Xero made easy
How to connect your bank feed in Xero
The short answer
A bank feed sends your business bank transactions straight into Xero every day, so you never have to type them in. To set one up, go to Accounting, then Bank accounts, find your account and choose to get bank feeds. You'll log in to your bank to give permission, and that's it. It takes a few minutes.
Two Sunday nights
Without a bank feed
It's 9pm. You have a bank statement in one tab, Xero in the other, and a growing suspicion that one of those coffees was actually a client lunch. You're typing in transactions one by one. You lose your place at row 47. You start again.
With a bank feed
It's 9pm. You're watching something good. Your transactions arrived in Xero on their own, and when you do sit down, all you have to do is say what each one was.
Same business. Same transactions. Very different evening.
What a bank feed actually does
It's a secure link between your bank and Xero. Once it's set up, your transactions flow into Xero automatically every day.
You don't give Xero your banking password. You log in on your bank's own website or app, and tell your bank it's okay to share your transactions. You can take that permission away at any time.
How to connect it, step by step
- Log in to Xero and open the Accounting menu, then choose Bank accounts.
- Find your business account. If it's already listed, choose Get bank feeds next to it. If not, choose Add bank account and search for your bank.
- Log in to your bank. You'll be taken to your bank's website or app to sign in and approve the connection.
- Choose which accounts to share, such as your business current account and business credit card.
- Match each one to its account in Xero. If the account already exists in Xero, pick it rather than creating a new one, or you'll end up with duplicates.
- Finish. Your transactions will start to appear. Many banks also let you bring in recent history, so you're not starting from a blank page.
Then: a little and often
The feed brings the transactions in. Your job is to confirm what each one was, which Xero calls "reconciling".
It sounds formal, but it's mostly clicking OK. Xero learns as you go and starts suggesting matches, so it gets quicker every week.
Ten minutes a week is far easier than a whole weekend in January. Pop it in your diary with the coffee you can't claim.
When the feed goes quiet
Every so often, your bank will ask you to renew your permission. If transactions stop appearing, that's usually why. Xero will show a message on the account, and renewing takes a minute.
If your bank doesn't offer a feed at all, you can download a statement from your online banking and import it into Xero instead. Not as slick, but it still beats typing.
One small tip that saves a lot of time
Keep a separate bank account just for your business. As a sole trader you don't have to, but it means the feed only brings in business transactions, so you aren't sorting out your weekly shop from your client payments.
Ready to hand it over?
We'll set up Xero for you, connect your feeds and keep everything reconciled, so your Sunday nights stay yours.