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Announcement

Dozens of integrations to connect your Memo Bank accounts to your third-party tools.

Brice Boulesteix

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07 July 2022

You can now connect your Memo Bank accounts to your favorite tools. Whether you’re using an accounting app, a cash flow management tool, or an ERP, you’ll be able to connect your Memo Bank account to the third party tools you use on a daily basis. Once connected to your favorite third party services, your transaction history will get synchronized with your tools—in a way that is both persistent and secure. Think of this as a way to automate the constant (and gruelling) export/import of financial statements using CSV files.

Use your banking data wherever you need them

If you’re running a business, you’re probably banking with several institutions (and you’re right to do so). But there’s more. You also need to file your orders, pay your bills, lead your team, meet your targets, follow your plan and execute on your vision. Can you do it all using only your bank’s website? Of course not. Your bank’s website contains details about your… bank accounts. That’s useful, for sure, but that’s pretty much it.

To manage the rest of your business, you also need to use third party tools, apps that do their job properly, but that don’t always fit appropriately with your bank’s website. The fact that your tooling ecosystem is fragmented might force you to create handmade connections between the apps you’re using. That’s where the dozens of integrations we’re introducing today might come in handy, precisely.

Leveraging a clear legal framework with well defined roles

To make banking data available everywhere, not only on banks’ websites, the European commission came up with a legal framework that banks must comply with. The revised Payment Services Directive (that you may as well just call PSD2) is part of that legal framework. To comply with PSD2, banks have to create APIs, that is machines-readable communication interfaces. Those standardized APIs are then used by regulated companies, called third party providers (TPP), that create connectors between banks (like Memo Bank) and accounting software (like Quickbooks).

As a business owner, you benefit from PSD2, because you get a secure way to fetch your transaction history from various apps—for free basically. No need to do crazy things to use your banking data outside of your bank: there’s a whole legal framework that promotes collaboration between banks and software companies to turn the notion of “open banking” into real benefits for business owners. You just need to add your bank account to the tools you are using and then authenticate the connection on your bank’s website. And that’s it.

Since Memo Bank is a bank, we have to comply with PSD2. That’s why we maintain an API that allows us to be connected to two French TPP, Bridge and Budget Insight. Since Bridge and Budget Insight are connected to dozens of accounting tools, you can take advantage of that network effect to connect your Memo Bank account to your favorite tools. After all, that’s the whole point of PSD2: once a bank is connected to a TPP, the bank’s clients can sync their banking data with tons of third party tools.

Dozens of integrations available today

What kind of integration are we talking about? There’s something for everyone. From accounting software (Jedeclare, Pennylane, Quickbooks), to cash flow monitoring tools (Agicap, Exabanque, Turbo Suite Entreprise), including ERP (Sage, Dolibarr, Kafinea). All in all, more than a hundred integrations are available.

What banking information can you retrieve via these integrations? You’ll have access to your current account balances as well as details of your transfers and direct debits (amount, date, credit or debit balance, wording). Regardless of the tool you connect your Memo Bank account to, you can be assured that your connection will be :

  • Secure, or your banking data will go through our secured API, without any human interfering in the process.
  • Private, or you data are encrypted when they’re being transferred from our servers to your tools (using TPPs). Only certified TPP can make requests on our PSD2 API. Only certified TPP can make requests on our PSD2 API.
  • Up to date, for TPP make frequent requests on our API to update your transaction history everywhere you need it. Say goodbye to outdated data.
  • Temporary, for you can turn it off anytime—either from your tool or from your Memo Bank workspace (soon). This might be useful if you’re switching from an account tool to another.

No coding required

To set up a new integration, all you need to do is click on a few buttons. To connect your Memo Bank workspace to your favorite apps, it all starts from your tool’s admin panel. Everything takes place at the level of the tool you wish to link to your Memo Bank accounts. Log into your tool, navigate to the button that says something like “Connect your bank”, and follow the steps provided by your tool. At some point in the process, you’ll get redirected to your Memo Bank workspace, where you’ll need to log in and authenticate your new integration.

Once set up, new integrations remain active for 90 days.
Once set up, new integrations remain active for 90 days.

After that, you’ll need to authenticate them once more—and you can do it as many times as you want in a row. We do not charge TPP or third party software companies for the use of our PSD2 API. You’re free to use as many integrations as you want, for free. Just like what we’re already doing with instant transfers (that we offer free of charge), we do not charge our customers for services that are intended to become industry standards.

Limitations and workarounds

Many management tools can connect to numerous banks through PSD2 APIs (and TPPs), but this is not yet the case for 100% of management tools. If the software you are using does not yet offer you the option to connect to your Memo Bank space, all is not lost Two scenarios are possible.

  1. You may be able to connect your software to Memo Bank via the EBICS protocol (which comes at a cost), an interbank communication protocol. Memo Bank supports the EBICS TS protocol. PSD2 APIs are gradually replacing EBICS, but this protocol remains popular.
  2. You may have the option to develop a connector that bridges the API of your software and the ‘in-house’ API of Memo Bank — which will be available soon. In this scenario, no need for TPP, you connect your software to Memo Bank directly.

Update July 21, 2022: Memo Bank API is now available.

Portrait de Brice Boulesteix

Brice Boulesteix

Rédacteur

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