Side by side
| Online banking | File upload | Direct connection | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where you work | In online banking | In your system and in online banking | In your own system |
| Payments | Typed in online banking | Exported as a file and uploaded | Sent straight from your system |
| Approval | In online banking | In online banking | In your system, with two-factor |
| The bank's answer | In online banking | In online banking | On every payment, in your system |
| Bank statements | Downloaded and imported | Downloaded and imported | Come in automatically and are matched |
| Several banks | One online banking per bank | One online banking per bank | One connection for all of them |
Online banking
Each payment is typed into the bank's own website or app and approved there. It works for a few payments, but everything has to be entered twice, once in the books and once in the bank, and each bank has its own online banking.
File upload
The finance system writes the payments into a payment file. Someone then exports the file, logs in to online banking, uploads it and approves it there, and later downloads the bank statements and imports them. Six steps, every time, and a file on a laptop in between.
Direct bank connection
Your system and the bank talk to each other directly, over a secure channel the bank provides for business customers (often called host-to-host). The payments go out in the bank's format, and the status and the bank statements come back by themselves. With BankConnector that is one connection to all your banks, and the daily work stays in your own system.
BankConnector is neither a bank nor a payment institution: the payments leave your own account, under your own agreement with the bank. See how to connect your finance system to your banks.
And open banking?
Open banking (PSD2) is a fourth thing: an interface built for apps that read accounts and start single payments, where a person has to renew the access at intervals. It is not made for payment runs from a finance system. The guide Open Banking vs Host-to-Host compares the two in detail.
More questions
Do we have to give up online banking?
No. You still use online banking for everything else, such as cards, loans and one-off transfers. Supplier payments and bank statements move into your own system.
Who gets the most out of a direct bank connection?
Every finance team that pays suppliers and would rather spend the time on something else: payments leave straight from your own system, the bank answers on every payment, and the bank statements arrive by themselves. With BankConnector you get first-class bank integration in every package, right from Starter.