All five major South African banks can feed transactions into Xero. How you switch the feed on is different for each bank. Some feeds come straight from the bank. Others run through a service that reads your online banking on Xero's behalf. Feeds that come straight from the bank tend to break less often.
If a feed stops, you can still import a statement file from your online banking. Just never import days the feed has already brought in.
What a bank feed does
A bank feed copies each transaction from your bank account into Xero, usually once a day. You don't type anything in. Your job is to match each line to an invoice, a bill or an account. That job is called reconciling.
Without a feed, someone has to download statements and upload them by hand. It works, but it is easy to miss a month or load the same month twice.
Before you connect
- Use a business account. Some savings, investment and credit card accounts can't be connected.
- Have the right banking login. The person who approves the feed usually needs admin or approval rights on the bank's online profile. A viewer-only login is often not enough.
- Agree the start date with your accountant. Your accountant sets the date your Xero books start from. The feed and any imported statements must line up with that date, or the bank balance will be wrong from day one.
How to connect a South African bank account
- In Xero, go to Accounting then Bank accounts. VERIFY PATH
- Click Add bank account.
- Type your bank's name and choose the exact entry that matches your account type. Banks often list business, private and corporate accounts separately.
- Enter the account name and number exactly as they appear on your bank statement.
- Follow the prompts to approve the feed. You may be sent to your bank's online banking or app to give consent.
- Wait for the first transactions. This can take a day or two. Some banks also send a short history when the feed starts.
One bank account in real life equals one bank account in Xero. If you add the same account twice, every transaction can come in twice.
Bank by bank
The steps above work for every bank. These are the differences we see when setting up clients.
| Bank | How you approve the feed | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| FNB | Start in Xero, then approve on FNB online banking. FNB publishes its own Xero bank feed guide. VERIFY | The approver usually needs admin rights on the FNB business profile. VERIFY |
| Absa | Start in Xero and follow the prompts. VERIFY METHOD | If the feed asks for your online banking login, it will need re-approval when you change that password. VERIFY |
| Standard Bank | Start in Xero, then approve on Business Online Banking. VERIFY | Payment references can arrive shortened, which makes automatic matching to invoices weaker. VERIFY |
| Nedbank | Fully digital direct feed, launched with Xero in 2021. No paper forms. | Usually the most stable of the five. |
| Capitec Business | Start in Xero and follow the prompts. VERIFY METHOD | Check your account type appears in the bank list before you promise a feed. VERIFY |
| Investec | Direct feed. Xero has a dedicated help article for it. | Private and corporate accounts may be listed separately. |
When the feed stops
A feed has probably stopped if no new lines arrive for two business days, or Xero shows a warning on the bank account.
- Open the bank account in Xero and look for a reconnect or re-approve message. Follow it first.
- If you recently changed your online banking password or security settings, expect to approve the feed again.
- If it still does not work after a day, tell your accountant or DigMe. Don't delete and re-add the bank account. That can break past reconciliations.
Importing a statement instead
While you wait for a fix, you can keep working from a statement file.
- In your online banking, download a statement for the missing days only. Choose OFX if your bank offers it. CSV also works.
- In Xero, open the bank account and choose Import a statement. VERIFY PATH
- Upload the file and check the date range before you confirm.
Never import a day the feed has already brought in. Overlapping dates create duplicate lines, and duplicates are the hardest reconciliation problem to undo.
Two South African habits that save time
Bank charges. South African banks charge monthly fees and per-transaction fees. These usually include VAT. Interest is a different item and has no VAT. Ask your accountant to set up a bank rule for each, so they code the same way every month.
Customer references. Ask customers to pay with your invoice number as the reference. Xero uses the reference to suggest a match. A clear reference turns a manual search into a single click.