To be clear, if I do make a part two where we're importing bank data, you're still going to have to log into each bank and download the statements. I don't believe that most banks have an API available where you can connect and get it online. I know there are services like Plaid that connect you, but I don't have those kinds of resources. So what I'm envisioning is once a month you download your statement, or once every 3 months, or every 6 months, whatever time you usually want, you can get those as a CSV file or at least a QuickBooks file format, and then from there import it into your database. That would probably be the limit of what I can do again because of bank security.

Ok that makes sense, Richard. I'll check into Plaid or consider switching to only banks that have API available. Otherwise, I suppose I could live with a monthly statement download.

Yeah it's really not that much work to just download your statement - even once a quarter - or once a year at tax time. I do it manually myself, and it's not that bad. I've been wanting to make a database to automate putting everything into categories and such which would really help me not only track expenses but be more organized when tax time comes around. I fiddle with everything in Excel still (yeah... me... the Access guru... still uses Excel for tax stuff).

Me too, tax = Excel. I should carve some time to move my business expenses to Access.

I have my Account Balances Template that I use for keeping track of my daily expenses, credit cards, etc. But to really organize it would be nice to import statements.

The account balances template should be helpful-thank you-and yes, taxes are a nightmare for me every year. My accountant likes using Quickbooks. Would real-time banking information be achievable through a data transfer from Quickbooks to Access? Maybe program the data transfer at regular intervals on a timer? It may be easier to perform one transfer from something like Quickbooks with all the accounts than to try and transfer from so many other banks that may have differing file types.

Some websites let you bulk download multiple statements to save time, but most websites don't.

A big pain for me is having to rename each and every downloaded files, because the default file name is often unusable for organizing.

Tax software can import tax-related data automatically from your financial institutions.  But you still have to manually download monthly statements for your record-keeping.

Another pain is that statements don't stay permanently on a site.  And it varies as to how long they stay.  Some stay on the site for 6 months to a year, or more.  I've seen one site that keeps only 3 months' worth of statements available.

Getting old statements from a bank that has gone out of business, which I've experienced, is another hassle.

Some statements may include several pages of inserts, generic fine prints, even ads.  That may cause a problem if you need to print them out.  If you skip printing those pages, it gives the impression that pages are missing.  If you print them all, you waste paper.

It may be possible to import everything from Quickbooks in one fell swoop, but I haven't used Quickbooks since 2004-ish, so I don't know what it's capable of today.