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Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

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Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#31

Post by mindslight »

neilv wrote: post #16

If you want to import banking data for tracking your personal finances or small business, there's also GnuCash, which you can run locally. https://gnucash.org/ I haven't used its online data-fetching features, but instead save manually save OFX and QFX files periodically from banking Web sites, and later import them into GnuCash (which includes transaction matchup features). I also use the statement reconciliation fe…

Is there any existing Free software project that aims to grab OFX files via banks' web interfaces? Obviously for banks that don't allow Direct Connect.

Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#32

Post by denimnerd42 »

kureikain wrote: post #10

I have been toying with this idea and my solution is to use email. Everytime I made purchase my bank (BankOfAmerica) send me an email, I parse that email and write data to a google sheet. It's great because I don't need to give credential to service like Plaid. I used webhook of service like https://hanami.run and configure my bank to send email notification to name@domain.com (my own domain). Hook it up with hanami.…

I'm interested, had the same line of thought, and a bofa customer too. Mind pushing anything you have to github or similar?

Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#33

Post by Lev1a »

cookie_monsta wrote: post #20
rawtxapp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait until you hear about this company called Plaid (valued at ~13B$) which is used by a lot of FinTech companies to access your bank account. They take your username/password in cleartext and go ahead and scrape and do as they please with the data to prevent fraud (oh and if 2fa blocks them from scraping, they'll ask you to disable it). How is this even remotely acceptable blows my mind. My alternatives to transfer…

I am obviously just such a low roller that I can't even imagine downloading a spreadsheet of recent transactions from my bank's website being a genuine pain point.

My bank makes me download or at least electronically acknowledge (through a button in the online banking) the bank statements it generates every few weeks. If those go unchecked for too long they're sent to me in the post, charging me for it.

Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#34

Post by arthurcolle »

kureikain wrote: post #10

I have been toying with this idea and my solution is to use email. Everytime I made purchase my bank (BankOfAmerica) send me an email, I parse that email and write data to a google sheet. It's great because I don't need to give credential to service like Plaid. I used webhook of service like https://hanami.run and configure my bank to send email notification to name@domain.com (my own domain). Hook it up with hanami.…

Where is this setting? I just created a BofA account a few days ago because BBVA is a hellhole of despair (Simple acquisition victim) so this sounds much better.

Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#35

Post by 6f8986c3 »

dylan604 wrote: post #24
mcs5280 wrote: post #22

Google and my bank account. That's gonna be a no from me, dawg.

That was my immediate reaction as well. Then I though about it some more, and got to hell nah.

If you really spend the time to dig into all the details, though, you might find yourself saying, “not a fucking chance”

Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#36

Post by 6f8986c3 »

rawtxapp wrote: post #18
cookie_monsta wrote: post #5

So this tool helps me share my transaction history with something called Nordigen and... Google? Is this a joke?

Wait until you hear about this company called Plaid (valued at ~13B$) which is used by a lot of FinTech companies to access your bank account. They take your username/password in cleartext and go ahead and scrape and do as they please with the data to prevent fraud (oh and if 2fa blocks them from scraping, they'll ask you to disable it). How is this even remotely acceptable blows my mind. My alternatives to transfer…

This is why any company that requires me to use Plaid is an immediate hard pass.

Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#37

Post by klyrs »

deregulateMed wrote: post #30
mcs5280 wrote: post #22

Google and my bank account. That's gonna be a no from me, dawg.

Given how bad customer support is, I find it laughable that you think Google cares about you. Google already knows if you are a 10%er or 90%er, your ads wouldn't change.

The gulf between "google the company is willing to provide customer service to you" and "a google dev will scrape your data and attempt to monetize it" is extraordinarily vast. Ever moreso that this thread exists and we've got somebody showing off how easy it is to link your bank account...

Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#38

Post by neilv »

sumedh wrote: post #29
neilv wrote: post #16

If you want to import banking data for tracking your personal finances or small business, there's also GnuCash, which you can run locally. https://gnucash.org/ I haven't used its online data-fetching features, but instead save manually save OFX and QFX files periodically from banking Web sites, and later import them into GnuCash (which includes transaction matchup features). I also use the statement reconciliation fe…

Is there something similar to gnucash but with better UX?

If you're up to investing time in GnuCash, and tuning it to your needs, there's some nice UI/HCI details, though some is still rough.

But the GnuCash out-of-box UX definitely isn't contemporary tech industry polish nor style. (Though that heritage also means that GnuCash isn't selling out the user a dozen different ways like we tend to do in tech industry right now.)

(Examples of tuning GnuCash: I replaced the default account hierarchy with one I evolved, switched to displaying only leaf account names instead of the colon path ones, and color-coded the accounts to distinguish liquid/non-liquid/liabilities/receivables.)

Re: Show HN: Connect your bank account to Google Sheets

#39

Post by devinsit »

sumedh wrote: post #29
neilv wrote: post #16

If you want to import banking data for tracking your personal finances or small business, there's also GnuCash, which you can run locally. https://gnucash.org/ I haven't used its online data-fetching features, but instead save manually save OFX and QFX files periodically from banking Web sites, and later import them into GnuCash (which includes transaction matchup features). I also use the statement reconciliation fe…

Is there something similar to gnucash but with better UX?

I built uFincs (https://ufincs.com) basically because I got fed up with GnuCash's UX. It only supports importing CSVs right now, but I'm open to adding other formats. It's also a web app rather than a desktop app, but you're free try it out/use it without an account (https://ufincs.com/noaccount) and all of your data will just be kept in your browser.
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