> After all, automating the import process end to end has long been a neglected area in the open source community IMHO, and any coordinated effort in that direction would be very valuable. Were you considering setting one up?
Maybe? I'm mostly trying to feel the space/community out to see if others think something could be helpful. *All: If you are interested in being a part of a forum/email list (maybe a dedicated Google group) with a focus on coordinating/collaborating on automated access to financial data, let me know.* If I don't hear at least a little more interest, I'll drop it. In my mind, the main benefit would be to make it easier for folks to collaborate across all the different clients/institutions/projects/methods of getting our financial data. It seems like there is a fair bit of duplication of effort (and frustration!). There have been some cases in the past where I've learned "this one cool trick for downloading your transactions from XXX bank" completely by accident (where that trick is something like "you have to use this magic user-agent to get OFX to work there"), and I'm wondering if just having a common place to ask "Is anyone else having this problem or have you already solved it?" could be valuable. I like the ideas in your previous post - maybe we could even develop a common framework that allows us to share the bulk of the download and import logic across multiple client projects (hey, we can get along with the ledger people, right :P ), and for us to only need to maintain the beancount-specific stuff. But, anyway, all of this is only valuable if there's a critical mass of folks interested in being a part of it... I don't have a ton of extra time at the moment, but maybe all it needs to get started is to create a "Financial Data Collaboration" google group and send a few emails to various hobby personal-finance-related email lists, or post it on related github issues, etc.? I'd be up for doing something like that. I welcome folks' thoughts, though! -Aaron On Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 1:36:13 PM UTC-5 [email protected] wrote: On Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 7:03:53 AM UTC-8 Aaron Lindsay wrote: Is anyone aware of a community/forum/mailing list focused on automated (API) access to financial data? Not that I’m aware of. ofxhome.com used to track OFX‑enabled institutions and Direct Connect details, but it had no forum or mailing list. It’s been long gone now. As it seems the industry transitions away from OFX, gaining automated access to your own financial data seems to have become less straightforward, but whenever I run into issues it seems the community’s response is a bit scattered. For example, Fidelity’s OFX access is currently not working (or disabled). I’ve searched around and am aware of several disconnected places all trying to deal with what is ultimately the same issue, and I’m sure there are many others I’m not aware of: I’m wondering if there is already a place or way to coordinate efforts to access transaction data, or if others think something like that could be helpful? Perhaps I’m a touch cynical, but I’m not sure of the purpose it would serve. Financial institutions have made it clear they’re not interested in feedback from hobbyists like us, so there’s no real path to influencing them. That said, I’ve had a fantastic experience with both ofx and direct connect all these years, and I’d love to see what a community focused on what you say could come up with looking forward. - perhaps sharing browser‑automation approaches or similar tools to help people pull down CSVs in a scriptable manner - perhaps keeping up with the constant flow of csv format idiosyncrasies and updates for institutions - and perhaps some coordinated lobbying would push institutions to consider making ofx/qfx/<open_format> at least available on their websites for download if not through a web API After all, automating the import process end to end has long been a neglected area in the open source community IMHO, and any coordinated effort in that direction would be very valuable. Were you considering setting one up? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Beancount" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beancount/905424c0-6fee-44e3-a7a6-3457d58696d3n%40googlegroups.com.
