts combined

If you're a landlord with separate accounts for rental income, or a contractor with both personal and business accounts, Accounted handles the complexity without any additional effort from you.

What About Cash Transactions?

Open Banking covers card payments, bank transfers, direct debits, and standing orders -- essentially anything that flows through your bank account. But what about cash transactions?

Penny handles these too. If you pay for something in cash:

1. Send the receipt to Penny on WhatsApp
2. Penny reads the receipt and notes that there's no matching bank transaction
3. She records it as a cash expense in your books
4. The expense is categorised and included in your tax calculations

For sole traders who regularly deal in cash (market traders, mobile hairdressers, cash-in-hand tradespeople), Penny also supports manual income entry:

You: I received £200 cash for a job today

Penny: Noted -- £200 cash income recorded for 28 February 2026. Shall I categorise this as your normal turnover?

This ensures your records are complete even when not everything flows through your bank.

Disconnecting Your Bank

If you ever want to stop sharing your bank data with Accounted, you have two options:

1. Through Accounted: Disconnect your bank in your account settings. The data feed stops immediately.
2. Through your bank: Revoke access via your bank's Open Banking permissions (usually found in your online banking settings under "connected apps" or "third-party access").

Either way, the connection is severed instantly. Your historical data remains in your Accounted account (it's your data, after all), but no new transactions are imported.

Getting Started

Connecting your bank to Accounted takes under a minute. Sign up for free, select your bank, authenticate, and Penny starts processing your transactions immediately.

Check out our features overview or read how Accounted compares to Xero for bank feed handling and beyond.