Open Banking
Connect your UK bank account for automatic transaction import.
Planned feature — Open Banking integration is on the product roadmap. This document describes the intended scope, guarantees, and constraints of the initial implementation.
Overview
Open Banking allows SpeyBooks to consume bank transaction data automatically, reducing manual imports while preserving full accounting control.
Open Banking in SpeyBooks is:
- Read-only — SpeyBooks cannot move money
- Evidence-oriented — Bank data is treated as external input
- Ledger-safe — No automatic writes to your accounts
It is an ingestion mechanism — not an accounting engine.
Design intent
Open Banking follows the same principles as CSV import and manual bank entry:
- Bank data is treated as external evidence
- The ledger remains append-only and authoritative
- No accounting entries are inferred or mutated automatically
Automatic import does not mean automatic reconciliation.
What Open Banking enables
Once connected, SpeyBooks can:
- Automatically import cleared bank transactions
- Keep bank balances up to date
- Reduce reconciliation latency
- Eliminate manual CSV uploads
All downstream accounting decisions remain explicit.
Supported banks
SpeyBooks plans to support all major UK banks via Open Banking providers:
- Barclays
- HSBC
- Lloyds
- NatWest
- Santander
- Monzo
- Starling
- Tide
Additional banks will be added over time.
How it works
Open Banking follows a strict, observable pipeline:
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
| Connect | Authorise SpeyBooks via your bank's Open Banking consent flow |
| Sync | Transactions fetched automatically (planned: hourly) |
| Match | SpeyBooks attempts non-destructive matching to existing invoices and expenses |
| Reconcile | You review, confirm, and lock matches |
Each step is explicit and auditable.
Relationship to bank reconciliation
Open Banking is a data source, not a reconciliation shortcut.
- Imported transactions behave exactly like CSV-imported transactions
- They enter the system as
unmatchedbank transactions - They must be matched or categorised explicitly
- Ledger entries are created only via reconciliation actions
This preserves identical behaviour across all import methods.
See Bank Reconciliation for the full reconciliation workflow.
Security model
Open Banking access is intentionally constrained.
| Guarantee | Description |
|---|---|
| Read-only access | SpeyBooks cannot move money or initiate payments |
| Bank-level authentication | Consent is granted directly with your bank |
| No credential storage | SpeyBooks never stores bank usernames or passwords |
| Revocable access | You can revoke consent at any time via your bank |
SpeyBooks only receives the minimum data required to import transactions and balances.
Data retention and control
- Imported transactions are stored in your SpeyBooks account
- They are treated as external records, not ledger entries
- You may delete imported bank transactions at any time
- Deleting bank data does not affect posted ledger transactions
Exports remain fully available via API and CSV.
Failure behaviour
If Open Banking sync fails:
- No ledger data is affected
- No transactions are inferred or guessed
- Manual CSV import remains available
- Reconciliation can continue uninterrupted
Open Banking is additive, not foundational.
Pricing
Open Banking integration is planned to be:
- Included in all plans
- No per-connection fees
- No usage-based surcharges
This reinforces the principle that data access should not create lock-in.
Open Banking invariants
SpeyBooks commits to the following:
- Open Banking never writes directly to the ledger
- No automatic categorisation without user action
- Imported data is immutable once stored
- All reconciliation actions are explicit
- Ledger correctness always wins over convenience