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Importing and Sync

The Sync extension

Budget Smugglers Sync is a Chrome and Edge extension that exports your bank statements for you and imports them straight in.

Downloading a CSV from your bank and uploading it every week gets old fast. Budget Smugglers Sync is a browser extension for Chrome and Edge that does it for you.

  • You log in to your bank in your everyday browser, as usual. Your password manager fills it in.
  • The first time, you export a statement once while the extension watches. After that, Sync now does the same clicks and imports the file.
  • Any statement you export from a bank you’ve added comes straight in, recorded or not.

It never reads, keeps or sends anything you type, including your bank password. The privacy page has the details.

Why not open banking#

Australia’s Consumer Data Right (CDR) only lets accredited businesses, or businesses sponsored by one, collect bank data. So instead it’s your own browser: you log in, and the extension does the clicking.

Installing it#

The extension isn’t in the Chrome Web Store. You download it from Budget Smugglers and load it into your browser yourself.

  1. In Budget Smugglers, open Import. Click Set it up on the Sync extension card, then Download.
  2. Unzip the file into a folder where it can stay. The browser loads the extension from that folder each time, so don’t delete it.
  3. Open your browser’s extensions page: type chrome://extensions in Chrome, or edge://extensions in Edge, into the address bar.
  4. Turn on Developer mode. In Chrome it’s at the top right; in Edge it’s in the left-hand panel.
  5. Click Load unpacked and choose the unzipped folder.
  6. Pin it to the toolbar so it’s easy to reach. Click the jigsaw-piece icon, then the pin next to Budget Smugglers Sync.

If you dismissed the card on the Import page, the link Let the Sync extension do it opens the same steps.

Connecting it to your account#

The extension’s settings page opens by itself after you load it. You can also open it from the gear button in the extension’s popup.

  1. Under Connection, click Connect.
  2. Your browser asks to let the extension reach Budget Smugglers. Allow it.
  3. A Budget Smugglers window opens and asks Connect Budget Smugglers Sync? Log in if it asks, then click Allow.

The settings page then shows Connected, and which pools statements go into. The extension can send statements to every pool where your role can import (editor or above).

The import token#

Connecting gives the extension an import token that lasts a year. It can upload statements and see your account names, and nothing else. It can’t read your transactions or change anything.

You’ll find it under Settings › Connections › API tokens, named “Sync extension”. Revoke it there and the extension stops working straight away. To connect again, click the pencil next to Connected in the extension’s settings, then Connect.

If Connect doesn’t work for you, make a token yourself under Settings › Connections › API tokens with access Import statements. Paste it into the extension’s settings under Paste a token instead, then click Connect.

Adding your bank#

The extension only runs on sites you’ve added. Macquarie is set up out of the box.

  1. Open your bank’s login page.
  2. Click the extension in the toolbar. It asks Sync this site? and suggests a name from the page title.
  3. Click Add site. Your browser asks to let the extension work on that one site.

You can also add a site on the extension’s settings page with + Add a site: give it a name and paste its login page address. Super funds work the same way as banks.

What’s next#