Connect a bank account for automatic transaction imports

Connecting a bank account lets SparkReceipt import your transactions automatically, so you don't have to download and upload statements. Once an account is connected, new transactions appear in your Transaction Manager on their own, already sorted into categories and matched to your receipts where possible. You can connect banks in the United States and Canada today. How many bank connections you can have depends on your plan: none on the Free plan, 1 on Pro and 10 on Elite.

How it differs from uploading statements

SparkReceipt supports two ways to get bank transactions in, and they lead to the same place:

Uploading a statement. You export a PDF, CSV, or Excel statement from your bank and upload it, and SparkReceipt extracts the transactions. Works with any bank in any country, with no setup. See Bank statement extraction: the complete guide.
Connecting the account (a bank feed). You authorize SparkReceipt once, and transactions flow in automatically from then on, with no files to upload.

You can use statements for one account and a connection for another. If you both connect an account and upload a statement that covers the same transactions, SparkReceipt detects the overlap and keeps a single copy rather than double-counting.

Who can connect an account

Bank connections live in your account's Integrations settings, which are available to administrators and Accountants on the account. If you don't have access to Integrations, ask an administrator on your account to set up the connection.

Which banks and countries are supported

SparkReceipt connects through bank-linking partners: Stripe Financial Connections for banks in the United States, and Plaid for banks in Canada and for the wider bank search. You sign in to your bank on the partner's own secure screens, so SparkReceipt never sees or stores your bank login. SparkReceipt gets read access to your transactions and balances only. It cannot move money.

When you click Connect account, SparkReceipt asks Where is your bank? and offers:

United States: banks and credit cards in the US.
Canada: Canadian banks and credit unions.
My bank isn't listed: searches a second partner's list of banks in your account's country, which helps when a US bank is missing from the United States list. It's shown only when your account is in the US or Canada, or its country is unknown.

Outside the US and Canada, bank connections aren't available yet, so upload statements instead. More countries will open over time. The one exception is Procountor: if you use the Procountor integration, its Import bank statements setting brings your bank statements in as a bank feed.

SparkReceipt marks the country it thinks you are in as Suggested. The list of individual banks comes from the partner, so the only reliable way to check whether your bank is available is to search for it in the connect window. If it isn't there, you can still bring its transactions in by uploading statements. Payment apps (Venmo, PayPal, Wise and similar), POS systems, online stores and utility accounts can't be connected. See Which banks and apps can I connect to SparkReceipt? for what to do instead.

How many bank accounts can I connect? (limits per plan)

Each plan includes a number of live bank connections:

Plan	Bank connections
Free	0
Pro	1
Elite	10

A few details on how connections are counted:

The limit is shared by your whole account, including any linked accounts.
Only active connections count. A disconnected account no longer counts toward the limit.
For Canadian banks and banks found through My bank isn't listed, several accounts linked through the same bank login count as one connection. For US banks, each linked account counts as its own connection.
Statements you upload never count toward the limit.
If you use the Procountor integration, its Import bank statements setting brings Procountor's bank statements in as a bank feed, and that counts as one connection.

When you reach the limit, the Connect account button is replaced by "You've reached your plan's bank connection limit. Upgrade to connect more accounts." with an Upgrade plan button. Accounts you already connected keep syncing. If your account moves to the Free plan, syncing of connected accounts pauses until you upgrade again. See Managing and troubleshooting your bank account connection for what happens to a paused connection.

How to connect an account

On the web:

Open SparkReceipt and click Integrations in the left-hand sidebar. This opens the Integrations tab of your account settings.
Find the Bank accounts section and click Connect account (it reads Connect another account once you already have one linked).
Pick the country your bank is in under Where is your bank?.
A secure window from the bank-linking partner opens. Choose your bank, sign in with your bank credentials, and select which accounts to link.
When you finish, the window closes and SparkReceipt sets up the connected accounts. The button shows Connecting... while it does.

In the mobile app, open Bank accounts from the menu and tap Connect account. The steps after that are the same.

If you close the bank window without linking anything, you'll see "Account linking was cancelled." and nothing changes. If the connection fails, SparkReceipt shows "Failed to connect account. Please try again." If the same bank login is already connected, you'll see "This bank login is already connected. You can find its accounts in your bank account list."

If your bank shows an error or can't be found

Your bank isn't in the list. Search under the other options too, especially My bank isn't listed, and try the name of the bank that actually holds your account as well as the brand on your card. SparkReceipt can't add banks to the partner's list.
The connection fails with an error. Banks sometimes have short outages or need you to finish a step in their own app. Try again later. If it keeps failing, write to support with your bank's name and what the error said.
Nothing works for this bank. Upload your statements instead. It gives you the same transactions in the same Transaction Manager.

What happens after you connect

Your bank doesn't hand over transactions the instant you connect. The first batch is fetched in the background and can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to appear. Once ready:

Transactions land in the Transaction Manager as Unmatched.
SparkReceipt categorizes them automatically.
It matches them against your existing receipts and invoices, linking confident matches and flagging the rest as Suggested for you to review.

On the first sync, SparkReceipt pulls up to around 180 days of history, depending on how much your bank makes available. You can fetch older transactions later. See Managing and troubleshooting your bank account connection.

If you don't see the Bank accounts section

Bank connections live under Integrations, which only administrators and Accountants can open. If you don't see Integrations or its Bank accounts section, you're most likely signed in with a role that doesn't have Integrations access. In the mobile app everyone can open Bank accounts, but only administrators and Accountants see Connect account. Ask an administrator on your account to set up the connection. You can always bring transactions in yourself by uploading statements, which works for every role and every bank.