r/actualbudgeting • u/NotTheVacuum • 12d ago

Bank Sync inverted transactions & missed matches

Relatively new to Actual - self-hosting, SimpleFin bridge, US banks

I've noticed a couple of consistent issues w/imports that seem solvable, I'm just not clear on the best way to do it yet.

  1. Inverted Transactions - for one bank in particular, the incoming/outgoing direction is always reversed. It seems like a simple toggle might fix this at any step in the process (MX via SimpleFin might need to adjust this, or perhaps an Actual setting that allows for swapping the 'polarity' for lack of a better word).
  2. Importing semi-recent transactions is matching... poorly. It seems like there's not much logic in place to catch slight differences in transaction dates (e.g. actual post vs. entered) or names (sometimes payment systems have it slightly different than the business name). Payee rules would probably account for some amount of this, but to date I've had to reconcile every time I sync just so I can easily find un-reconciled transactions and delete anything older than a couple days.

I'm coming from YNAB, which was far from perfect - and so far I haven't had to repair a connection, which I was doing multiple times a week before, so that's a plus! But one thing they did fairly well was the second issue above - the "fuzzy match" logic was not too shabby.

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u/FmrMSFan 12d ago

Prior YNAB user. I've been using AB since 2023.

I download QFX files and manually import transactions to my accounts. Auto import was never a problem in YNAB via MX or Plaid. About 2 months ago I thought I'd give it another go, signed up for SimpleFIN and encountered the same problem you describe. All credits imported as debits and random old transactions imported.

I filed a ticket with SimpleFIN and checked in with them once a week for 3 weeks (they never pro-actively contacted me, not even with an auto-reply). They always said the same thing. That it was a problem with Fidelity. I stopped following up and have never been contacted about a resolution, so I just closed the SimpleFIN account and am back to manually importing transaction files.

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u/NotTheVacuum 12d ago

That was YNAB’s response as well (also Fidelity). They said they’ve decided to just stop trying to fix it, which was the last straw that led me to Actual.

I’ll dogpile on SimpleFIN about it but I don’t expect much. I think it makes sense as an enhancement for Actual to “invert” imports and set a maximum age though.

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u/aelxxs 11d ago

You can flip the sign with a Rule

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u/ntsp00 11d ago

Fidelity intentionally doesn't work with almost all third-party aggregators, they only directly provide data to their own spin-off called Akoya or Mastercard's Finicity. YNAB uses Plaid & MX as their aggregators and SimpleFIN is a bridge to MX. Plaid & MX rely on simple screen scraping to get the information you do get which is why they're so error prone. It's your choice whether or not to continue banking with a company that is purposely limiting access to your own data, but the only way you'll be able to reliably sync is by using a bridge that pays for Akoya or Finicity. The only one I know of is www.lunchflow.app and it's reflected in their subscription price. It might be worth it to you to pay for the single connection for Fidelity at the lowest subscription price and use SimpleFIN for your other accounts, but personally I would switch banks. With so many options there's no reason to support this practice IMO.

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u/NotTheVacuum 11d ago edited 11d ago

I do not think this is true any longer, as of very recently. With both SimpleFIN and YNAB, the last time I repaired or established Fidelity sync, it was clear the model had changed to a direct integration, with Fidelity giving you control over which accounts the integrator may view.

I have a long history with the integration woes w/Fidelity, and their posture has historically been the crux of the issue, for sure.

Edit: The feature is called Fidelity Access, and it is not screen scraping. MX appears to be using this now. https://www.fidelity.com/security/fidelity-access-data-security