Setting Up Bank Feeds

Bank feeds automatically import transactions from your connected bank accounts into Light. This article explains bank feed setup and management.

# What is this page about

This page covers how a bank feed keeps transactions flowing into Light: the sync schedule, how far back your first import goes, what each transaction carries, and how to tell whether a connection is healthy. Read it after you've connected an account.

On this page

• What is a Bank Feed?
• Enabling Bank Feeds
• Transaction Import Frequency
• First Transaction Date
• Transaction Reconciliation Status
• Original Amount and Fees
• Transaction Metadata
• Checking a Feed's Status
• Feed Connection Expiration
• Handling Feed Issues
• Multi-Currency Transaction Handling
• Deleting a Bank Connection
• Reconnecting a Bank
• Best Practices
• Related Articles

# What is a Bank Feed?

A bank feed is an automated connection that pulls transaction data from your bank and imports it into Light. Instead of manually downloading transactions and importing them, the feed runs automatically on a schedule and new transactions appear in Light after each sync.

Bank feeds eliminate manual work, reduce errors, and enable faster reconciliation.

# Enabling Bank Feeds

Bank feeds are created when you connect a bank:

1. Go to Settings → Integrations
2. Click + Add new integration and choose Bank
3. Choose your provider: European banks (via GoCardless) or American banks (via Plaid)
4. Choose the sync from date and the sync schedule
5. Authorize access at your bank
6. Map each bank account to a GL account in Light and click Create feed
7. Transactions begin importing right after the feed is created

Feeds sync daily or every 12 hours, depending on the sync interval chosen for each account when the feed is set up.

# Transaction Import Frequency

Light syncs transactions at:

Daily: most common. Transactions import once per day

Every 12 hours: provides more recent data for active accounts

You can see the sync interval in the account details. To pull transactions in sooner, use the refresh icon on the account, which appears on accounts showing as Linked.

# First Transaction Date

When setting up a bank feed, you're asked "From what date should transactions be synced?" and pick any date up to today using a free-form date picker. There's no preset "recent vs. full history" choice. The picker starts on a date 89 days ago, so change it if you want a different start date.

The date is chosen before you authorize at your bank, and it can't be edited after the connection is created. To change it, delete the connection and connect again (see Reconnecting a Bank below).

How far back you can actually go depends on your provider: Plaid caps historical import at 2 years. GoCardless varies by bank, and for GoCardless-connected UK institutions specifically, access is limited to a maximum of 90 days before re-authorization is required. That 90-day figure is about the connection's authorization window, not how much transaction history you can import.

Older transactions available from the bank also depend on your account type and bank's retention policy.

# Transaction Reconciliation Status

Imported transactions are marked with reconciliation status:

Unmatched: transaction imported but not yet matched to any accounting entry

Matched: transaction matched to an AP invoice, AR invoice, payment, or other accounting entry

Excluded: transaction intentionally excluded from reconciliation, for example bank fees or interest already recorded in GL

You can manually change status if needed.

# Original Amount and Fees

Where available (for example on Stripe feeds), Light captures:

Original Amount: amount in the transaction's original currency, if different from the account currency

Fees: bank fees associated with the transaction

These are tracked separately from the booked amount and are used when matching transactions.

# Transaction Metadata

Each imported transaction includes:

Date: when the transaction occurred

Amount: in the account's base currency

Name: payee or sender name from the bank

Reference: reference number or memo

Transaction ID: unique bank identifier

Memo: additional notes from the bank, where available

Debit/Credit: whether the transaction is money in or out

Some feeds also carry additional structured metadata, for example Stripe transactions include a charge ID.

This metadata helps match transactions to accounting entries.

# Checking a Feed's Status

If you need to check on a feed:

1. Go to Settings → Integrations → Banks and click the bank to open the Edit bank connection panel, where the connection status is shown at the top
2. For the last sync time and result, go to Accounting → Bank reconciliation, select the account, and click the sync status next to Synced on the Unmatched tab to open the sync history

The connection status shows as Connection is active, Expires on [date], or Connection expired. Alongside it, Light shows a relative time for the last sync and its result, such as Completed, Syncing, or Failed.

A connection showing as active and recently synced is running correctly.

# Feed Connection Expiration

Bank feed connections may expire:

Why: banks require periodic re-authorisation for security

Timeline: varies by bank and provider. For GoCardless-connected UK institutions specifically, this is a maximum of 90 days

What happens: the feed stops importing when expired

How to fix: go to Settings → Integrations → Banks, click the bank, and click Renew connection, then follow the authorisation flow at your bank. Renewing keeps your existing feeds and the original history window, so you can't set a new sync from date when you renew.

# Handling Feed Issues

Feed stops importing

• Check that the connection hasn't expired
• Verify the account hasn't been disabled at the bank
• Check for notifications about the feed status

Duplicate transactions

• Sometimes a transaction may appear twice during sync
• On GoCardless feeds, Light detects duplicates during import and excludes them automatically. On other providers, check the transaction ID yourself and exclude any duplicate you find

Missing transactions

• Some transactions, such as pending or temporary holds, may not appear right away
• The importer looks back about a week to catch transactions that move from pending to booked, so this is usually when they will appear
• If a transaction is still missing after a week, contact your bank

Wrong amounts or descriptions

• Bank feeds import data as it comes from the bank
• Where the bank's data is incorrect, contact your bank to correct it
• In Light, you can manually adjust the transaction if needed

# Multi-Currency Transaction Handling

When transactions occur in a currency different from the account:

1. The bank converts the amount, and the feed imports the booked amount in the account's currency
2. Where available, the original currency amount is captured as transaction metadata (provided by the feed or extracted from the transaction reference)
3. Both amounts can then be used during reconciliation

When matching to accounting entries, Light uses FX conversion to determine if amounts match despite currency differences.

# Deleting a Bank Connection

Delete a bank connection if you no longer need it, or if you want to reconnect with a different sync from date:

1. Go to Settings → Integrations
2. Click Banks
3. Click the bank you want to remove. The Edit bank connection panel opens
4. Click Delete connection at the bottom of the panel
5. Click Confirm. This action cannot be undone

Deleting a connection removes the connection and all of its feeds, so no new transactions are imported. Transactions that were already imported remain in Light.

To stop importing for a single account only, open the connection and remove that account's mapping instead of deleting the whole connection.

# Reconnecting a Bank

Deleting a connection removes its feeds, so reconnecting creates a new connection and new feeds. Importing starts again from the sync from date you choose. It does not resume from where the old feed stopped.

1. Go to Settings → Integrations
2. Click + Add new integration and choose Bank
3. Choose your provider and, for GoCardless, select your bank, then click Next
4. Under From what date should transactions be synced?, choose a date, then choose a sync schedule
5. Click Next and authorize access at your bank (or in the Plaid window)
6. Map each bank account to the matching GL account in Light
7. Click Create feed

Overlapping dates: Light skips transactions it has already imported for the account. To be safe, choose a sync from date on or after your last imported transaction, and review the account for duplicates after the first sync. Transactions you uploaded by CSV are not checked against the bank feed.

# Best Practices

• Check feed status regularly: make sure feeds are active and syncing
• Re-authorise before expiration: don't wait until the connection drops
• Reconcile frequently: weekly or daily reconciliation keeps small mismatches manageable
• Understand your bank's sync schedule: know when to expect new transactions
• Monitor fee transactions: some banks charge fees that need GL entries
• Set realistic expectations: feeds typically import within 24 hours, and some take longer

# Related Articles

• Connecting bank accounts
• Importing bank transactions
• Automated bank reconciliation
• Multi-currency reconciliation