Setting up a new connection and how much history you get

After you add a bank, brokerage or crypto exchange with New connection and log in, Synci finds your accounts and opens a short setup. This article walks through that setup and explains how much transaction history you'll get. For the connection itself, see Adding accounts.

Before you log in: Connection settings

When you connect an EU or UK bank, the dialog has a Connection settings section. It's collapsed by default, so open it if you want to change anything:

• Sync balances: lets Synci fetch your account balances. On by default.

• Max history: the maximum number of days of past transactions Synci may access. It starts at 90 days, or at your bank's maximum if that is lower, and you can raise it as far as your bank allows.

• Access valid for: how many days Synci can access your data before you need to renew your consent. It starts at your bank's maximum.

These settings are part of what you agree to at your bank, so you can only change them later by renewing the consent. You can check them at any time on the connection's About tab.

New Zealand banks, brokerages and crypto exchanges don't have these settings.

The setup steps

Once you're back in Synci, the setup opens on its own. Up to four steps are shown at the top: Accounts, Preferences, Transaction preview and Destinations. Synci holds back the first transaction import until you finish, so the choices you make here apply from the start.

1. Accounts

Every account the institution shared is listed and ticked, with its balance where one is available. Untick any account you don't want in Synci. It is marked Not included, and Synci won't fetch anything for it. Use Select all or Deselect all to change them in one go, then choose Continue.

2. Preferences

For each account you kept, you can set:

• Account name: a familiar name to show across Synci.

• Import from: the date to start importing transactions from. Leave it empty to import all the history available to Synci.

• Enrichment: choose Set up enrichment to get cleaner payee names and extra details for a bank account. Enrichment needs a plan with AI features.

Choose Save and continue, or Use defaults to skip.

3. Transaction preview

See how your bank transactions will look in your budgeting app or spreadsheet: the payee, description and date Synci will use. The defaults work for most accounts. To change them, choose Customize fields. Then choose Save and continue, or Keep current mapping. This step only appears when you kept at least one bank account.

4. Destinations

Link your accounts to the tools you want to send data to, or come back to it later. Choose View connection to finish.

Changing your choices later

• Names, the sync start date (shown as Sync start date in the account's settings), enrichment and field mapping can all be changed in each account's settings.

• To include an account you left out, open it and choose Renew consent. After logging in at your bank, tick the account in the list.

How much history you get

How far back your transactions go depends on the institution:

• EU and UK banks: up to your Max history, or from your Import from date if you set one.

• New Zealand banks: there is no Max history setting. Synci imports the history Akahu makes available, from your Import from date if you set one. If you move the Sync start date back later, the older transactions are fetched on the next sync.

• Brokerages and crypto exchanges: the first sync imports up to two years of activity, or from your Import from date. Most brokerages share activity with about a one-day delay.

How long it takes

For EU and UK banks, Synci imports history newest first. Your recent transactions arrive first, then older months fill in behind them a few months at a time. A full history usually lands within minutes.

Want more history later?

For EU and UK banks, Max history is fixed until you renew the consent. To go further back, renew the consent with a higher Max history, then start a manual sync on each account with an earlier From date.

History and data retention

Imported history is stored like any other transaction. Your data retention setting counts from the day Synci stores a transaction, not from the transaction's own date, so old history isn't deleted the moment it arrives. It's removed once it has been in Synci longer than your retention period. See Data retention.

When you link an account to a destination, the transfer start date decides which of these transactions are sent. See Linking accounts to destinations.