Reply to: Starling now integrates with FreeAgent

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

4 new Starling transactions today - all 'guessed' correctly by FA when synced.

And Yes, I had previously used manual statement uploads and ticked the "Guess my transactions" box, so I "guess" that's it

Yup, did the manual upload + enable workaround yesterday and sure enough a new transaction today was automatically guessed.

Bit pissed off with FreeAgent claiming it "wasn't supported" and trying to say this was something for Starling to fix (does FreeAgent's API even allow them to fix this) when all it needed was a magic switch to be turned on.

[Spoiler]

4 new Starling transactions today - all 'guessed' correctly by FA when synced.

And Yes, I had previously used manual statement uploads and ticked the "Guess my transactions" box, so I "guess" that's it

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Further explanation which might explain why some people have this working.

"Guess" needs to be enabled on a bank account for auto-explanations to work. This is enabled when you check the "Guess my transactions" box when you *manually upload a statement*. This is the only way to enable this setting. If you previously enabled this when manually uploading transactions prior to setting up Starling integration, that would explain why your auto-imported transactions are guessed correctly.

They have suggested a workaround of manually importing a statement and enabling this setting. I am waiting for new transactions to confirm this works.

It does make you wonder though why they cannot simply add a checkbox to the bank account settings called "Enable auto-guess for API imported transactions".

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Had a transaction go through Starling account today, appeared in FA pretty much immediately and 'guessed' correctly. All good for me

I've just been told by FreeAgent support yet again that this isn't possible.

This is their bulltulip response, completely passing the buck to Starling when clearly this is something FreeAgent should be responsible for:

Unfortunately, as the feed comes through the FreeAgent API which Starling used to build the integration, you won't have the option to enable Guess I'm afraid.

I have also double checked with my colleagues in the Support Engineering team and they have confirmed that this function has never been something that can be used with the integration.

As the Guess function can't be enabled, you will have to manually explain each bank transaction in your account.

The alternative would be to disable the integration and manually upload your statements where you will be able to activate the 'guess' option.

I would suggest letting Starling know about this and perhaps they can log how many requests they receive for this feature so they can investigate whether it's possible for them to support in future.

[Spoiler]

Had a transaction go through Starling account today, appeared in FA pretty much immediately and 'guessed' correctly. All good for me

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Strange, as mine are guessed correctly, unless I've never used the vendor previously....

I assumed the reason it wasn't working is because it isn't a normal banking integration that FreeAgent have built from their side - it's built entirely from Starling's side (so I assume they are pushing data to FreeAgent using FreeAgent's APIs). I'm hoping this is a stopgap solution as FreeAgent are starting to roll out open banking feeds and moving away from Yodlee and Starling will almost certainly support open banking feeds.

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Strange, as mine are guessed correctly, unless I've never used the vendor previously....

It doesn't guess any of mine, even really obvious transaction descriptions like "MR CYCLING PROGRAMMER - SALARY - £AMOUNT THAT MATCHES PAYROLL RECORD".

[MrButton]

They have fixed their integration with freeagent now.

Now moving money to and from 'spaces' does not show up as a transaction at all.

[northernladuk]

Strange, as mine are guessed correctly, unless I've never used the vendor previously....

If you've got a custom catagory for coke and hookers it should make a difference whe you have to change dealers or pimp.

[fiisch]

Bumping old thread but has anybody else realised that FreeAgent's Starling integration doesn't support automatic guessing of transactions like all other FreeAgent bank feed/imports since...well forever? I noticed none of my transactions were being guessed correctly and when I raised this with FreeAgent support I was told "Guess feature isn't available on the Starling integration".

Strange, as mine are guessed correctly, unless I've never used the vendor previously....

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

Bumping old thread but has anybody else realised that FreeAgent's Starling integration doesn't support automatic guessing of transactions like all other FreeAgent bank feed/imports since...well forever? I noticed none of my transactions were being guessed correctly and when I raised this with FreeAgent support I was told "Guess feature isn't available on the Starling integration".

[Spoiler]

Starling debit card has a £10k transaction limit on it. Must try and remember that when paying next year's corp tax

[MrButton]

The starling dev on twitter says he’s working on making spaces work properly with the freeagent integration.

[wattaj]

Create a new bank account in FA and call it something like "Starling Corporation Tax Space". Then when the transaction goes through as a withdrawal in FA, categorise the transaction as a transfer to another account.

I have done similar for several non-banking, loan-type arrangements to third-parties. It's very straight forward and keeps everything nice and neat.
HTH.

[DeludedKitten]

Anyone got an idea how to make this work in Freeagent, or is the spaces thing as weird as it sounds and just shouldn't be touched?

Create a new bank account in FA and call it something like "Starling Corporation Tax Space". Then when the transaction goes through as a withdrawal in FA, categorise the transaction as a transfer to another account.

Not sure what interest Starling pay, but wouldn't you be better off having a different bank account elsewhere so that you can earn something on the sum you have in there. Aldermore have reasonable rates on a 1 year fixed term at the moment, or they have a flexible rate for flexible durations. No FA data feed though.