You mean like Xero? Or something that only tracks expenses, without doing all the other stuff Xero does.

PocketSmith

solaybro:

 

PocketSmith

 

+1

PocketSmith is a good one - locally made in New Zealand and have used it several times in the past. Great support and no issues

Many of these companies who have "automatic bank feeds" do not have a relationship with the bank. They ask for your internet banking details most of the time and scrape this for you.

This is against your internet banking T&C's! It is worse than POLi because most of the time they hold onto this password.

I always recommend checking with your bank if there are any officially supported apps first else manually exporting a CSV from your internet banking and importing it into the app. If you hand over the keys to your internet banking to a finance app and that app gets compromised, your money stolen or if you're compromised by any other method down the track you won't be covered by your bank for fraud.

I seriously can't stress this enough.

michaelmurfy:

 

Many of these companies who have "automatic bank feeds" do not have a relationship with the bank. They ask for your internet banking details most of the time and scrape this for you.

 

This is against your internet banking T&C's! It is worse than POLi because most of the time they hold onto this password.

 

I always recommend checking with your bank if there are any officially supported apps first else manually exporting a CSV from your internet banking and importing it into the app. If you hand over the keys to your internet banking to a finance app and that app gets compromised, your money stolen or if you're compromised by any other method down the track you won't be covered by your bank for fraud.

 

I seriously can't stress this enough.

 

You have a point. But I am sure Bank's systems are more intelligent than that (I hope). For example, every time I make a transfer, I will be asked a few security questions. Hopefully there are security measurements from their APIs as well. But I'll ask the bank.

sud0:

 

You have a point. But I am sure Bank's systems are more intelligent than that (I hope). For example, every time I make a transfer, I will be asked a few security questions. Hopefully there are security measurements from their APIs as well. But I'll ask the bank.

Remember - I work for a bank and know many of these products well.

Many of these services are not using API of any kind - they screen scrape as in literally login to your internet banking on their end and download your account information. Because this is a username / password combo they're using and not an API key this means they have the same level of access as you - including the ability to transfer funds.

They won't do this - but if they got compromised and were not storing secrets securely as an example then you're in for a whole lot of trouble. Many of these compromises don't get picked up until months later and your bank won't cover you as you provided your internet banking login details to a third party.

Lastly, they get you to disable 2FA for their automation to work further opening you up to compromise.

I'm just saying err on the side of caution. Without diving into more details I know these systems extremely well. I would never use them myself, and I discourage anyone else doing so either. If they ask you for your internet banking details then they're screen scraping. If it were an API it'll either be a link in your internet banking directly linking to this service via a token, or (currently) a manual process in somebody at the bank adding your account to a bulk bank feed going over to the application you're using until Open Banking is standardized.

Screen scrapers get around most bank security I'm afraid. This is how POLi / Account2account work because you're actually the one logging in, there is no formal agreement with the bank and believe me when I say the bank know when you use these services.

IIRC for Kiwibank. Your only officially supported packages are both Xero and MYOB: https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/business-banking/insights-tools-support/online-banking/internet-banking/accounting-software-integration/

I'm also a PocketSmith user, and love it but am not in love with the screen scraping.  I had to disable 2FA on login, but 2FA is set up for making payments.

It looks like finally there is a better way: https://www.pocketsmith.com/blog/the-data-connections-beta-is-go/ 

If you are willing to accept the compromise of downloading a CSV from your Internet banking and manually upload it then I would recommend YNAB. This is a full blown budgeting system as opposed to just 'expense tracking'.

Kiwibank had / has an add-on analysis service that might be able to do this, IIRC it was called "Heaps" or something like that

michaelmurfy:

 

IIRC for Kiwibank. Your only officially supported packages are both Xero and MYOB: https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/business-banking/insights-tools-support/online-banking/internet-banking/accounting-software-integration/

 

Hmm.. but both Xero and MYOB are for small business only, right? They don't provide expense tracking for individuals?

MadEngineer: Change to Westpac and use their app that does this?

Nah!

ASB also have an expense tracker

PolicyGuy: Kiwibank had / has an add-on analysis service that might be able to do this, IIRC it was called "Heaps" or something like that

blackjack17: ASB also have an expense tracker

🤣 🤣 🤣

It's been a while since I used Kiwibank, but it was lacking. The ASB tracker is also limited. You can only have 12 months of history. At the very least 13 months would have been good. Jjoint accounts are a royal pain. The tracker only works on your own profile, the other party has to set up their own tracker. No joint categories, bla bla bla. The categories are limited in number, don't support sub categories, bla bla bla ...

michaelmurfy: ... This is against your internet banking T&C's! ...

I asked Kiwibank in May 2020. This is their response:

Thanks for your message.

I’m afraid we do not support any budgeting/spending analysis apps. Any third-party sites or apps requesting your Internet Banking login details are not recommended to be used and to do so would mean you’re no longer covered under our Internet Banking Guarantee.

Let us know if we can help with anything else! Stay safe.