QuickFile bank feed plugin (depreciated)

Important: The Bank Feed Chrome Plugin is now depreciated. With the roll out of Open Banking and the increasing complexity of maintaining this plugin to work seamlessly with all the banks, it has become unfeasible to continue supporting this free tool. Open Banking Feeds offer a convenient and secure way to connect your bank to QuickFile, we will begin roll out of the Open Banking Feeds in December 2018. The Chrome Plugin will remain available to use, but we will no longer be maintaining the scripts when the banks update their login procedures.

Introduction

The QuickFile Bank Feed Plugin is a dedicated browser extension for Chrome that allows you to stream your bank statement data into QuickFile from your online banking area at the click of a button. We developed the plugin as we understand how fresh, up to date bank transactions radically simplifies the bookkeeping process. This guide aims to get you started using the plugin in a few minutes, you’ll never need to touch a CSV file again!

How does it work?

Traditional bank feeds involve handing over your login credentials to a 3rd party so they can run some automated software overnight to log in to your account and pull down the latest transactions from your bank. With a plugin there’s no need to disclose your login details as all the automation runs inside your browser. You just head over to your banks
login page and a QuickFile settings box will appear allowing you to input your credentials and run the feed.

Which banks are currently supported?

At the moment we support the following banks, but we’re committed to adding more over time so don’t
worry if your bank is not there at the moment.

  • Lloyds TSB Business Banking
  • HSBC Business Banking
  • Natwest
  • Santander Business Banking

How can I install the bank feed plugin?

You can install the Chrome plugin from the link below:

Click here to view and install the QuickFile Bank Feed plugin for Chrome

Once installed you’ll get a small QuickFile icon () in the top right of your browser. Click on this icon and you’ll be able to jump to any of the supported banks.


Select your bank

What about other browsers?

At the moment we are only supporting Google Chrome. This is largely due to the technical resources it would require to rewrite the software in a multitude of different browsers.

The QuickFile platform on a whole is generally optimised to run within the Google Chrome browser so it’s an excellent choice for QuickFile and many other modern web applications.

How to use the plugin - the basics

OK, before you get started with using the plugin you will need to allow bank feeds to be posted into your account. Log into your QuickFile main Dashboard and click the “Account Settings” menu. Under the “3rd Party Integration” sub-menu, select “Bank feeds”.

All you need to do here is click to enable bank feeds and make a note of the auto-generated import key (you can change this to something more memorable if you want).

Now, with the Chrome Extension installed head over to your online banking area. You will now see a settings panel hovering at the top of the screen like the one below.

The bank feed plugin can perform two basic functions on your bank account that can be initiated from the buttons on the right hand side. When you click either of these buttons it will prompt you to enter your bank login credentials so the task can be run. You can decide which credentials for the plugin to remember, to speed up this routine in future.

Import Transactions

This will log into your account, download the latest transactions and post them over to your QuickFile account. For a number of banks we allow a specific start date to be entered as well, and if this is missing don’t worry as you can always go in manually and export a specific range instead.

Login

This button will just log you in to your dashboard, and if you’ve pre-saved any credentials in the plugin, for security reasons you’ll need to confirm at least one of them.

Settings

The bank feed plugin runs like a macro so when you import transactions or log in to your account you will see the plugin rapidly cycle through the pages to get where it needs to. In order to do this, when you first run the plugin, you will need to enter some settings. Once you have saved this information you can quickly log in or import transactions
without having to re-enter this information every time.

Custom Export Buttons

As well as allowing you to automate the transfer of bank statement information into QuickFile, the bank feed plugin will also add an “Export to QuickFile” button within your online banking software. You can use this button to download any historical data from your bank and push it directly into the QuickFile application.

Processing new bank feeds

When you export bank statement data from your bank to QuickFile, the new statements will first appear in a holding area ready to be synced within your account. You will see a notification on the Dashboard, in the top right hand corner, from which all the new pending statements will be visible.

You can click the “process” button to sync any new bank feeds. This tool will also allow you to trim the data before you import. Let’s say you import all the transactions from your bank for the month of June, but you already have transactions entered up to the 15th of June. QuickFile will allow you to trim off all the transactions in the feed before the
15th and only import the new entries.

From this screen you can also choose which bank account you would like to deploy the new transactions to. We’ll also show you 5 most recent entries to help trim the feed if you need to.

Auto process new feeds (Please note that this feature will be available shortly)

If you’d rather not have to worry about manually importing your bank feeds you can configure QuickFile to import them automatically. You can switch on this setting in the “Account Settings” area, just go to “Bank Feed Settings” and turn it on there.

The new feeds will try to link to an existing bank account based on the account number. In order for this to work just check and ensure that the bank you wish to import to has the account number saved in the settings.

Why is the bank feed plugin a beta product?

The bank feed plugin relies on scripts that navigate the bank’s website in order to carryout automated tasks. Occasionally, the banks will change their websites and the scripts will become ineffective. For that reason, and due to not having the full end-to-end control over what’s going on, we can’t guarantee that the plugin will always work
flawlessly! Having said that we are committed to offer continued support for the plugin, and any such changes will be addressed, and any updates will be automatically applied.

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