How Bank Feeds Work

A bank feed brings your bank’s own record of every deposit, payment and fee into Arcus, so you do not type bank activity by hand. Arcus connects to banks through Plaid. This page explains the ideas behind the feed. For the steps, see Reconciling, Start to Finish.

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A Bank Connection

A bank connection is one sign-in to your bank’s online banking. You make it once, on the Bank Feed tab of Finance > Close & Reconcile > Bank Reconciliation, by clicking Connect a bank and signing in to the bank through Plaid. One sign-in often carries several accounts: a checking account, a savings account, a credit card. After you sign in, Arcus asks what each one is:

• Map it to one of your Arcus bank accounts. Each Arcus bank account is linked to one general ledger account: a cash account for checking or savings, or a liability account for a credit card or line of credit. That link is how a bank line finds its place in your books.
• Mark it Not ours when the account belongs to someone else, such as a personal account that shares the same sign-in. Arcus keeps the connection but never imports that account’s lines.

One bank account in Arcus takes lines from one account at the bank. If an account is not in Arcus yet, add it first with Add bank account on the Reconciliation tab, then map it.

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How Bank Lines Arrive

Arcus gets new bank lines three ways:

1. The bank tells Arcus. When the bank has new activity, it sends Arcus a notice and Arcus fetches the new lines on its own. The connection reads Auto-sync on when this is working.
2. A daily check. Once a day Arcus asks every connected bank for anything new, in case a notice was missed.
3. Sync now. Click Sync now beside an account to ask the bank right away. Arcus tells you what happened: “Checked with your bank. No new transactions.” or how many new lines it brought in. Sync now asks the bank for what it has; it cannot make the bank post a line sooner.

Each new line lands in the For Review tab of Bank Transactions. Nothing reaches your general ledger until you decide what the line is, with one exception: see Bank Fees below.

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Pending Lines

A card charge or transfer the bank has not finished posting arrives as Pending at the bank. You can open its details, but you cannot approve, match or exclude it, and it is left out of every balance and reconciliation figure. When the bank posts it, the posted line takes its place and you work it then.

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Bank Fees

When the bank itself labels a withdrawal as a bank fee, Arcus records the fee for you and ties the bank line to that entry, so routine service charges need no work. If the line could be something else, such as a returned payment or money the books may already hold, Arcus does not post it and leaves the line in For Review for you to decide.

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How Much History a New Connection Brings

The first time you connect a bank sign-in, Arcus asks the bank for up to two years of history. The bank decides how much it sends. Many banks send two years. Some send 90 days, or less. History can arrive in two steps: the most recent weeks first, then the older lines once the bank has prepared them. Arcus picks up the older lines on its daily check, or the next time you click Sync now. Reconnect on a connection that needs attention repairs the sign-in you already have. It does not ask the bank for a new history window: the connection keeps the window it was made with.

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Connecting the Same Bank Again

Sometimes a connection has to be made again from scratch, for example after a bank sign-in was removed. Arcus recognizes the accounts it already knows:

• Your accounts are re-adopted, not duplicated. When the bank and the last four digits of an account match an account you connected before, Arcus links the new connection to your existing Arcus bank account. The mapping, the general ledger link and every line already imported stay exactly as they were. Arcus tells you which accounts it re-linked: “Re-linked N accounts to your existing setup.” Only accounts it could not recognize with certainty ask you to map them.
• Lines Arcus already holds are not counted twice. The new connection sends its history again. For each line Arcus already has, the copy is set aside on the Excluded tab, never added to your balance:
  • When the re-sent line is identical to the one you already worked, Arcus moves your match, category and note onto the line from the current connection and retires the old copy. The Excluded tab lists these as lines replaced when this bank login was renewed. Nothing was lost: each one is carried by the line on the current connection, so there is nothing to restore.
  • When the re-sent line is very close but not identical, Arcus keeps your original line and sets the new copy aside with the reason “Auto-excluded: already imported under a previous connection to this bank (same date, amount and description). Restore it if this is a separate transaction.” The Excluded tab groups these as Re-downloaded by a new connection to this bank.
• New history still comes in. Lines dated outside what you already had are imported normally. That gap-fill is often the reason to connect again.

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Feed Health

Each connection on the Bank Feed tab shows its state: Pause on one account stops its imports without touching the connection; Resume starts them again. On Bank Reconciliation, each account card shows a small health mark (connected, needs attention, or no feed) and when it last synced.

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The Review Inbox

Bank Transactions (Finance > Close & Reconcile > Bank Transactions) is the review inbox. It has three tabs:

• For Review: every bank line no one has dealt with yet. Each one waits here until you match it to a record already in Arcus, create the record from it, or exclude it.
• Categorized: lines you have matched or created records from. A line that created its record shows Undo, which voids or reverses that record; a line matched to a record that already existed shows Unmatch, which removes the match and leaves the record as it is. Either way the line goes back to For Review.
• Excluded: lines that are not business transactions in this account: second copies, bank noise, and the re-sent copies described above. They never post and never count in a balance.

Working the inbox every day or week keeps month end short: when every line has its record, closing the month only confirms the statement. See Bank Transactions for every action on a line.

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A Bank Feed Is Not a Reconciliation

A bank line that is matched is cleared: Arcus knows which record it belongs to. A month is reconciled only when you close it against the bank statement on Bank Reconciliation. The feed does the daily work; the reconciliation proves the month. See Reconciling, Start to Finish.

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