Bank sync without AIExperimental
A bank connector can book its transactions into your accounts without Lucius: by fixed rules, on a schedule, with no AI model and nothing to pay for. When an account is first synced it gets the history your bank serves (90 days for most European banks); after that each run books only what’s new.
Experimental. Turn it on in Settings → Developer → Experimental (Bank sync without AI). Until then, only a Lucius Automation books bank transactions, as before.
It works with GoCardless, Enable Banking and Plaid.
Turn it on
- Open Automations → Data sync. GoCardless, Enable Banking and Plaid are there beside YNAB and Actual: under Add a data sync until their connector is set up, then as a card. Or, on a connector’s page, click Set up sync on its Sync line.
- The bank’s own page walks you through it. A bank not connected yet starts with Connect
GoCardless… (or Enable Banking, or Plaid), which opens the connector’s setup form — see
Bank & brokerage connectors. Then three steps:
- Choose accounts. Each bank has a card listing its accounts in two columns: At the bank (the bank’s account and its last digits) and In your book (the account it books into; click it to open it). Every one is ticked. Untick one to leave it out: it’s never read from the bank or booked. Link accounts (or Link more accounts) links a bank account here, as a new account or to one you have, without going back to the connector.
- Import history. Books the history your bank serves (90 days for most European banks) into the ticked accounts, and moves each account’s Starting Balance back to its oldest row, so today’s balance doesn’t change. Once it’s in, the step says so (with View in register); Import history comes back only for an account that has no history yet. Skip for now goes straight to step 3: the first sync brings the history in anyway.
- Turn on. Pick how often it runs, then Turn on: new transactions are booked on that schedule from then on.
Once it’s set up, the page shows a switch to turn it on or off, the next sync and Sync now; below them, the accounts, the schedule, anything that needs your review, and the run history. Each bank has its own card, its accounts inside. Its top right says how it stands: a green dot and when it last synced (hover for until when the bank lets the app read it). European banks grant that access for a set time (often 90 or 180 days): two weeks before it ends the dot turns amber with Renew, and once it has ended, or the bank wants you to sign in again, it turns red with Renew or Reconnect. Either opens the connector’s own setup.
In Accounts, every account the sync keeps has a link icon after its name: green while it syncs, amber when the bank’s access ends within two weeks, red once the sync has stopped (access ended, the bank wants you to sign in again, or the last sync failed). Hover it to see which, or when it last synced. Click a run in the history to see what it did: what it read from the bank, what it booked (each transaction, with its account and category), what it left pending or sent to review, and any problems. Click a transaction there to open its details, or View in register to see everything that run booked in the Accounts register. The connector page shows one line (on or off, and the next sync) and Manage, which opens that page.
It’s the no-AI way
This sync never uses an AI model. If you’d rather Lucius synced a bank, use a Lucius Automation such as Sync GoCardless instead (see Automations). Only one of the two can sync a bank: turning this sync on pauses that bank’s Lucius sync Automation and says which one it paused, so nothing is booked twice. While it’s on, turning that Automation back on is refused, with a message telling you to turn this sync off first. The connector page doesn’t suggest a Lucius sync beside this one; Automate at the top of the connector’s page sets one up.
What a run does
- Books new transactions into the linked account: each bank row once, never twice. Running it again books nothing new. Two identical rows (two £3.00 coffees on the same day) are two transactions.
- Books pending transactions as uncleared. They count in your working balance (Cash on hand), not your cleared one. When the bank settles one, the same transaction becomes cleared and takes the settled date; if it settles at a different amount (a tip added, a hold settled lower), the settled one replaces it and keeps your category, payee and memo. If the bank drops a pending one (a released hold, a cancelled payment), it comes off your book.
- Books settled transactions as cleared, so an account’s Cleared balance is what the bank has settled.
- Never re-books a transaction you deleted.
- Keeps foreign charges’ original amount and currency beside the amount your account was charged.
- Categorises without AI: your Automations rules and each payee’s default category apply, as they do to any new transaction. Otherwise, if the bank gives a merchant category that’s exactly the name of one of your categories, that one is used. No category is ever created; anything else stays Uncategorized.
- First sync of an account: books the history your bank serves, then moves the account’s Starting Balance back to the oldest row, so the history counts and today’s balance doesn’t change. (Cash and card accounts only.)
A run books all its new transactions in one go: if something fails, nothing from that run is booked, and the next run tries again.
The bank’s balance
Every sync also reads each account’s balance from the bank, at no extra read (GoCardless’s balance is its own request, which banks limit separately, about as often as transactions).
- An account you’ve just added (holding only its Starting Balance) is set to the bank’s balance when its history comes in, so it matches from the start.
- Any other account is never changed for you. When its cleared balance and the bank’s disagree, its row says so — “Bank €1,500.00 · Your book €1,487.50” — with Use the bank’s balance, which moves the account’s Starting Balance by the difference.
A card or loan’s balance is money owed, so it’s compared as a negative figure whichever way the bank reports it. GoCardless and Enable Banking say which figure is settled, and that’s the one compared with your cleared balance. A bank with a single figure that may include pending payments (Plaid) counts as in step if it matches your working balance instead.
Banks report their balances in the same terms your accounts use, both on the connector’s Accounts list and when Lucius lists a bank’s accounts:
| Name | What the bank means |
|---|---|
| Cleared balance | Settled transactions only |
| Balance | Settled plus pending, like your working balance |
| Available to spend | What you can spend now, overdraft or credit line included |
A figure the bank doesn’t send is left empty, never filled in from another.
When the bank changes something
A bank sometimes changes a transaction after it’s booked, or stops listing it. A run never applies that on its own. It waits under Needs your review, on the sync’s page:
| What happened | Your choices |
|---|---|
| The bank changed the amount, date or wording | Use the bank’s version or Keep mine |
| The bank no longer lists it | Delete it or Keep it |
| A pending transaction posted at a different amount | Use the posted amount or Keep mine |
| It looks like a transaction already in your book | Same transaction (link them), Book it separately, or Ignore it |
If you edited a transaction by hand, the review says so before you replace your edit. Nothing in the ledger changes until you choose.
How often it runs
| Bank | Default | You can choose |
|---|---|---|
| GoCardless, Enable Banking | Every 12 hours | Every 6 or 12 hours, or once a day |
| Plaid | Every 6 hours | Every hour, every 6 or 12 hours, or once a day |
Change it under Schedule on the sync’s page (or in step 3 of setup). A bank that allows 4 reads a day is never offered more than 4 runs a day. The next run moves to your last sync plus the new interval.
Sync now runs it at once. GoCardless and Enable Banking banks usually allow only 4 reads per account per day, and every read counts — scheduled, Sync now, or Lucius fetching the bank in chat. Once an account’s reads are used, it says when its next read is, Sync now waits, and so does the schedule.
If the bank refuses (its daily limit, expired access), the sync waits instead of retrying: until the limit resets, or a day for expired access. The connector page shows what the bank said. Renew the bank’s access on the connector page if it expired.