Plaid Bank Sync

Plaid lets you link a real bank account to Geekonomics and import transactions automatically. Instead of entering bank transactions manually or waiting for statement reconciliation, Plaid pushes transactions directly from your bank.

How It Works

Plaid acts as a secure bridge between Geekonomics and your bank. You log into your bank through Plaid's hosted interface (Plaid Link) — Geekonomics never sees your banking credentials. Plaid gives Geekonomics a read-only access token tied to your account.

When you sync, Geekonomics pulls new transactions from Plaid and adds them to your account register, deduplicating by Plaid transaction ID.

Linking a Bank Account

Plaid is connected per account. To link a bank account:

1. Go to Accounts and open the account you want to link (or create a new one)
2. Click Link Bank Account (requires Plaid to be configured by your administrator)
3. Plaid Link opens in a modal — search for your bank, log in, and select the account
4. After authorizing, you'll return to the account detail page with the bank linked

You can only link one bank account per Geekonomics account. To change the linked bank, disconnect first and then re-link.

Syncing Transactions

Once linked, click Sync from Bank in the account register to pull new transactions. Geekonomics imports all transactions Plaid has available since the last sync (or from the beginning if it's your first sync).

Sign convention: Plaid returns positive amounts for debits (money leaving your account) and negative amounts for credits (money arriving). Geekonomics maps these correctly:

• Plaid positive → recorded as expense
• Plaid negative → recorded as income

This matches how your bank statement reads.

What Gets Imported

Each imported transaction includes:

• Date
• Description (merchant name or bank description)
• Amount
• Plaid transaction ID (for deduplication)

Category and business line are not assigned automatically — you'll need to categorize imported transactions the same way you would manual entries. Use bulk categorization to do this quickly.

Reviewing Imported Transactions

Plaid-imported transactions appear in the account register with source: plaid. Review them after each sync and:

1. Assign a business line and category
2. Verify the description makes sense (Plaid descriptions can sometimes be cryptic)
3. If a transaction is already in your books (from a manual entry), delete the duplicate

Disconnecting Plaid

To remove the bank link from an account:

1. Open the account register
2. Click Disconnect Bank

This removes the Plaid access token from the account without deleting the account or any imported transactions.

Requires Administrator Setup

Plaid requires PLAID_CLIENT_ID, PLAID_SECRET, and PLAID_ENV to be configured in the server environment. If the Link Bank Account button doesn't appear, contact your administrator to enable Plaid.