Introduction To Bank Feeds
Bank feeds offer a secure and automated way to import your bank transactions directly into Prosaic. By connecting your bank accounts, you enable Prosaic to automatically pull in your transaction data, categorising and analysing it for potential business deductions. This seamless integration eliminates the need for manual data entry and ensures that your financial records are always up-to-date.
Open Banking and Akahu
Open Banking, an internationally recognised regulation, provides a secure and reliable way to share banking data with providers like Prosaic. We use Akahu, a regulated financial service provider in New Zealand, which is part-owned by Westpac and trusted by businesses like the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), Pocketsmith, and Simplicity KiwiSaver. Akahu ensures that your financial data is handled with the highest security standards, giving you peace of mind while enabling seamless integration and access to innovative financial services.
Why Use Live Bank Feeds with Prosaic?
Accuracy, Efficiency, and Time-Saving:
Live bank feeds provide real-time updates, ensuring that your financial data is always current. This accuracy reduces the risk of errors that can occur with manual data entry and helps maintain precise financial records. Automated bank feeds save you valuable time by eliminating the need for manual transaction imports. With Prosaic, your transactions are continuously synced, allowing you to focus on reviewing and categorising expenses instead of data entry.
Comprehensive Financial Insights and Simplified Tax Preparation:
By connecting all relevant accounts, including personal, mortgage, and business accounts, Prosaic can provide a complete picture of your financial situation. This comprehensive view helps you identify all potential deductions and ensures nothing is overlooked. With all your transactions automatically imported and categorised, preparing for tax time becomes much simpler. Prosaic helps you quickly generate reports and summaries that can be shared with your accountant or imported into accounting software like Xero.
Consolidation of Accounts and Historical Transactions
On average, Prosaic users connect around four bank accounts from more than one provider, as finding personal deductions can be spread across credit cards, joint accounts, and mortgage accounts. Previously, producing an expense claim required working across multiple different bank statements and spreadsheets. The beauty of bank feeds is that once you’ve connected all your accounts, we can pull up to two years of historical data. The data will continue to flow through live, available for you the next time you need to use it.
Connecting your bank accounts to Prosaic streamlines your bookkeeping process, enhances accuracy, and provides you with the tools to maximise your business deductions effortlessly.
Common Questions About using Akahu
1. How does Akahu ensure the security of my financial data?
Akahu is committed to the highest standards of data security. All traffic to and from Akahu is encrypted using strong SSL encryption, ensuring your data is protected during transmission. Akahu is independently certified as compliant with ISO 27001:2022, a global standard for information security management. For more details on Akahu's security measures, you can visit their safety
2. What happens if I want to revoke Akahu's access to my bank accounts?
You have full control over the connections you make through Akahu. If you decide to revoke Akahu's access to your bank accounts, you can do so at any time via the MyAkahu portal. This will immediately stop the flow of data to any connected apps, including Prosaic. Additionally, you can delete your data from Akahu's system if you no longer wish to use the service.
3. How does Akahu handle my login credentials for my bank accounts?
When you connect your bank account via Akahu, a new mobile device is registered on your mobile banking account. Akahu generates a long-lived device token to enable ongoing access without needing to store your bank username and password. For more information about how Akahu manages this process, see the Akahu CEO's explanation on Reddit.
4. What legal protections do I have when using Akahu?
Akahu operates under New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020, ensuring that your data is handled with strict privacy protections. You have the right to access and control your data at all times. Akahu only retains your data for as long as it is necessary to provide the service. You can find more about your rights and how Akahu complies with legal requirements on their privacy page.
5. What steps are involved in Akahu's app accreditation process?
Before any app can use Akahu's services, it must pass a rigorous accreditation process designed to protect your data. This process includes security and penetration testing, a review of the app's privacy notice, and ensuring that the app provides clear consumer controls. For more information on Akahu’s accreditation process, developers can visit Akahu’s developer documentation
6. Can I trust Akahu with ongoing access to my bank accounts?
Akahu only acts according to your instructions and provides tools for you to manage and revoke access at any time. While Akahu currently uses secure methods like mobile APIs to provide ongoing connectivity, they are also advocating for purpose-built APIs from banks for even more secure and direct connections in the future. This approach aligns with emerging regulations like the Customer and Product Data Bill in New Zealand, expected to enhance security further.