Importing and Sync

More Sync setups

Banks that export one account at a time, exports covering several accounts, several logins at one site, and syncing into more than one pool.

Most banks work with one recording and nothing else. This page covers the ones that need a bit more: which account a file goes into, banks that export one account at a time, several logins at one site, and more than one pool.

Everything here is on the Sync extension’s settings page (the gear in its popup), under Sites, unless it says otherwise.

Which account a statement goes into#

How a statement finds its account depends on what the file says.

The file names its accounts. Rows go into the account with that name, or with that Name in bank exports (set under Accounts in Budget Smugglers). If it names an account Budget Smugglers doesn’t know yet, you get a notification asking which accounts are these? Click it, choose an account for each (or New account), and click Import. It’s remembered for next time.
The file doesn’t name an account. Link the site’s accounts: open the site and pick them under Accounts, or click Change next to Into account in the popup. With one linked, files go straight into it. With several, each file goes into the one it shares transactions with. When it can’t tell, it asks.

An account you pick for a file is linked to the site for you.

Exporting each account in turn#

Some banks export one account at a time: open the account, export, go back. Record it for one account and the extension does it for every account the login holds.

In Budget Smugglers, edit each account and set Shown at your bank as to its name or nickname on the bank’s website. The account’s name, or the last 4 digits of its account number, also work.
Record your export for one account. When you click that account’s row or name, the recording bar says it recognised the account and that this part repeats for each account. That account is linked to the login for you.
Link the login’s other accounts in the extension’s settings.

From then on, Sync now and Bulk sync do the clicks before that account once. Then, for each linked account, they do that account’s clicks until its statement downloads, and the clicks after that to get back for the next one. Each statement goes straight into its own account.

An account it can’t find on the page is skipped, and it says so at the end. In the popup, steps like this show as Ready · 6 steps, each account.

Several logins at one site#

Some banks need a separate login for each person or business.

Open the site in the extension’s settings and click + Add login.
Name the new login, like “Business” or “Sam”. The first time, you can rename the login you already have too (it starts as “Main”).
Log in as them on the bank’s site, pick that login in the popup, and record their export.

Each login has its own export steps and linked accounts. In the popup, pick the login from the menu beside the site’s name before Record steps or Sync now.

Bulk sync does a site’s logins one after the other in the same tab. It logs out between them with the clicks you saved using Record log out (in the popup under More). Without those, it asks you to log out and carries on once the login page is back.

To remove a login, open it in the settings and click its remove button. Its steps and linked accounts go too.

Several pools#

The extension works with every pool you can import into, such as a household and a business. With more than one, the popup has a pool picker under its title. Everything in the popup works in the pool picked there: Sync now, Record steps, the linked accounts and Start bulk sync.

Statements you export by hand go to that pool too, unless the site is only set up for another one.

One login might see both your personal and business accounts. To sync it into another pool:

pick the other pool in the popup and click Use here, or
in the settings, click + and the pool’s name under the login.

Each pool has its own linked accounts. Pools share the login’s export steps, and steps that go through accounts one by one work for every pool, each with its own accounts.

Different clicks for one pool#

If a pool needs different clicks, tick Record just for that pool in the popup before you record. Only that pool uses those steps; the others keep the shared ones. In the settings, Forget next to its own steps goes back to the shared ones.

To stop syncing a pool from a site, click the × next to the pool’s name in the settings.

Recipes#

A recipe is a bank’s export clicks with nothing personal in them. When a site you’ve added has a recipe and nothing recorded, the popup offers Use the recipe, and the settings page shows every click it’ll make first. Then link your accounts, and Sync now works with nothing to record.

A recipe can’t click anything that moves money or deletes things. While it runs, the extension refuses to click any button that says pay, transfer, BPAY or the like. Recording your own steps replaces the recipe’s for that login.

To share yours, click Share next to a login’s export steps in the settings. You get the recipe with names, numbers and amounts taken out, ready to copy or send as a GitHub issue.