Integrate your Clear Books account with Revolut to quickly and easily import your bank transactions using bank feeds. The bank feed integration is a service provided through a third party called Plaid.
This guide describes how to add a Revolut bank feed and how to link the Revolut bank feed to a Clear Books bank account.
Once the Revolut feed is linked to a bank account in Clear Books, a statement will be imported into Clear Books. The transactions on this statement will appear under the Money > Bank accounts menu, under the heading 'Imported statements that need explaining'. Explaining transactions is described further in the guide linked below:
How to explain bank transactions
Step 1.
To set up your first bank feed, navigate to the Money > Bank accounts menu and once there click on the 'Manage bank feeds' button.
Step 2.
Read the initial introduction on how the bank feeds work click 'Next', and then read and accept the consent by clicking on the 'I Agree' button.
Step 3.
Now you can begin setting up your first bank feed; click on the 'Add feed' button.
Step 4.
A pop up will appear explaining that you are giving consent to Plaid, our third-party provider, to access your bank data and share it with Clear Books. Click Continue.
Your consent will last for 90 days, and Clear Books will prompt you when you need to provide consent again.
Step 5.
Click on the Revolut logo.
Step 6.
At this stage you will need to tell Revolut that you would like to allow Plaid access to your appropriate accounts.
There are 2 authentication options, the QR code option will require that you have your Revolut's mobile app on your smart phone and the desktop option which will require you to allow access via a bank portal (within a pop up which will be shown). When either option is complete you will need to return to Clear Books to complete the process as shown in step 7.
The QR code authentication option will appear by default, however, you can switch to the Desktop authentication option by using the link at the bottom.
QR code authentication
Scan the QR code with your phone's camera and a notification will be displayed.
Click on this notification and it will then trigger Revolut's mobile app to be opened. You will then need to log in to the bank's app and you will be greeted with a menu asking you to confirm the accounts that you would like to allow Plaid to access.
Return to Clear Books to complete the process as shown in step 7.
Desktop authentication
Click on the ‘Continue to Revolut’ button.
You will be redirected to a Revolut sign in form requiring you to select either a ‘Personal’ or ‘Business’ account and to enter your phone number associated with your Revolut account.
Enter the 4 digit code number that you use to access the Revolut app on your phone.
Now enter the 6 digit code number that Revolut has sent to your phone.
Now select the accounts you would like to grant Plaid (our third-party bank feed provider) access to read your accounts information.
Step 7.
You will now be re-directed back to Clear Books, select the accounts you would like to set up the feed for. Click 'Continue' to complete.
Step 8.
You will then be sent back to a linking page to link your feed to a Clear Books bank account.
Select your bank account and a start date for all feeds. If you have not created a bank account, select the ‘Add new account’ option in the Bank account drop-down field. Click on the 'Link' button.
You will be returned to the 'Manage bank feeds' page and your feeds are displayed.
Once established the feed will automatically update four times a day.
When the feed has been successfully added, a statement will be imported into Clear Books and appear on the Money > Bank accounts menu. Click on the statement to begin explaining the transactions.
Once you have connected your feed, or if you are having any problems with this process, please see our comprehensive list of our most frequently asked questions below.
Why do I keep getting an error with credentials even though I know I have entered them correctly?
This could be that the type of feed you are trying to add is incorrect (such as a personal feed with business credentials). If you have tried the correct feed and still cannot add your feed contact support.
There may be a problem with your credentials. Try logging into your online banking portal to confirm they are correct. If you cannot login to your portal, contact your bank to discuss further.
If you can successfully login to your portal. Please try to create the feed in incognito/privacy mode on your browser. If this fails, contact support.
Can I import my historic transactions?
Yes. Historic transactions will be imported for transactions with a date on or after the start date you chose for the feed when linking the feed to your Clear Books bank account.
How do I refresh my feed?
Your feed refreshes automatically and does not require any manual intervention.
Our bank feed provider check the bank's API 4 times per day for any changes. This may be new pending transactions, or pending transactions changing to posted, or both. The time at which these checks happen depend on the bank, the banks will decide their own limits on the amount data being processed to prevent overload.
Any change detected in one of these 4 checks will alert us, at which point we fetch the new or changed data from our bank feed provider. We will only import transactions that have been marked as posted by the bank.
What is the difference between a pending and posted transaction?
When transactions are imported into Clear Books via bank feeds, the transaction dates shown on the imported statement are the posted dates.
There are two states for transactions: pending and posted.
Pending transactions are when an authorisation is taken for a sum of money. The date this occurs is also referred to as the ‘transaction date’. The ‘transaction date’ could represent the date a card was used to make a purchase at a shop. The transaction may show in your mobile/online banking statement as a pending transaction or within a separate part of your online banking portal titled pending transactions or similar.
Posted transactions are when the money has been collected for a pending transaction. The transaction will change from a pending to a posted state. The date on which this happens is also referred to as the ‘bank date’. It is described as ‘the money leaving the account’ which means the transaction is only posted once the money is sent to the acquirer.
Some banks may add the ‘transaction date’ in the text description for each transaction. The date of the transaction will always be the posted date.
Some banks will only move a transaction from a pending to posted state at the start of the next business day, which may fall after a weekend or other extended break. Our bank feed provider will not receive this information until the transactions are posted and so some transactions may appear later than expected.
When will the feed start importing posted transactions?
Immediately, if you’ve linked the feed to a Clear Books bank account.