Linking accounts to destinations

Formerly "Linking bank accounts to destinations": You can now link any financial account, including brokerage and crypto-exchange accounts, to a destination.

To start transferring data from an account to a budgeting tool, spreadsheet or database, you link the account to a destination. In the app these links are called Linked accounts; in the API they're called transfer links. For everything a link can do, and for which destinations need one at all, see the Linked accounts: Send data to destinations article.

The quickest way: the Linked Accounts tab

Open any account and go to its Linked Accounts tab. Every destination you could link it to is listed there: the ones it already sends to under Linked, and everything else under Available. Switch one on, choose what to transfer and from which date, and the link is live.

This works from either end. Open a YNAB budget account, a Lunch Money account, a Google Sheet or a Notion database, and the same tab lists your financial accounts instead, so you can link from whichever side you happen to be on.

Because the tab shows what is linked as well as what could be, it doubles as the list of where that account currently sends its data. On a financial account, a Direct access section also lists the AI assistants, webhooks, Actual Budget and SimpleFIN apps that can read it, and you can switch each one on or off for that account.

Creating a link from scratch

To start from nothing, use the Link accounts button on the Linked Accounts page. It walks you through three steps:

1. Accounts: Choose the financial account to send from, then the kind of destination and the specific budget, account, sheet or database to send to. Synci skips whatever it already knows, for example the account when you started from the account's own page.

2. Settings: Under What to transfer, choose Transactions only, Transactions & balance, or Balance only. The option marked Recommended is selected for you: Transactions only for bank accounts, and Transactions & balance for brokerage and crypto accounts. Then set Start transferring from; only transactions from this date onward will be transferred. It defaults to today, with shortcuts for 30 days, 90 days and 1 year, or you can pick any date to bring in older transactions (this field is hidden for Balance only). Under When pending transactions settle, you can also choose whether Synci keeps the status, payee, description and amount up to date in the destination once a pending transaction is booked. All four are on by default.

3. Review: Check both ends and your settings before finalizing. If you want to adjust the account's own sync settings at the same time, click Account settings. Click Create link to finish, and transfers begin automatically.

The destination choice groups its options under Transfer transactions and balances to and Give direct access to. Only the first group creates a link. Choosing something from the second, such as a webhook or an AI assistant, takes you to that integration's own page instead, because those read from Synci rather than being sent to.

Sync start date vs. transfer start date

Two separate dates control your data flow, and it's worth understanding the difference:

• Sync start date (an account setting): Determines which transactions Synci retrieves from your institution.

• Transfer start date (a link setting): Determines which of those retrieved transactions are sent to the destination.

A transaction must clear both dates to arrive at your destination. You usually don't have to think about this when creating a link: if you pick a transfer start date earlier than the account's sync start date, Synci moves the sync start date back for you, and the dialog tells you Account history will be extended. How far back you can actually go depends on how much history your institution shares, which for banks in Europe and the UK is the Max history you chose when connecting.

Editing an existing link is different. If you move its transfer start date back, the account's sync start date stays where it is, so transactions before the sync start date still won't transfer. In that case, move the account's Sync start date back first (in the account's Settings tab), then set the link's transfer start date accordingly.

After linking

Once the link is active, new transactions flow to the destination automatically as the account syncs. From here you can:

• Attach Only on the way out rules to transform transactions on their way to this destination.

• Adjust the link's update settings for pending transactions that become booked.

• Review every transfer in the transfer logs, where failed transfers can be retried and completed ones undone.

• Pause the link if you want to stop transfers for a while. Pausing keeps its settings, rules and history, so you can resume without setting it up again. When you Resume, Synci sends anything it missed while the link was paused.

Every link you have is listed on the Linked Accounts page, grouped by destination. A separate Direct access section lists the AI assistants, connected apps, webhooks, Actual Budget and SimpleFIN apps that read your accounts without a link. All of the above is covered in the Linked accounts: Send data to destinations article.