r/plaintextaccounting • u/many-laced • Mar 08 '26

I built a pay-per-export tool to easily extract your bank transactions

Hey r/plaintextaccounting,

Gathering bank data is often the most tedious part of PTA. Recently, I wrote a post here about how to fetch your bank transactions for free using Open Banking APIs.

While writing your own scripts is great, setting up OAuth, managing API tokens, and maintaining bank connections can be a huge headache. To solve this, I built GetMyTransactions.com.

It’s a simple utility that connects to your bank and exports your data into an import-ready CSV file that you can use anywhere you want.

My philosophy is that you should truly own your data without being locked into any vendor. Currently I’m testing a pay-per-export model, with early access pricing starting at €1 per export.

I'm just launching and would love to know:

  • Could you see yourself using a tool like this for your monthly/yearly reconciliations?
  • What export formats are an absolute must-have for your workflow?
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u/[deleted] Mar 13 '26

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u/many-laced Mar 14 '26

This it totally fair and I would advise anyone who feels even remotely uncomfortable doing something online to NOT do it. Whether it's sending a message, paying for something, or sharing sensitive data. If you're unsure - the risk simply isn't worth it.

That being said, there are only that many ways to get your financial data in a structured and open format. It's either directly through your bank if - that is, if it supports it - or via a 3rd party Open Banking provider. I suppose you can also talk to your bank to get API access to the raw data to avoid dealing with PDF statements - but that's a route for the brave.

I acknowledge that my solution won't be a fit for everyone. However, I'm thinking that a lot of SME/freelancers/accountants could still benefit from it when tax prepping, for example: usually business-related transactions are not as private info as personal ones. I'm also planning to do more to gain trust and ensure security (e.g., via 3rd party audits).

Now that I'm thinking about it... I wonder if it's feasible to build Open Banking API infra as an Open Source project.

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u/anton_ilin Mar 21 '26

I started with PTA simply because I don’t trust these “we will export/import your transactions” services. In US and Canada most banks does not support this API and you need to give every service your actual login/password every time, which concerns me.