Linked accounts: Send data to destinations

A linked account connects one of your financial accounts to a place at a destination that Synci pushes data into, such as a YNAB budget account, a Lunch Money account, a Google Sheet or a Notion database. The API and some emails call this a transfer link. Once linked, Synci transfers data automatically as it syncs, and you can also trigger transfers manually.

There is no limit to the number of links you can create. A single account can be linked to multiple destinations at the same time, each with its own settings and rules.

Formerly limited to bank accounts: Transfer links now work with any financial account, including brokerage and crypto-exchange accounts. That means you can push your investment activity and balances to a destination too.

When you need a link

Not every integration needs one. It depends on which way the data moves.

These need a link. Synci pushes your data into a specific account, sheet or database over there, so the two have to be paired up:

• YNAB

• Lunch Money

• Google Sheets

• Notion

These do not. They read from Synci or receive events, so there is nothing to pair. You choose which accounts each one can see from its own page, or from the Linked Accounts tab on any account:

• Actual Budget and other SimpleFIN apps, which pull the accounts you expose on their own schedule.

• AI assistants and connected apps, which read the accounts you granted them access to.

• Webhooks and Zapier, which receive events for the accounts you choose.

• The API, where you fetch your own data with an access token.

In the app, the Connect menu on any account's Linked Accounts tab groups them the same way. Under "Transfer transactions and balances to" you'll find YNAB, Lunch Money, Google Sheets and Notion. Under "Give direct access to" you'll find AI assistant, Actual Budget, SimpleFIN app, Webhook and API.

Where to find your links

• Linked Accounts in the sidebar lists every link you have, grouped by where the data goes: one group per YNAB budget, Lunch Money connection, Google Sheet or Notion database. The same page also lists everything that has direct access to your accounts.

• The Linked Accounts tab on any account or destination shows what that one is connected to, and is where you create new links.

For the steps to create one, see the Linking accounts to destinations article.

What gets transferred

Each link has a sync mode that controls what Synci sends to the destination:

• Transactions only: Each transaction is transferred as its own line item. This is the default for bank accounts.

• Balance only: Instead of individual transactions, Synci pushes a daily balance snapshot to the destination. Useful when you only want to track an account's value over time, for example a pension or savings account.

• Transactions & balance: Both of the above. This is the default for brokerage and crypto accounts, so your destination gets both the activity and the account value.

Transactions are sent using your account's mapped fields (date, payee, description), so what arrives at the destination matches what you see in Synci. See the Transactions article for how mapped fields work.

Link settings

The following options are configurable per link, on the link's Settings tab:

• Transfer start date: Only transactions dated on or after this date are transferred. Earlier transactions stay in Synci but are never sent to the destination. When you create a link you can pick a date, or use the shortcuts for today, the last 30 days, the last 90 days, or the last year. If you pick a date earlier than the account's Sync start date, Synci moves the account's sync start date back to match, so those older transactions can be synced too.

• Sync mode: What the link sends, as described above.

Updates when a transaction becomes booked

When a pending transaction becomes booked, its details may change. The settings under On booked change control which changes Synci pushes through to a transaction that has already been transferred:

• Update status: Update the transaction's cleared/booked status at the destination.

• Update payee: Refresh the payee if it changed.

• Update description: Refresh the description if it changed.

• Update amount: Update the amount if it changed.

Pausing and removing a link

Pause stops transfers and keeps everything else. Settings, attached rules and transfer history stay exactly as they were, and you can resume at any time. When you resume, anything that arrived while the link was paused is transferred as well, so the destination catches up without waiting for the next sync. The transfer start date still applies. Pause from the switch on the Linked Accounts tab, from the Linked Accounts page, or with the Pause button on the link's own page.

Synci also pauses a link on its own when the destination connection is disabled, or when the destination stops responding after repeated failures. When that happens, you get a notification by email, in the app, or both, depending on your notification preferences. Once the problem is fixed, resume the link and it catches up as described above.

Removing a link, with the Delete button on the link's page, is permanent. The link and its settings are deleted, and no more data is sent to the destination. Rules attached to the link are detached but not deleted, so you can still attach them somewhere else. The link's transfer logs and rule logs are kept and still show up in each transaction's details, but they no longer point to the link, so those transfers can't be undone anymore. If you only want to stop transfers for now, pause instead.

Rules on a link

Rules attached to a link transform transactions as they are transferred. The changes only exist at the destination, and the transaction stored in Synci is untouched. This is the key difference from rules that change your data in Synci, which permanently change the stored transaction.

Synci has two kinds of rules:

• Change my data in Synci: Attached to a bank account. It permanently updates the stored transaction, so the change reaches every destination.

• Only on the way out: Attach it to a link to shape what that one destination receives, or to a bank account as an output rule, which shapes everything the account sends out: its links, the API, SimpleFIN apps, webhooks and AI assistants. When a transaction is transferred, the account's output rules run first, then the link's own rules.

You don't choose a destination when you create a rule. Which destinations a rule fits is worked out from its actions: setting the payee, description, date or amount works with every destination, while a field that only YNAB or only Lunch Money has limits the rule to that destination, and raw transaction fields only reach Google Sheets and Notion. You can only attach a rule to links it fits.

Rules aren't available for brokerage or crypto accounts, or for their links.

Every rule that fires creates a rule log, so you can always trace what was changed and why. To get started, see the Creating rules article.

Transfer logs

Every transfer attempt is recorded in a transfer log, showing whether it succeeded and what happened. You'll find them on the link's Transfer Logs tab and in each transaction's details. From the logs you can:

• Retry failed transfers once the underlying issue is resolved.

• Undo a transfer, which removes the transaction from the destination. You can undo individual transfers or many at once.

See the Transfer logs article for the details.

Why links?

Links exist to give you granular control over the transfer process:

• Connect one account to multiple destinations simultaneously.

• Apply different rules to each account + destination independently.

• Choose per account + destination whether to send transactions, balances, or both.

• Control booked-transaction updates per link rather than globally.

• Keep destination-specific transformations out of your core Synci data.