> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ai2fin.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Connect a bank, spreadsheet or folder — get transactions in

> Four ways to bring transactions into AI2Fin: a bank you connect yourself through a SimpleFIN bridge, a Google Sheet that stays in sync, a CSV or PDF statement, or a watched folder. Compare what each one shares and what stays with you.

## Four ways in, and what each one costs you

Every method here brings the same transactions into the same place. They differ
in one respect worth understanding before you pick: **who else sees the data on
the way in.**

| Method                        | Who touches your data                  | Stays in sync           | Needs a paid plan |
| ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------- | ----------------------- | ----------------- |
| **Bank you connect yourself** | A bridge you choose                    | Yes                     | Yes               |
| **Google Sheet**              | Google, whom you already trust with it | Yes                     | Yes               |
| **CSV or PDF upload**         | Nobody                                 | No — one file at a time | No                |
| **Watched folder**            | Nobody                                 | Yes                     | Desktop only      |

If you want nothing in the middle at all, use CSV upload or a watched folder.
Everything else on this page is a convenience trade you are making on purpose.

<Card title="Open Connectors" icon="plug" href="https://app.ai2fin.com/#/connectors" horizontal>
  All four live on one page inside AI2Fin.
</Card>

## Connect a bank you set up yourself

This one is different from how bank connections usually work, and the
difference is the point.

Normally an app holds a contract with a data provider, is the accredited party
your bank discloses to, and pays per connection — so the relationship between
you and your bank runs through *them*. Here, **you** create the connection at a
[SimpleFIN](https://www.simplefin.org/) bridge and hand AI2Fin a one-time token.

What follows from that:

* **AI2Fin never sees your banking credentials.** Not encrypted, not in
  transit, never. It receives a read-only link, and that is all it ever has.
* **You revoke it at your bridge**, without asking us. Disconnecting inside
  AI2Fin stops us reading; ending the bank's access happens where you set it up.
* **It is read-only by protocol.** There is no payment instruction to misuse,
  because SimpleFIN has no way to express one.

### Steps

<Steps>
  <Step title="Get a setup token">
    Go to a SimpleFIN bridge, connect your bank there, and copy the one-time
    setup token it gives you. It works once.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Paste it into AI2Fin">
    Connectors → **Connect a bank you set up yourself** → paste → Connect.
    AI2Fin exchanges the token for a read-only link and reads your accounts
    straight away, so you see them before you leave the page.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Check what arrived">
    Transactions appear on the next sync. Anything ambiguous goes to the review
    tray rather than being imported twice.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  Coverage is strongest in the US and thinner elsewhere. If no bridge serves your
  bank, a Google Sheet or CSV upload gets you to the same place.
</Note>

<Warning>
  A bridge is still a third party — it is simply **yours**, chosen by you and
  revocable by you. If that is one party too many, use CSV upload instead.
</Warning>

## Connect a Google Sheet

Keep a sheet you already maintain and AI2Fin stays in step as you add rows.

The sheet is read **in your browser, with your own Google session** — AI2Fin's
servers never talk to Google on your behalf. You pick the exact file through
Google's own picker, so AI2Fin is granted that one file and nothing else in your
Drive.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Pick the sheet">
    Connectors → **Spreadsheet or CSV** → Connect a Google Sheet. Google's
    picker opens; choose the file and the tab.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Confirm the columns">
    AI2Fin proposes a mapping from your headers — date, description, amount,
    account. Correct anything it guessed wrong; it remembers.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add rows as you go">
    New rows are picked up on the next sync. Rows that disappear from the sheet
    are **flagged, never deleted** — you may have tidied your own file, and
    losing financial history to a tidy-up is not acceptable.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Upload a CSV or PDF

The path with nothing in the middle. Export a statement from your bank, drop it
in, and AI2Fin maps the columns for you — any bank, any country, multi-currency
handled.

Free on every plan, including the desktop app with no account at all. See
[CSV and PDF import](/data-sources/csv-imports) for formats and column mapping.

## Watch a folder (desktop only)

Point the desktop app at a folder. Anything you drop in is imported and the
folder stays watched. Nothing leaves your machine — the file is read where it
sits.

## What happens to a transaction after it arrives

Identical regardless of how it got in:

1. **Deduplicated** on a fingerprint of date, amount, description **and
   account**. The account matters: the same coffee on the same day in two
   accounts is two transactions, and collapsing them would silently lose one.
2. **Categorised**, learning from every correction you make.
3. **Given a tax treatment** — GST or VAT worked out per transaction, with the
   reasoning shown so you can disagree.
4. **Flagged for review** if it looks like a repeat rather than imported twice.

<Info>
  Nothing is auto-deleted. A row that vanishes from its source is marked
  `missing_in_source` and waits for you to decide.
</Info>

## Frequently asked

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Does AI2Fin store my bank login?">
    No, and it cannot. The bank connection is one you create at a bridge; AI2Fin
    only ever holds a read-only link. There is no field anywhere in the product
    that accepts a banking password.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I use more than one at once?">
    Yes. A bank connection, two spreadsheets and occasional CSV uploads all
    coexist. Deduplication is account-scoped, so the same transaction arriving
    twice from different sources is caught.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What if I disconnect?">
    Transactions already imported stay yours — they are your records, not a
    view of someone else's. Disconnecting stops new ones arriving.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Which of these work in the desktop app?">
    All of them. CSV upload and watched folders need no account at all; bank and
    spreadsheet connections need a paid plan, the same as in the browser.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>