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by twunde 2389 days ago
This seems to be true in the US as well. Getting exports is a pain, in fact I think during our first finance audit, we had trouble getting monthly exports past a certain date. I know for a fact that our current bank doesn't work with our expensing software, so that has to be done manually
1 comments
BjoernKW 2389 days ago
> we had trouble getting monthly exports past a certain date

Same here. Quite frankly, I think this is outrageous. Every ordinary company has to keep accounting records for a certain number of years (10 years in Germany, where I'm located). Banks, however, apparently get away with what essentially amounts to throwing away records after 6 months or so.

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krel 2389 days ago
Yeah, that is pretty wild.

Bjoern, I saw you're located in Germany — does any of the neobanks help you solve this? I guess switching bank don't solve the problem of getting your old data though, even if it would make it easier to get hold of _future_ records.

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BjoernKW 2389 days ago
No, unfortunately not.

Last time I checked more thoroughly and based on admittedly rather cursory research right now neobanks such as Holvi, N26 or Fyrst either a.) provide a fully integrated accounting software and no API / data exchange at all, b.) only integrate with specific accounting software products such as lexoffice, or c.) only allow you to export CSV files.

They seem even more like walled gardens than traditional banks.

While I described MT940 as the "WTF of file formats" at least it's some sort of loosely agreed upon standard, as is HBCI. Both of these formats / protocols are dated and cumbersome to work with but they at least allow you to access and exchange data in an automated fashion. None of the neobank products seem to support those and there's no modern, easier-to-use alternative protocol either, none that I know of at least.

Furthermore, some of those neobanks have had a reputation of summarily closing customer accounts that didn't fit their business model anymore. That makes them way too erratic and unreliable for running a business.

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krel 2389 days ago
Right, interesting.

Regarding closing down accounts — I recently made a detour into the Revolut subreddit and it's filled mostly with people gushing about their accounts being shut down without notice.

Now, I never know how much of that is on the company and how much is on the user doing something shady, but regardless, I would not dare to take such chances with my business.

Thanks for pointing that out — had not connected the dots until now.

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