# Connecting your bank and credit cards (Plaid)

> Live transaction feeds through Plaid: connect a bank, map each account to the ledger, and let transactions arrive in the review queue on their own.

Section: Banking · Canonical: https://intubu.intuitivecapital-dai.com/docs/bank-connections

Banking → Connections.

**Before you can connect.** Bank connections go through Plaid, a service set up for the whole installation. If *Connect a bank* is not offered, it is not set up yet; statements can always be imported under Banking → Imports in the meantime.

**Connecting a bank.** *Connect a bank* opens Plaid Link, which runs the bank's own login inside Plaid's window — your bank credentials never touch IntuBu. When it finishes, the connection and its accounts appear here **unmapped**.

**Nothing syncs until you map it.** For each bank account, choose which ledger account it feeds, or create one. A checking account must feed a bank account and a card must feed a credit card account — the sign convention depends on it — and two bank accounts can never feed one ledger account.

**How transactions arrive.** Plaid tells IntuBu when there is something new (the webhook), IntuBu also pulls every six hours as a safety net, and *Sync now* pulls on demand. Every line goes through the same path as a file import: exact duplicate detection on the bank's own id, the fuzzy "possible duplicate" flag, your rules, and the review queue. A pending charge that settles is updated in place; one the bank withdraws is excluded, never deleted. A line you have already categorised is left as you decided and gets a note if the bank later changed it.

**When a bank needs you.** Banks periodically require a fresh login, and consent can expire. The connection shows *Reconnect needed* or *Consent expiring*, owners get a notification, and *Reconnect* runs Link in repair mode without re-mapping anything. *Revoked at bank* means the customer removed access on the bank's side; connect again from scratch.

**Disconnecting** removes access at Plaid (so it stops being billed) and deletes the token here. Transactions already imported stay in your books.

**No Plaid?** Banking → Imports takes OFX/QFX, QIF and CSV exports from any bank. OFX and QIF need no column mapping.