How bank sync works

A sync asks your bank for an account's latest balance and transactions, then updates that account in Good Steward. Each linked account syncs on its own.

What a sync does

• Adds new transactions. They arrive unreviewed, so they appear under To review. A transaction your bank has finished (posted) arrives Cleared. One it has not finished (pending) arrives with a Pending tag and is not Cleared. While your bank reports a transaction, you cannot change its Cleared mark.
• Finishes pending transactions. When a pending purchase posts, the same transaction becomes posted and Cleared, and keeps its date. If the amount changed, for example after a tip, the posted version is added as a new transaction and the pending one is tagged Removed by provider. Delete the pending one so the purchase is not counted twice.
• Matches what you already have. A bank transaction with the same amount as a Cleared transaction dated within 7 days is merged into it. If you entered the match by hand and did not mark it Cleared, both stay and show Possible match. See Pending, possible match and removed transactions.
• Categorizes new transactions. Your rules run first. If Auto categorization is on in Settings, Good Steward then uses your payee history, then the category your bank suggests. See How automatic categorization works.
• Keeps the bank's description. Each transaction stores the description your bank sends. It appears as Bank description in Details and is what an imported payee condition in a rule compares. A sync updates it on transactions that came from your bank and are not reconciled, and changes nothing else about them.
• Fills in blanks. A later sync can fill in a blank note, or a blank category if Auto categorization is on, while your bank is still labeling a transaction you have not reviewed. It never changes a category you set.
• Flags missing transactions. If your bank stops reporting a transaction, the sync tags it Removed by provider. You choose whether to keep or delete it.
• Skips transactions you deleted. A later sync does not add a bank transaction you deleted. If your bank reports it again with a different amount, it is added as a new transaction.
• Leaves existing details alone. A sync does not change the date or amount of a transaction already in your account, except the Starting Balance. It does not change a reconciled transaction.

The Starting Balance

When you connect an account, Good Steward adds a transaction named Starting Balance so the account's cleared balance matches the bank's. Its amount is the bank's balance minus the other cleared transactions in the account. If the account already has a Starting Balance, Good Steward adjusts that one instead.

Example: your bank reports $1,200.00, and the cleared transactions delivered so far add up to $950.00. The Starting Balance is $250.00. If older transactions totaling $100.00 then arrive, it becomes $150.00 ($1,200.00 - $950.00 - $100.00).

The Starting Balance keeps adjusting while your bank is still delivering history, which can take several hours or days. It stops when the history is complete or when you reconcile any transaction in the account. After that, a difference from the bank shows as Off by.

A Starting Balance you reconciled is never changed, in any kind of account. One brought in from Good Steward Local is never changed either, except in an investment account, where it keeps adjusting at every sync as it did in Good Steward Local. A difference from the bank shows as Off by once the history is complete or a transaction in the account is reconciled.

In investment accounts, every Starting Balance that is not reconciled keeps adjusting at every sync, even after the history is complete, so the balance follows the bank. Loan accounts follow the same rules as checking accounts: the Starting Balance adjusts while your bank delivers history, then it is held, and a difference shows as Off by.

After you switch an account from Balance only back to Transactions, the Starting Balance follows your bank for 7 days. See Transactions or Balance only for a bank account.

If your bank reports no balance at a sync, Good Steward does not add or adjust the Starting Balance at that sync, and Off by keeps comparing with the last balance your bank reported.

Syncing a Balance-only account

An account set to Balance only syncs its balance and nothing else. The sync brings in no transactions and adds no Starting Balance. It keeps one balance figure per day from your bank. See Transactions or Balance only for a bank account.

When syncs run

• When you select Sync or Sync now. See Sync or pause a bank account.
• When you open Good Steward or return to its tab. Accounts last synced more than 4 hours ago sync one at a time in the background.
• Once a day in the background, for accounts not synced in the last 6 hours.
• When your bank tells Good Steward that new data is ready.

Automatic syncs skip a paused account and a bank marked Disconnected. The syncs that run when you open Good Steward, and the daily sync, also skip a bank marked Needs attention.

What the labels mean

• Updated on a bank's card on Linked banks: the last time a sync of that bank's accounts finished without an error.
• Last synced on an account's Transactions page and settings: the last sync of that account. "Not synced yet" means it has never synced.
• The list at the bottom of a bank's card shows up to 6 recent updates: the time, what started it, the account, the result (brought in 3, up to date or couldn't update; for a Balance-only account, balance updated, up to date or no balance reported) and how long it took.

The "N new" badge

A badge such as 3 new next to a bank-linked account on Accounts or Linked banks counts the transactions added to that account since you last opened its Transactions page. It counts hand-entered transactions too. Opening the account's transactions clears the badge.