Setting up your bank feeds

There are two main types of bank feeds in Xero, Direct feeds and Yodlee feeds. There are a few main differences that we will address here.

Direct feeds are the result of an agreement between Xero and a financial institution, which gives Xero access to their API endpoints in their banking system.

Note

API stands for application programming interface. An API is code that allows two systems to connect to each other.

This allows Xero direct access to the bank account to give you the most accurate and secure access to your banking data. This is evident when connecting to a direct feed, as you are authenticating your access to your bank and its web portal. A token is used to secure your access and create the bank feed.

Yodlee feeds are supplied by a third-party company, Yodlee. Yodlee is what is known as a data aggregator and has remained a staple of the Xero bank feed, going back to before my first experience with Xero in June 2012. Yodlee stores...