Accountancy Software & AIB

roots2branches · 16-04-2020 1:27pm #1

Hi, I need a new accounts solution that can connect to AIB bank feeds.

Xero does but €40 a month is a bit steep for me.
Sage does but I find it a bit heavy to use.
Quick books has a nice plan for €14 but doesn't work with AIB.
Kashflow has a nice plan for €16.50 but only connects with AIB UK and not AIB Ireland.

Any other suggestions?

MyTax Ireland · 16-04-2020 7:40pm

roots2branches wrote: »

Hi, I need a new accounts solution that can connect to AIB bank feeds.

Xero does but €40 a month is a bit steep for me.
Sage does but I find it a bit heavy to use.
Quick books has a nice plan for €14 but doesn't work with AIB.
Kashflow has a nice plan for €16.50 but only connects with AIB UK and not AIB Ireland.

Any other suggestions?

Surf Accounts connects to AIB. Works out to be €15, €20 or €30 per month depending on the plan.

19-04-2020 12:20pm

roots2branches wrote: »

Hi, I need a new accounts solution that can connect to AIB bank feeds.

Xero does but €40 a month is a bit steep for me.
Sage does but I find it a bit heavy to use.
Quick books has a nice plan for €14 but doesn't work with AIB.
Kashflow has a nice plan for €16.50 but only connects with AIB UK and not AIB Ireland.

Any other suggestions?

Try www.bullethq.com

roots2branches · 21-04-2020 10:18pm

Just thought I'd follow up in case anyone else was interested.

I tried Surf, quite liked it but nothing but problems connecting to AIB. It would connect then say it needed to reconnect, then get an error from AIB everytime. I wasted 3 days with their support which wasn't great. All in all a very frustrating waste of time.
However, turns out the issue is with the Plaid connection service they use. Also used by Sage which explains why that also kept disconnecting.

Xero uses Open Wrks to connect to AIB, and after a week of testing it never disconnected. In the end I've had to decide to go with Xero. I really wanted to go with an Irish company but if they can't get a handle on bank connections it's not going to work for me. I have been using wave and doing CSV imports but it's too slow, I need daily automation.

I'll also mention I did try Bullet. I really wanted to like it, I like what they are trying to do but they also use Plaid and while it worked for a while, when trying to add an invoice it kept telling me the amount was incorrect. WTF, how can the amount be incorrect? The amount was €150, there's no other amount to consider. Basically it didn't make any logical sense and if software isn't reasonably intuitive then I can't be bothered.
The other thing about Bullet is their UI. While I like their approach the fonts are just a bit too relaxed for me and the white background hurts my eyes. I just couldn't look at the screen without it annoying me. Shame, another small Irish company trying to do something different and I would have liked to gone with them.

MyTax Ireland · 22-04-2020 8:46am

roots2branches wrote: »

Just thought I'd follow up in case anyone else was interested.

I tried Surf, quite liked it but nothing but problems connecting to AIB. It would connect then say it needed to reconnect, then get an error from AIB everytime. I wasted 3 days with their support which wasn't great. All in all a very frustrating waste of time.
However, turns out the issue is with the Plaid connection service they use. Also used by Sage which explains why that also kept disconnecting.

Xero uses Open Wrks to connect to AIB, and after a week of testing it never disconnected. In the end I've had to decide to go with Xero. I really wanted to go with an Irish company but if they can't get a handle on bank connections it's not going to work for me. I have been using wave and doing CSV imports but it's too slow, I need daily automation.

I'll also mention I did try Bullet. I really wanted to like it, I like what they are trying to do but they also use Plaid and while it worked for a while, when trying to add an invoice it kept telling me the amount was incorrect. WTF, how can the amount be incorrect? The amount was €150, there's no other amount to consider. Basically it didn't make any logical sense and if software isn't reasonably intuitive then I can't be bothered.
The other thing about Bullet is their UI. While I like their approach the fonts are just a bit too relaxed for me and the white background hurts my eyes. I just couldn't look at the screen without it annoying me. Shame, another small Irish company trying to do something different and I would have liked to gone with them.

Thanks for the feedback Root,

No real winner then? You back to excel on it?

Thanks,

roots2branches · 22-04-2020 1:53pm

Going with Xero. I used to use it a few years ago and while it's ok, I still think it is overrated and over priced. It does however get the job done and the bank feeds work.
Wave, which is free, was working fine with bank feeds before the latest round of EU regulation and as they are US based they didn't want to invest in keeping that going. Much prefer the reports in Wave to Xero.

Having now tried just about all the available accounting solutions, I really feel there is a gap in the market for something simple. Bullet are kinda on the right track but as I say, it didn't work for me.
Did look at sort my books too but they don't even do bank feeds!

whatawaster · 26-05-2020 12:02pm

Those of you connecting AIB to Xero/Surf etc - are you using IBB or regular Online Banking?

roots2branches · 27-05-2020 10:49am

whatawaster wrote: »

Those of you connecting AIB to Xero/Surf etc - are you using IBB or regular Online Banking?

Regular

roots2branches · 27-05-2020 11:00am

Just another followup...

Still with Xero, bank connection is rock solid. I've been able to just get my accounting done so I am happy.
Having said that, I still think it's way over priced. Compaired with other software subscriptions that I use, Xero is a pretty basic application. It's not really changed in terms of features since I last used it a few years back.

When you think AIB made nearly a billion euro in profit last year, I can't help wondering a small investment could copy Xero's basic idea and they could offer it up as part of their business account. I mean if they charged me €50 a month for a business account that included decent accounting software that was tightly integrated with their bank accounts and multiple banks accounts for whatever I want, automated percentage deductions from all income into a separate account, multiple currencies and competitive transfer rates and so on they'd be onto a winner. At the moment I'm using revolut for transfer/currency so they've lost that part of my business. As soon as Starling bank launch in Ireland I will leave AIB.
For a bank making healthy profits they sure are lacking in innovation and awareness of the brewing storm of change around them.

whatawaster · 06-06-2020 12:10am

roots2branches wrote: »

Just another followup...

Still with Xero, bank connection is rock solid. I've been able to just get my accounting done so I am happy.
Having said that, I still think it's way over priced. Compaired with other software subscriptions that I use, Xero is a pretty basic application. It's not really changed in terms of features since I last used it a few years back.

When you think AIB made nearly a billion euro in profit last year, I can't help wondering a small investment could copy Xero's basic idea and they could offer it up as part of their business account. I mean if they charged me €50 a month for a business account that included decent accounting software that was tightly integrated with their bank accounts and multiple banks accounts for whatever I want, automated percentage deductions from all income into a separate account, multiple currencies and competitive transfer rates and so on they'd be onto a winner. At the moment I'm using revolut for transfer/currency so they've lost that part of my business. As soon as Starling bank launch in Ireland I will leave AIB.
For a bank making healthy profits they sure are lacking in innovation and awareness of the brewing storm of change around them.

I think you are underestimating how complex a platform like Xero is. If AIB attempted something like that you can be sure it would be a disaster.

roots2branches · 06-06-2020 2:05pm

You're probably right with regards AIB. My point is with a billion of profit they could really be investing in innovation.
I'm not underestimating Xero, it's not a complex piece of software, it's main functionality is actually pretty basic. Considering some other software subscriptions I pay for which are complex, Xero is worth about $10 a month for what it actually does.

DoMyBooks · 19-06-2020 9:35pm

whatawaster wrote: »

Those of you connecting AIB to Xero/Surf etc - are you using IBB or regular Online Banking?

Xero is working with both IBB and Regular AIB feeds now through openwrks. Both have been stable for a few months now thankfully

DoMyBooks · 19-06-2020 10:00pm

roots2branches wrote: »

Just another followup...

Still with Xero, bank connection is rock solid. I've been able to just get my accounting done so I am happy.
Having said that, I still think it's way over priced. Compaired with other software subscriptions that I use, Xero is a pretty basic application. It's not really changed in terms of features since I last used it a few years back.

When you think AIB made nearly a billion euro in profit last year, I can't help wondering a small investment could copy Xero's basic idea and they could offer it up as part of their business account. I mean if they charged me €50 a month for a business account that included decent accounting software that was tightly integrated with their bank accounts and multiple banks accounts for whatever I want, automated percentage deductions from all income into a separate account, multiple currencies and competitive transfer rates and so on they'd be onto a winner. At the moment I'm using revolut for transfer/currency so they've lost that part of my business. As soon as Starling bank launch in Ireland I will leave AIB.
For a bank making healthy profits they sure are lacking in innovation and awareness of the brewing storm of change around them.

Markets think Xero is worth c 3 more than AIB , You're right the legacy banks are going to be totally destroyed for their lack of innovation. Revolut are making headway with business and personal.

Buttercake · 15-09-2020 4:05pm

Hi folks, just wondering Root are you still using Xero + AIB ? tried it myself today and kept getting an error message when syncing with AIB or if you found an alternative?

roots2branches · 15-09-2020 11:13pm

Buttercake wrote: »

Hi folks, just wondering Root are you still using Xero + AIB ? tried it myself today and kept getting an error message when syncing with AIB or if you found an alternative?

It was working beautifully.
However, due to the ridiculous EU law about having to reconnect every 3 months, it then broke. I raised a ticket with Xero who called me a few times and we tried various things but it kept breaking.
I think the issue is with AIB rather than Xero but either way, it's just beyond belief that these two organisations cant get their F***ing act together.
It's not rocket science!

Work around is to go through the reconnection once a week which brings in the last transactions.
It's not really good enough tbh.

Are you having problems making any connection?

mogilvie · 22-09-2020 4:41pm

It's hard to diagnose these sort of connection issues between two big companies.

Our own Xero/BOI feed has been consistent and the three month re-connection isn't that onerous for what its worth.
Depending on how much of a hassle the re-connection is with AIB, you might consider just importing the transactions from CSV, or even changing banks/software.

You can use these statement converters at https://www.parolla.ie/online-payroll-software-features/xero-addon-tools/

Regards,
Mark
Parolla

roots2branches · 08-01-2021 4:40pm

So with Brexit, Xero no longer support bank feeds from Irish banks. I'm getting so sick of this BS!
They say it's to do with them not having regulatory authority which was passported through their UK thingymejig and is now no longer valid.
I don't see why other EU countries are not affected, just Ireland and it's all Irish banks.

So that aside I can't even upload CSV files because AIB dates are a different format and AIB uses two columns for transactions instead of one.
I'm no Excel expert so manually editing each statement just to be able to upload it is ridiculous and I don't have time to be messing around.

Then there's a couple of online tools that claim to be able to convert from AIB CSV to Xero but when I try I get a message to only upload files with OUT extension, wtf? https://profitpal.ie/aib-converter/

Anyone in the same boat? I've a vat return to do and this is the last thing I need right now.
TBH The bank feeds were the main reason I used Xero, that and its simplicity but are there any accounting solutions that can handle AIB?
Maybe I should just change bank, so sick of this constant stupidness. It's a bank feed not a manned mission to mars!

mogilvie · 08-01-2021 4:55pm

roots2branches wrote: »

So with Brexit, Xero no longer support bank feeds from Irish banks. I'm getting so sick of this BS!
They say it's to do with them not having regulatory authority which was passported through their UK thingymejig and is now no longer valid.
I don't see why other EU countries are not affected, just Ireland and it's all Irish banks.

So that aside I can't even upload CSV files because AIB dates are a different format and AIB uses two columns for transactions instead of one.
I'm no Excel expert so manually editing each statement just to be able to upload it is ridiculous and I don't have time to be messing around.

Then there's a couple of online tools that claim to be able to convert from AIB CSV to Xero but when I try I get a message to only upload files with OUT extension, wtf? https://profitpal.ie/aib-converter/

Anyone in the same boat? I've a vat return to do and this is the last thing I need right now.
TBH The bank feeds were the main reason I used Xero, that and its simplicity but are there any accounting solutions that can handle AIB?
Maybe I should just change bank, so sick of this constant stupidness. It's a bank feed not a manned mission to mars!

AIB have an 'old' and 'new' file format, and their credit card outputs don't even produce text files, only PDF's.

I'll be updating tools converter in the coming weeks to accept the 'new' AIB format.
The link to the converer is https://tools.parolla.ie/statement/aib

roots2branches · 08-01-2021 6:54pm

mogilvie wrote: »

AIB have an 'old' and 'new' file format, and their credit card outputs don't even produce text files, only PDF's.

I'll be updating tools converter in the coming weeks to accept the 'new' AIB format.
The link to the converer is https://tools.parolla.ie/statement/aib

Thanks, Mark. I just tried your tool and got a 500 internal server error, is that because it needs updating to the new format you mention?

capefear · 08-01-2021 7:32pm

autoentry will convert your statement pdf to a csv file to upload to xero.

Revolut is still integrated with xero and if a transcation hits your revoult account, the transcation normally appears in xero to be match after a couple of hours not like main banks which use to take 24 hours.

Kell511 · 15-01-2021 1:03pm

Hi,

Im thinking of moving from Xero as it will be 8 weeks before the Bank feed for AIB IIB is back .

Is there any other accounts software connecting to Irish Banks at the moment ?

whatawaster · 15-01-2021 2:57pm

Kell511 wrote: »

Hi,

Im thinking of moving from Xero as it will be 8 weeks before the Bank feed for AIB IIB is back .

Is there any other accounts software connecting to Irish Banks at the moment ?

Honestly think it is crazy to consider moving software because of 8 weeks of inconvenience.

That said - have Xero said this will be back up and running in 8 weeks - haven't seen that anywhere. Would be surprised if it's that quick. Ireland is a tiny market.

Kell511 · 15-01-2021 4:24pm

Heard that from another Software supplier. I find it difficult to import bank transactions in csv format. Owner likes dashboard with updated bank balance. Can you import them in Hubdoc?

jtown · 09-03-2021 2:25pm

Still no joy with Sage and the AIB link!

DmanDmythDledge · 16-03-2021 7:36pm

I will need to purchase accounting software soon and want something that links to AIB business account. Is Xero still the best option?

roots2branches · 16-03-2021 9:26pm

DmanDmythDledge wrote: »

I will need to purchase accounting software soon and want something that links to AIB business account. Is Xero still the best option?

Not at the moment, Xero bank feeds to all Irish banks including AIB are broken. Xero is fecking useless!

https://central.xero.com/s/question/0D53m00006Oa6Z8CAJ/bank-feeds-for-irish-customers

heretothere · 17-03-2021 1:23am

jtown wrote: »

Still no joy with Sage and the AIB link!

Sage got back up and running today with AIB

DmanDmythDledge · 18-03-2021 11:50am

roots2branches wrote: »

Not at the moment, Xero bank feeds to all Irish banks including AIB are broken. Xero is fecking useless!

https://central.xero.com/s/question/0D53m00006Oa6Z8CAJ/bank-feeds-for-irish-customers

Thanks for that. It seems shocking that they didn't plan for this in 2018 or 2019 - I work with clients who are regulated and most, if not all of them, setup Irish companies in preparation for Brexit and received CBI clearance so were seemlessly able to transfer EU business to the newcos.

mogilvie · 25-03-2021 3:00pm

Xero don't have bank feeds yet. Although there are few sites that will help you convert a bank csv output into a version that Xero can import relatively easily.

Parolla Tools
ProfitPal AIB converter

I'm told that Intuit QuickBooks also have working bank feeds. Although that information is second hand.

30-03-2021 2:53pm

Bank feeds for https://www.bullethq.com/ are back up.

Accountancy Software & AIB

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