Account Aggregation
Over the last 10 years, account aggregation has essentially become a cornerstone in Accounting and Bookkeeping. Think about it, what is Quickbooks or Xero without a direct bank feed?
What is Account Aggregation Software?
Account aggregation software collects financial data from various sources, including banks, credit cards, and investment accounts, and consolidates it to a single platform to provide a holistic, easily viewed and analyzed perspective on an individual’s finances.
Benefits of Account Aggregation Software For CPA’s and Bookkeepers
There are many which include:
1. Financial Insight
The primary benefit of account aggregation is the ability for CPA’s/Bookkeepers to access their client's account information and financial insights, anytime, anywhere. Better insight means the books are done quicker, with greater accuracy and categorized correctly.
2. Less Legwork, Less Questions
Having information that is always up-to-date and available online means no manual data updating, asking clients for bank statements or filing, which significantly saves time, improves collaboration, and reduces client confusion. More importantly avoids data entry mistakes.
What to Look for in Account Aggregation Software
The exploding use of and interest in account aggregation software has led to a few software options on the market today. If you’re not sure what to look for in an account aggregation solution, then the process of identifying the right provider could be painful and costly. Here are the four main things to look for in an account aggregation solution:
1. Breadth of Data and Connections
There are tens of thousands of data sources in the world and hundreds of thousands of account types with a nearly unlimited number of transaction types, most of which are not supported by any sort of industry standard format. To say the least there are many many different formats that the bank data can be exposed creating a nightmare for data aggregators. Data aggregators essentially grow smarter the more data they have and the more customers and accounts they incorporate, so the power of an account aggregation solution directly corresponds with the size of its network.
2. Ease of Use
It doesn’t make much sense to invest in account aggregation that’s too complicated to employ to its full extent. Your account aggregation solution should make it easy for your customer to set up their accounts and get started. Tools that enable instant account verification and account aggregation should be turnkey solutions that drive adoption and loyalty.
3. Direct Connections
A good account aggregation software solution offers direct bank connections for Account Aggregation. This means that the data is being pulled directly from the bank’s back-end database. It’s a pure handshake of data being transferred.
Why Ledgersync
Ledgrersync has partnered with MasterCard to offer the most comprehensive Bank Feed Account Aggregation service (for Transactions and Bank Statements) available for the Accounting industry. No one is bigger than MasterCard in this space. Ledgersync offers direct API connections for large banks to fetch Bank Transactions and Bank Statements.