Ambivo Books User Guide
DocsUG-030
Bank Feeds
Connecting banks via Stripe Financial Connections, manual bank accounts
A bank feed is a live connection between Books and your bank — Books pulls in your transactions automatically, you reconcile them against the bills and invoices already on your books, and your reports stay accurate without spreadsheet round-trips. Books supports two flavors of bank account:
- Connected (Stripe Financial Connections) — Live feed; transactions arrive automatically
- Manual — A bank account you create in Books and import transactions into via CSV
This guide covers connecting and managing both.
Connected Bank Accounts (Stripe Financial Connections)
Books uses Stripe Financial Connections (Stripe FC) to talk to thousands of banks across the US and globally. Stripe handles the bank-side OAuth, the encryption, and the daily sync. From your point of view, you click "Connect Bank," sign in to your bank, pick which accounts to share, and you are done.
This integration has replaced the older Plaid integration. There is nothing to install or configure on your end besides the connection itself.
What you get from a connected account
- A live transaction feed (typically refreshed every 24 hours; on-demand sync available)
- Account balances visible in the Bank Feeds list
- Auto-suggested matches against your existing invoices, bills, and payments
What it does not do
- It does not automatically categorize new expenses (you do that in Bank Transactions)
- It does not pay bills (use Transfers Sent for that)
- It does not let you initiate transfers from inside Books — only read transactions
Getting There
- Click Bank Feeds in the left sidebar
- The list shows every connection (live and manual) with status, last sync time, and balance
Connecting Your First Bank
Steps
- From Bank Feeds, click Connect Bank
- The Stripe Financial Connections modal opens
- Search for your bank by name
- Sign in to your bank with your normal online-banking credentials
- Pick the account(s) you want to share with Books
- Approve the connection
What Happens Next
- Books receives the connection in Pending state — the initial sync may take a few minutes
- Once Stripe confirms, the connection becomes Active
- Each shared account appears in the list as a separate row, with category (Cash, Credit, Investment) and balance
If you see "Bank Connected — Sync Pending," that is normal. Refresh the page or click Sync after a minute or two.
Linking a Connected Account to a Books Account
A connected bank account is just a stream of transactions until you tell Books which Bank-type Chart of Accounts entry it represents. Linking the two is what makes reconciliation possible.
Steps
- From Bank Feeds, find the connected account
- Click Link to Books Account
- Pick the Bank-type account in your Chart of Accounts (e.g., "Chase Operating")
- Confirm
What Happens Next
- All future transactions from this connected account appear in Bank Transactions, pre-tagged with the linked Books account
- Auto-match starts looking for existing payments / receipts / bills against this account
- The balance on this Books account starts being calculable from the bank feed (rather than only from posted transactions)
If you do not have a matching Books account yet, create one in Accounts with type Bank, then come back here.
Unlinking
If you mapped a connected account to the wrong Books account:
- Open the connected account in Bank Feeds
- Click Unlink
- Confirm
The transactions stay in Books, but they are no longer attached to the previous Books account. Re-link to the correct one.
Syncing
Stripe FC refreshes the transaction feed automatically (typically daily). To force an immediate refresh:
- From Bank Feeds, click Sync at the top of the page (syncs all connections)
- Or click Sync on an individual connection
You may need to do this:
- After a large transaction you want to see right away
- After connecting a new account
- When troubleshooting a discrepancy
A sync usually completes in a few seconds; large feeds may take a minute.
Disconnecting a Bank
If you no longer want Books pulling transactions from a bank:
- Open the connection
- Click Disconnect
- Confirm
The connection is removed at Stripe and at Books. Historical transactions stay in Books — only the future feed stops. To re-enable, click Connect Bank and sign in again.
Manual Bank Accounts
If your bank is not supported by Stripe FC, or if you want a separate "petty cash" or other ledger account that you fund by CSV import, create a manual bank account.
Creating a Manual Bank Account
- From Bank Feeds, click Create Manual Account
- Fill in: Display name — what you call this account; Institution name — which bank or fintech (free text); Account number hint — last 4 digits or another non-secret identifier; Subtype — Checking, Savings, Credit Card; Currency — defaults to USD; Books account — pick a Bank-type COA account to link to (or create one inline)
- Click Create
Importing Transactions into a Manual Account
- Open the manual account
- Click Import Transactions
- Upload a CSV exported from your bank
- Books auto-detects column headers; map them to date / description / amount / type
- Preview, fix duplicates, and import
See Data Import (UG-060) for column reference and duplicate-handling details.
Editing or Removing a Manual Account
- Edit — Update name, institution, subtype, account number hint
- Delete — Removes the manual account; imported transactions stay attached to the linked Books account
The Books account itself is unaffected — deleting a manual bank record just removes the link, not the underlying chart-of-accounts entry.
Connection Status
Each connection shows a status:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active | Healthy. Transactions are syncing on schedule. |
| Inactive | Sync has paused — typically because the bank requires re-authentication. |
| Disconnected | The connection has been broken. Reconnect to resume. |
If a connection goes Inactive, click Reconnect to walk through the bank login again.
Common Questions
Is Stripe Financial Connections safe?
Yes. Stripe is a regulated financial-services provider. Books never sees your bank password — Stripe holds the OAuth token. Stripe is read-only; Books cannot move money through this connection.
My bank is not in the Stripe list
Use a manual bank account instead. Export transactions from your bank as CSV and import them.
Can I connect business and personal accounts?
Personally identifiable / personal accounts can be connected, but you generally should not — Books is a business accounting product, and mixing personal accounts pollutes your financial statements. Keep personal accounts in a personal tool.
Do I have to link every connected account to a Books account?
Yes — until you link, Books does not know which Chart of Accounts entry the bank account corresponds to, and the transactions cannot reconcile.
Why are some transactions showing up days late?
Banks can take 1–3 days to release transactions to Stripe FC, especially for pending transactions that have not yet posted. Pending charges may not show at all until they post.
My connection went Inactive
This usually means your bank wants you to re-authenticate (a 90-day refresh cycle is common). Click Reconnect and walk through the bank login flow.
Can I undo a sync?
You cannot un-sync. But you can exclude unwanted transactions from reconciliation — see Bank Transactions and Reconciliation (UG-031).
My balance in Books doesn't match my bank's balance
Several things could cause this — pending transactions, in-flight reconciliations, manual journal entries that have not been mirrored at the bank yet. Run the bank reconciliation report to see the gap explicitly.
Tips and Best Practices
- Connect early. The longer you go without a feed, the more typing you have to do later.
- Link every connected account immediately. Connecting without linking is half the job.
- Sync before reconciling. Make sure the latest day's transactions are in before you start matching.
- Use manual accounts for non-bank "money" ledgers — petty cash, gift cards, prepaid travel cards.
- Reconnect promptly when a connection goes inactive. Letting it slide for weeks creates a backlog at the bank that may be harder to recover.
- Don't connect personal accounts. It pollutes your business books and confuses everyone who looks at the data.