Bank Feeds API

A bank feed network is a directory of financial institutions that accounting software and apps can connect to. Instead of pushing statements into one ledger, the platform that holds the accounts is listed as an institution, and the network pulls accounts and transactions from it over the FDX standard after the customer signs in on the platform’s own login. Intuit Bank Feeds is the network behind QuickBooks Online, and Plaid Core Exchange is the network behind Plaid-powered apps. Through Apideck, both run behind the same Bank Feeds API as push feeds into Xero or NetSuite.

A bank feeds API lets a financial platform, such as a card issuer, embedded banking provider or payout platform, send its customers’ transactions straight into their accounting software. The transactions arrive in the ledger’s bank reconciliation screen, where they are matched to invoices and bills, so nobody exports or imports a CSV. Apideck’s Bank Feeds API does this through one statement call that reaches each ledger’s native bank feed.

They run in opposite directions. Aggregation pulls a person’s bank data out of their bank into an app, with their consent. A bank feed pushes transactions from the platform that holds the account into the customer’s accounting system. Apideck does not aggregate bank accounts. Its Plaid partnership works in the feed direction too: the upcoming Core Exchange connector lets Plaid-powered apps pull from your platform.

It depends on which ledgers your customers use. Compare providers on which ledgers get native feeds rather than journal entries, coverage in your customers’ countries, who holds the Xero, Intuit and NetSuite partner approvals, and how balance errors and duplicates are reported. Apideck sends native feeds to 10 ledgers, including Xero, NetSuite, Sage Intacct and European platforms such as Exact Online and Pennylane, and to QuickBooks Online through Intuit Bank Feeds in early access.

Yes. Xero’s Bank Feeds API has feed connections and statements, and access requires approval through Xero’s partner program. Each statement’s opening balance must match the previous closing balance. Through Apideck you post the same unified statement you send to every other ledger, and Apideck maps it to Xero.

QuickBooks Online does not accept pushed statements. It pulls from FDX data providers through Intuit Bank Feeds. Apideck runs an FDX data provider, so you post statements to the Bank Feeds API and Intuit fetches them on its own schedule. Your platform appears in QuickBooks’ bank list under your own name. This route is in early access.

An imported statement is a file, CSV, OFX or QBO, that someone downloads from the bank or platform and uploads into the accounting software, usually monthly and by hand. Automated bank feeds, also called direct bank feeds or bank statement feeds, deliver the same transactions on their own, every day, into the ledger’s reconciliation screen. A bank feeds API is how a platform provides automated feeds instead of asking customers to export files.

No. A bank feed carries data: accounts, balances and posted transactions. Nothing moves between accounts. Payments are a separate API.

Building direct, expect months per ledger, most of it spent in partner approval and certification rather than code. Through a unified API, the code is three calls: connect the customer, register the feed account, post statements. The rest of the time goes into linking the feed in each ledger and testing balances.

Most ledgers reject a repeated source_transaction_id, which makes a stable ID from your own ledger the safest retry key. Generate a new ID on every retry and you create a duplicate line in your customer’s books.