Connecting your bank accounts

Connecting your banks is what turns Swish from a spreadsheet into something that keeps itself up to date.

How it works, and what Swish can see

Swish uses Akahu, a New Zealand open-banking service, to connect to your bank.

You never give Swish your bank login. You log in with your bank, through Akahu's secure connection.
Swish receives account details, balances, and transaction history — it cannot move money, make payments,
or change anything at your bank.

Everything that comes back is encrypted on your device before it is stored. See
Your encryption passphrase.

Connecting an account

If Swish has retained history from an earlier connection, select Reconnect Bank. On a new account,
select Add Bank Account instead.

1. Select Accounts in the sidebar.
2. Select Reconnect Bank or Add Bank Account, whichever is shown.
3. Choose your bank from the list.
4. Log in with your bank and approve the connection.
5. Choose which accounts to share.
6. You are returned to Swish automatically.

Your accounts appear within a few moments. Transactions can take a little longer to arrive — Swish
fetches them in the background and the header indicator shows progress.

You can repeat this for as many banks as you like.

The Accounts screen

Each connected account appears as a card showing:

• Your bank's logo
• The account name
• Institution • account type • account number
• The current balance
• Any registers it is linked to
• Link to Register or Manage Link

Finding an account

Search — type into Search accounts, assets or businesses... to filter as you go.

Filter — tick as many as you need; the options combine.

There is no filter for accounts linked to liabilities, and none for unlinked accounts. To find a
mortgage or credit card account, use the search box or filter by its bank.

Viewing transactions for an account

Select an account card to open its transaction history.

Transactions are grouped under date headings, with three columns:

Select a transaction to see the rest — its full reference, the account, the date, and its budget
category.

Available Balance is shown above, along with any registers this account is linked to (or "Not linked
to a register").

To categorise transactions and set up rules, use the Transactions screen — it
covers all your accounts at once.

Keeping accounts up to date

Swish refreshes your accounts automatically in the background when you sign in.

If a balance looks stale, wait a moment for the background sync to complete — the header indicator shows
when it is still working. Bear in mind that banks themselves update at different speeds; some are
near-instant, others post overnight.

Reviewing imported accounts

After connecting a bank — especially if you already had registers set up — Swish may show
Review linked bank accounts, asking how each new account should connect to your registers.

Choose the links you want, then select Done. If you close the screen with choices you have not
applied, Swish asks Discard changes? and offers Apply changes or Discard changes.

Disconnecting a bank

You control your bank connection through Akahu, not through Swish.

When you revoke access there, Swish is notified and shows "Bank access removed." Your cached accounts
are cleared from the Accounts screen and any links to registers are removed — so if you have several
banks connected, expect to reconnect the ones you are keeping.

Your register items stay. The mortgage in your Liabilities register remains — it just stops updating
itself, and you can maintain the balance manually.

Troubleshooting

More in FAQ and troubleshooting.

Next

Link your accounts to your registers so balances flow through to your net worth:
Linking accounts to registers.