# Connect Accounts

### Connection methods

There are three ways to bring financial data into Kick:

* **Plaid** — Connect to over 12,000 banks and credit cards ([supported institutions](https://plaid.com/docs/institutions/)). This is the primary connection method for most accounts.
* **Direct integrations** — Native connections for payment processors and financial platforms with richer data syncing, including auto-splits and receipt matching. Kick's direct integrations currently include:
  * Gusto
  * Ramp
  * Mercury
  * PayPal
  * Stripe
* [**Universal Importer**](/setting-up/universal-importer.md) — Upload PDF bank statements or CSVs for institutions not supported by Plaid, or to backfill historical data beyond Plaid's lookback window.

***

### Before you connect

Make sure all of your client's entities are created before connecting accounts. Each account is assigned to an entity during the connection flow, so the entity structure needs to be in place first.

→ [Add additional entities](/setting-up/multi-entity/adding-and-removing-entities.md)

If you assign an account to the wrong entity after connecting, you can reassign it without disconnecting.

→ [Manage integrations](/setting-up/integrations/manage-integrations.md)

***

### Connect an account

<figure><img src="/files/2VIIXa0giUzGIZpLJcSq" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

1. Go to the **Accounts** tab
2. Click **Add account**
3. Select your institution from the list. If it doesn't appear, click **Add other bank institutions with Plaid** to search Plaid's full network.
4. Complete the login flow to authorize the connection
5. Confirm whether each account is **Personal** or **Business**. If you have multiple business entities, select the entity from the dropdown.
6. Click **Continue**

Once connected, Kick begins syncing transactions automatically. The connection start date defaults to the entity's bookkeeping start date.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** When you connect a bank, all accounts from that institution are imported. Each account can be assigned to a different entity.
{% endhint %}

If your client's institution isn't available through Plaid or can't connect successfully, you can upload statements directly via the [Universal Importer](/setting-up/universal-importer.md) instead. You can check Plaid's [supported institutions](https://plaid.com/docs/institutions/) to verify coverage, and check back periodically — Plaid regularly adds support for new institutions.

#### Transaction history

Kick pulls in as much history as your bank provides through Plaid — typically 6 to 24 months, depending on the institution. Some banks (e.g., Capital One) may only provide 3 to 6 months.

If you need older data, upload historical bank statements via the [Universal Importer](/setting-up/universal-importer.md).

***

### Statement sync

For Plaid-connected accounts at supported institutions, Kick can automatically fetch monthly bank statement PDFs. Once fetched, statements appear in [Documents](/bookkeeping-workflows/documents.md) and are automatically queued for [Reconciliation](/close-workflows/reconciliation.md) — no manual downloading or uploading required.

{% hint style="info" %}
Statement sync is a premium feature. The connected institution must support Plaid's Statements product.
{% endhint %}

If a connected account supports statement sync but hasn't been authorized yet, a task appears in your task list prompting you to update the Plaid connection.

To enable:

1. Click **Refresh connection** on the task, or open the account's settings and click **Enable in Plaid**
2. Complete the Plaid re-authorization flow

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Important:** Only the connection owner can refresh the connection.
{% endhint %}

Once authorized, statement sync runs automatically. Every time Kick syncs transactions, it also checks for new statements.

#### Where statements appear

[**Documents**](/bookkeeping-workflows/documents.md) — Each fetched statement is saved as a PDF in the workspace's Documents, named with the account and statement period (e.g., "Chase Checking Statement 2025-03.pdf").

[**Reconciliation**](/close-workflows/reconciliation.md) — Statements covering periods that haven't been reconciled yet are automatically added to the Reconciliation importer. When you open Reconciliation, they're ready to use.

To check the sync status, go to [**Account Settings**](/setting-up/integrations/manage-integrations.md). There, you'll find details about your statement sync: whether it's supported, currently syncing, or needs reconnection. Under the **Statement sync** section, you can see the current status and the date of the last statement retrieval.


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