Connecting an Australian bank account to a spreadsheet should not require downloading CSV files, copying transactions by hand or sharing internet-banking passwords with another service.
BankSync uses Australia’s Consumer Data Right (CDR) to create a secure, read-only connection between eligible bank accounts and the tools where you already manage your finances. Once connected, transactions, balances and account details can be delivered automatically to Google Sheets, Excel, Notion, Airtable or another supported destination.
This guide explains the complete setup process, what you will see during bank authorisation and how to troubleshoot common connection issues.
What you need before you start
Before connecting an Australian bank, make sure you have:
- A BankSync account and workspace
- Online or mobile banking access for the institution you want to connect
- Authority to share data for the selected account
- Access to the destination where the data will be sent
- A few minutes to complete the bank’s consent and authentication flow
For business, partnership, joint or multi-user accounts, your bank may apply additional eligibility or authorisation requirements. The person creating the connection should have the appropriate authority on the account.
How Australian bank connections work
Australian bank connections use the CDR, commonly referred to as Open Banking.
Instead of giving BankSync your banking password, you select your institution and continue through a secure consent flow. Your bank authenticates you and shows what data will be shared, which accounts are included and how long the consent will remain active.
The connection is read-only. BankSync can retrieve authorised financial data, but it cannot initiate payments, transfer money or change anything in your bank account.
You remain in control of the connection and can withdraw your consent when you no longer want the data to sync.
Step 1: Create or open your BankSync workspace
Sign in to BankSync and open the workspace that should own the bank connection.
A workspace keeps the connection, sync configuration and destination settings together. Businesses and advisers may prefer separate workspaces where different entities or client data need to remain segregated.
Once you are inside the correct workspace, go to the area for adding a bank connection or bank feed.
Step 2: Add an Australian bank connection
Choose the option to add a new bank connection and select Australia when prompted for a region.
Search for your bank or financial institution by name. Availability can vary by institution, account type and the bank’s implementation of CDR data sharing. If an institution appears in the connection screen, select it to continue.
You may be shown information explaining that:
- The connection uses the Consumer Data Right
- Access is limited to the data you authorise
- The connection does not permit BankSync to move money
- You can stop sharing data later
Review this information and continue to the bank authorisation process.
Step 3: Authenticate with your bank
Your bank will ask you to verify your identity using its own authentication process. The exact screens differ between institutions and may involve:
- Your bank’s customer or login identifier
- A mobile-app approval
- A one-time security code
- Multi-factor authentication
- Selection of a personal or business banking profile
Complete authentication through the bank’s authorised flow. BankSync does not need you to enter or save your internet-banking password inside a BankSync form.
If you manage multiple profiles with the same institution, choose the profile that contains the accounts you intend to sync.
Step 4: Review and approve data-sharing consent
The consent screen will show the data requested for the BankSync connection. Depending on the institution and account, this may include:
- Account names and identifiers
- Account types
- Current and available balances
- Transaction history
- Transaction descriptions, dates and amounts
- Other account information made available through the CDR
Review the requested data, selected accounts and consent duration shown on screen. Only approve the connection when the details match what you intend to share.
You may be able to select individual accounts rather than sharing every eligible account held with the institution. This is useful when you want to connect a business transaction account without also including unrelated personal accounts.
After approval, you will be returned to BankSync and the authorised accounts should appear in your workspace.
Step 5: Select the accounts to sync
Choose which connected accounts BankSync should use for the feed.
You can connect more than one eligible account, including accounts held at different institutions. Keeping the account name, institution and account identifier in your destination makes it easier to filter transactions when several feeds write to the same table.
For bookkeeping or reporting workflows, consider syncing:
- Operating transaction accounts
- Business credit cards
- Savings or tax-reserve accounts
- Loan accounts where supported
- Separate accounts used for projects, properties or entities
Only connect data that is relevant to the intended workflow.
Step 6: Connect your destination
After connecting the bank, choose where the financial data should go.
BankSync can be used with destinations such as:
- Google Sheets for shared reporting, formulas and dashboards
- Excel for financial models, pivot tables, VBA and established workbook workflows
- Notion for flexible finance databases and operating dashboards
- Airtable for relational workflows, automations and team views
- REST API or developer workflows for custom applications and internal systems
Complete the destination’s authorisation process and select the spreadsheet, workbook, database, table or other target that should receive the data.
Where OAuth is available, you authorise access through the destination provider and can limit BankSync to the relevant workspace or resource.
Step 7: Map the bank data to your fields
Field mapping controls how incoming bank data is written to your destination.
A typical transaction feed may map:
- Transaction date to Date
- Amount to Amount
- Description to Bank description
- Merchant or counterparty to Merchant
- Category to Category
- Account name to Account
- Institution to Bank
- Pending status to Status
- Transaction identifier to Transaction ID
You can map the feed to an existing schema rather than rebuilding your workbook or database around BankSync. This is particularly useful when you already have formulas, dashboards, conditional formatting or downstream automations that depend on specific column names.
Keep a stable transaction identifier in the destination where possible. It helps maintain a reliable record and supports duplicate handling as transactions move from pending to completed.
Step 8: Choose your history and sync schedule
Choose the date range for the initial import. The amount of historical data available depends on the institution, account and data made available through the bank connection.
Next, configure how often BankSync should update the destination. Syncs can run on a schedule, with frequencies as often as every 15 minutes where available for your setup, or be triggered manually when needed.
A practical schedule depends on the workflow:
- Frequent syncing for cash-flow monitoring or active reconciliation
- Daily syncing for routine bookkeeping and management reporting
- Less frequent syncing for periodic personal finance reviews
Run the first sync after confirming the source accounts, destination and mappings.
Step 9: Check the first synced records
Open the destination and review the first group of records before relying on the feed in a live report.
Check that:
- Dates use the expected format
- Debits and credits have the expected sign convention
- Account names are clear
- Categories appear in the correct field
- Pending transactions are handled as intended
- Formulas and dashboards extend to the new rows
- Multiple accounts can be distinguished
It is easier to adjust mapping rules at the beginning than after a large historical import has been incorporated into other reports.
What happens after setup?
Once the connection and schedule are active, BankSync retrieves newly available data and writes it into the chosen destination.
This means your financial workflow can operate from continuously updated data instead of repeated manual exports. You can build formulas, dashboards, pivot tables, categorisation rules and AI-assisted workflows on top of the synced records without changing how the bank connection works.
BankSync is designed as a pass-through sync layer: financial data is processed to deliver it to the destination you selected rather than becoming a separate accounting ledger that you must maintain inside BankSync.
Connecting business and multi-user bank accounts
Business accounts can require more care than personal accounts.
Before attempting the connection, confirm that:
- The bank supports CDR sharing for that account type
- Your online-banking user has permission to share account data
- Any required account authority or nominated representative has been set up
- The account is visible under the banking profile used during authentication
- The bank does not require an additional approval from another account holder or administrator
A common issue occurs when an account has been created for a single user but the organisation later needs multiple authorised users. In that situation, the bank may need to update the account authority or digital-banking arrangement before the CDR connection can be completed.
Troubleshooting an Australian bank connection
The bank does not appear in search
Confirm that Australia is selected as the region and try the institution’s full legal or trading name. Some brands may appear under a parent banking group.
If the institution still does not appear, it may not currently be available for the relevant connection type.
The account is missing after authentication
The account may be attached to a different banking profile, may not be eligible for CDR sharing or may require additional authority. Check the account in your bank’s data-sharing settings and confirm that the correct customer profile was selected.
A business account cannot be selected
Ask the bank whether your user has authority to share data for the account. Partnership, trust, corporate and multi-user arrangements may have different eligibility rules.
Authentication keeps failing
Complete any outstanding security prompts in the bank’s app, check that your login is active and try again without using an expired browser session. Do not repeatedly guess credentials, as the bank may temporarily lock access.
The connection worked but no transactions appeared
Check the selected date range, source account, field mapping and destination permissions. Also confirm that the account has transactions within the requested period.
The connection has expired or needs attention
Banks may require you to re-authenticate or renew consent. Open the connection in BankSync and follow the displayed reconnection steps.
How to disconnect an Australian bank
You can stop a feed by revoking or removing the relevant bank connection in BankSync. You may also be able to manage active data-sharing arrangements through your bank’s online or mobile banking settings.
Revoking consent stops future retrieval through that arrangement. Data already written to Google Sheets, Excel, Notion, Airtable or another destination remains in that destination unless you remove it there.
Frequently asked questions
Does BankSync store my bank password?
No. Authentication is completed through the bank or authorised open-banking consent flow. BankSync does not need to store your internet-banking password to run a CDR connection.
Can BankSync transfer money from my account?
No. The Australian bank feed used for syncing is read-only. It retrieves authorised data and cannot initiate a payment or transfer funds.
Can I connect accounts from multiple Australian banks?
Yes, you can add multiple supported connections and route their records into the same or separate destinations, depending on how you want to organise the data.
Can I connect a joint or business account?
Potentially, but eligibility depends on the institution, account type and your authority. The bank’s authorisation flow determines which accounts are available to share.
How far back can BankSync import transactions?
Historical availability varies by institution and account. The connection and setup screens will determine what data can be requested for the selected feed.
Can I change my destination later?
Yes. You can create or reconfigure syncs for another supported destination. Review mappings carefully before switching an existing workflow.
Can I revoke access?
Yes. You can stop the BankSync connection and withdraw the relevant data-sharing consent. Your bank may also provide a data-sharing management screen.
Start syncing your Australian bank data
With the initial connection completed, BankSync can keep your transaction and balance data moving into the tools where you already analyse, reconcile and report on it.
The result is a finance workflow built on automatically updated bank data rather than another round of CSV exports and manual copying.
Open the BankSync documentation to explore destination-specific setup guides, or visit BankSync to create your workspace and connect an eligible Australian bank account.
For general information about Australia’s data-sharing framework, visit the Australian Government Consumer Data Right website.