Overview of Open Banking

This help guide article provides an overview of Open Banking. At the bottom of this help guide article, we've also included links to other help guide articles relating to Open Banking and Automatic Bank Feeds.

Note: this feature is currently only available for UK churches, charities and community organisations.

What is Open Banking?

Open Banking is a secure way for you to share your information.

This is achieved by banks and building societies making certain information accessible to companies that are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

Information is shared securely and is only ever shared with your permission.

What are the benefits of Open Banking?

Here are some of the key benefits of connecting ExpensePlus to your bank provider using Open Banking:

Automated import of bank transactions, removing the need to upload transactions
Provide an easier way to keep track of recent financial activity within your bank accounts
Simplify the financial process flow making it easier to reconcile transactions in real time
View up-to-date account balances within ExpensePlus

Good to know: For bank accounts with an automated bank feed, transactions are typically imported every 6-8 hours. To view when transactions were last imported, within the Bank Reconciliation screen, click 'Automated Feed' to view the time of the 'Last Import'.

Who are GoCardless?

The Open Banking feature within ExpensePlus has been developed in collaboration with GoCardless.

Open Banking is securely powered by GoCardless Ltd (Company No. 07495895). GoCardless is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, registration number 597190, for the provision of payment services, including account information services.

ExpensePlus is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an agent of GoCardless.

Is Open Banking Secure?

Open Banking is designed to be very secure. It’s implemented by banks and is subject to their rigorous security measures.

Open Banking is regulated by the FCA, and consumers are also protected by data protection laws and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Service Providers are not permitted to take any action on any account without the permission of the account holder. This is a binding legal requirement placed on authorised Service Providers.

Your information is protected and encrypted to the same level of security as the Bank’s Online Banking.

To use Open Banking, ExpensePlus requires permission to access:

Your account details (to ensure the bank account being connected matches the one in ExpensePlus)
Your account balances (so you can easily compare balances in ExpensePlus with those provided by your bank)
Your account transactions (to automatically import bank transactions into ExpensePlus)

ExpensePlus has 'read-only' permission. This means we do not have any permissions to make changes to your bank account or to set up payments.

To find out more about safety measures and procedures within Open Banking, check out this GoCardless blog article. GoCardless provides the Open Banking functionality within ExpensePlus.

Note: If you choose not to connect to your bank accounts using Open Banking then you can still use ExpensePlus. You will need to upload your bank transactions by importing a file (which is quick and easy to do) or manually add the transactions.

Good to know: If you wish to revoke your permission for open banking, you can do so at any time. Within bank settings, select the 'configure' button to the right of the account provider, then select 'disconnect'.

How do I connect to Open Banking?

If you decide to connect to Open Banking, you will need to give your permission both within ExpensePlus and GoCardless (who provide the open banking functionality).

Once you have given permission you will be redirected to your Online Banking login page, where you’ll enter your login details directly.

Only once authorised by you, your bank will then check that the correct FCA Authorisation is in place before your data is shared securely.

Your bank will store your permission and check it every time we request to connect to your account (to check for updated account balances and new transactions to import).

To find out more about connecting to open banking, check out our step by step guide.

Important: Not all bank accounts are covered by open banking. In most cases, this is because the banks themselves are yet to opt in to open banking.

All major banks are covered, along with many other smaller banks and financial institutions.

It is however not currently possible to connect to: CAF Bank, CCLA, Kingdom Bank, Metro Bank, The Charity Bank or Equals Card accounts.

For a full list of providers available, click here.