Once you've connected a bank account, SparkReceipt keeps it in sync automatically. Each connected account has a settings page where you can pull older transactions, refresh its details, and disconnect it. A connected account can't be deleted, only disconnected, so it stays in your account lists marked as disconnected. This article explains how syncing behaves, how to read the account's status and any sync errors, and what you can and can't remove.
Where to manage a connection
Go to Integrations in the left-hand sidebar and open the Bank accounts section. Each connected account appears as a row showing its name, institution, type, and last four digits, along with a status badge. Click Settings on a row to open that account's settings page. On the web, managing connections is available to administrators and Accountants. In the mobile app, open Bank accounts from the menu and tap an account. There, members can also refresh, fetch older transactions and disconnect, while connecting and reconnecting stay with administrators and Accountants.
How syncing works
After the first import, SparkReceipt keeps the account up to date automatically, and you don't have to refresh anything. SparkReceipt gets notified through its bank-linking partner whenever new transaction data is ready. Each notification triggers a background sync, and the new transactions show up in the Transaction Manager on their own, already categorized and matched where possible.
Because of this, how often new transactions appear is up to your bank. Banks typically post new transactions roughly once a day, and often with a delay of a day or more. If a purchase you made an hour ago isn't showing yet, that almost always means your bank hasn't released it to the connection yet. SparkReceipt picks it up automatically as soon as it's available. If you don't want to wait, you can pull transactions on demand with Fetch older transactions (below) instead of waiting for the next notification.
While a sync is queued or running, the account shows a Pending or Syncing badge, and the settings page notes: "This account is syncing right now. New transactions will appear automatically — no need to refresh or fetch."
Fetching older transactions
The automatic sync brings in new transactions going forward. To pull history, for example when you first connect and want the last few months, use Fetch older transactions on the account settings page:
- Open the account's settings and choose Fetch older transactions.
- Set Pull transactions since to the date you want to go back to, and click Fetch.
- SparkReceipt starts the sync in the background and new transactions appear shortly.
Banks typically share up to around 180 days of history through the connection, though the exact depth depends on your bank. The date picker lets you go back up to a year, but you only get what your bank makes available.
Refreshing account details
Refresh details updates the account's name, number, and status from your bank. It does not fetch transactions. It only refreshes the account's own information. Use it if the account's name or status looks out of date.
Disconnecting an account
To stop syncing an account, open its settings and choose Disconnect. You'll be asked to confirm: "Are you sure you want to disconnect this account? Transaction syncing will stop, but existing transactions will be kept."
Disconnecting stops all future syncing, but everything already imported stays. Your transactions, matches, and any expenses or income you created from them are untouched. Only the live link to your bank is removed, and the account no longer counts toward your plan's connection limit. If several accounts came in through the same bank login, the login stops counting once all of them are disconnected.
There is no pause button for a connection. If you want to stop new transactions for a while, disconnect the account and use Reconnect later.
Reconnecting
If an account is disconnected and you want it back, open its settings and choose Reconnect. This takes you through the same secure bank-linking flow you used to connect it the first time.
Removing a disconnected account from your lists
A connected bank account can't be deleted, even after you disconnect it. SparkReceipt keeps it because its imported transactions, matches and sync history still point to it. After you disconnect it, the account:
- stays in the Bank accounts section under Integrations with the Disconnected status,
- stays in the Accounts filter of the Transaction Manager, so you can still find its old transactions,
- shows as Bank feed (disconnected) under Account settings → Cards & Accounts → Transaction accounts,
- is no longer offered as a destination when you mark a transaction as a transfer.
A disconnected account doesn't sync and doesn't count toward your connection limit, so leaving it in the list does no harm. If you connected the wrong account by mistake, disconnect it and its old transactions stay where they are. You can exclude any of them you don't want in your books (see Transfers, exclusions, and creating entries in the Transaction Manager).
Accounts you created yourself, or that SparkReceipt detected from an uploaded statement, are different. Those show as Added manually under Cards & Accounts → Transaction accounts, and members, administrators and Accountants can edit or delete them there. Deleting one keeps its statements and transactions. They just aren't linked to that account any more.
Account statuses
A connected account is always in one of three states:
- Active: connected and syncing normally.
- Inactive (Attention needed in the mobile app): your bank connection needs attention (for example the bank's authorization expired or the institution had a temporary problem). Syncing pauses while an account is inactive. It often recovers on its own, and syncing resumes automatically once it does. If the account's settings page shows This account lost its connection, use the button in that notice (Reconnect, or Renew access for some banks) to restore access.
- Disconnected: the link to your bank has been removed, either by you or at your bank. No new transactions will arrive, and existing ones are kept. Reconnect to resume.
Bank connections on the Free plan
The Free plan includes no bank connections. If your account moves to the Free plan, for example after a subscription ends, SparkReceipt pauses syncing for your connected accounts and shows Paused on the free plan on them. Nothing is deleted, and syncing resumes on its own when you upgrade to a paid plan again.
For some banks the paused connection is removed after a while. In that case the account shows the date ("Paused on the free plan. Connection removed on [date] unless you upgrade."), and the account owner gets an email a week before. After the removal, your imported transactions are kept. Upgrade and use Reconnect to connect the bank again.
Sync history and preview
The account settings page includes a Sync information card listing recent syncs: When, Type (Initial, Refresh, Manual, or Daily), Status, and how many transactions were Fetched, New, or Updated. You can also Preview transactions to see, read-only, what was fetched, and jump straight to the full list with Open in Transaction Manager.
Common sync situations
- "No transactions have been fetched for this account yet." Right after connecting, your bank's first data refresh is still running. Give it a few minutes. The transactions appear once your bank returns them.
- Rate-limited. Banks and our bank-linking partners limit how often data can be refreshed. If you hit a limit, the sync is retried automatically shortly, and there's nothing you need to do.
- A sync shows Failed or Interrupted. An interrupted sync (for example from a temporary rate limit) is retried automatically. If a sync keeps failing, check whether the account has gone Inactive or Disconnected and reconnect if needed.
Can I see my current bank balance?
No. SparkReceipt imports your transactions but doesn't show the balance of a connected account, and there's no field for typing in a current balance. Check your balance in your online banking. For uploaded statements, the statement's own opening and closing balance are shown on the statement. See Bank statement extraction: the complete guide.