Linking a bank account is the way in which we connect the data presented by a feed, to your PocketSmith account.
Once you've added a feed in PocketSmith, your shared bank accounts will be available for linking. Each of these bank accounts need to be linked to accounts within PocketSmith, in order to import new transactions and balances.
What happens when you link a feed?
When you link a feed in PocketSmith, you are creating “one-to-one” connections, between the bank account, and an account in PocketSmith. Each of these links lets us import transactions to create a “replica” of your financial landscape.
For each bank account that you want to automatically import new transaction and balance data for, you’ll need to create or link a corresponding “offline account”, which will act as a repository of that data in PocketSmith.
Create new accounts from a feed
If you're just starting out with PocketSmith, and you've not imported your data from another personal finance application, you can choose to create new accounts when linking your feed for the first time.
In order to create brand new accounts when linking your feed, you can follow the steps below”
- From the Feeds page (Manage > Feeds),
- Find the feed in the sidebar
- Click ACCOUNTS
- If you want to create new accounts in PocketSmith for all unlinked feed accounts, then leave all dropdowns at their default "Link to a new account"
If you'd prefer to ignore some feed accounts for now, you can use the dropdown to select Don't link feed (ignore account). This will mean that the feed account isn't created in PocketSmith right away, but is available for you to do so in the future.
- Click SUBMIT
You've now linked your accounts in PocketSmith! Head to the Transactions page to view the transactions that were imported.
Linking to existing accounts from a feed
If you have existing accounts in PocketSmith, you can choose to link them up to your feed. This might be the case if you're relinking feed accounts that were previously linked to a feed, or perhaps you imported some accounts from another personal finance application as you were getting set up.
If you are relinking your accounts, and there is a suggested link between a feed account and an existing account, the existing account will automatically be chosen in the dropdown and "Link to [existing account name]". If you open the dropdown, these will appear as a "suggested" existing account to link to, indicated by the below tag alongside the account
In cases where a suggested account link can't be made, but you do have an existing account that should be linked to the feed, you're able to specify the correct existing account by scrolling down to select it from the dropdown.
- From the Feeds page (Manage > Feeds)
- Find the feed in the sidebar
- Click the ACCOUNTS tab along the top
- If all accounts have a suggested link found, you'll see that the dropdown on the right side of the page is automatically set to "Link to..." the matching account.
- Find the account and click to open the drop-down and find the account to link. Select either the suggested account, or scroll down to show the full list of offline accounts.
- Once you're happy that each feed account is going to be linked with the correct existing account, click the SUBMIT button at the bottom of the page to complete the linking process.
- Your accounts will now be linked, and new transactions will flow in for the linked accounts, without affecting any older transactions.
Unlink an account from a feed
You can unlink your accounts at any time, without removing any previously imported transactions. You may want to unlink a feed from an account if you have closed that account at the bank, or if you are experiencing feed issues and would like to temporarily import transactions manually.
When you unlink a feed, the account changes from being "linked to feed" to an "offline account" on the Account Summary page, and transactions will no longer be automatically imported by the feed.
- Head to the Feeds page (Manage > Feeds)
- Find the feed in the sidebar and select the Accounts tab
- Find the account and click Unlink