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Live Banking Connection (formerly Account: finAPI)

  • Updated

Introduction

The HBCI protocol as a way to connect Xentral with your bank will be discontinued end of October 2022. We recommend you switch to the PSD2 regulation in order to keep your historical data and your configuration. The PSD2 connection with Xentral is realized via finAPI.

Note

finAPI is only available to customers, whose Xentral instance is Cloud-based.

finAPI is BaFin licensed and offers a secure and stable connection between Xentral and your bank. The use of finAPI does not require you to enter into an additional contract. Just accept the terms and conditions from finAPI during authorization and you can import your incoming payments as usual.

In order to use finAPI with Xentral, you either need to create a new business account of the type Live Banking Connection or, if you already have and use an HBCI business account, you can switch this account to use finAPI.

How you create a new Live Banking Connection business account or switch an existing HBCI business account to use finAPI is described below.

Create and connect a new Live Banking Connection business account

To create a new Live Banking Connection business account:

  1. Go to App Center > Accounting > Business accounts.

  2. Click on +NEW.

  3. Click on the Live Banking Connection tile. The Finapi credentials form is displayed.

  4. Enter your IBAN and click Next. A confirmation of the account creation is displayed.

  5. Click Next. The account details form for your new Live Banking Connection business account is displayed. Your IBAN is automatically entered in the following fields:

    • Live import section > Access data field

    • Account-specific settings section > IBAN field

You can select to automatically import your bank statements.

To activate the automatic import of your bank statements:

  1. In your accounts details form scroll down to the Live import section and select the Live import active check box. This will activate the live import option of your bank statements.

  2. The Access data field in the Live import section contains your IBAN and a pre-set definition of how many days of data going back from the current date are to be imported. If required, you can adjust the number of days for data import here.

  3. Scroll down to the Process starter section and select the Automatically collect incoming payments option. By selecting this option, your bank data will be retrieved four times a day: at 5am, 9am, 11am, and 4pm.

  4. Click Save.

Optional:

You can use Xentral outgoing payment data (liabilities/credit notes) to initiate a SEPA transfer. For that purpose assign the relevant payments in the Receipt of Payment module to the Live Banking Connection account. A SEPA XML file can be created for manual upload to the bank. Some banks require this SEPA XML file in the pain.001.001.03 format. To create this in the correct format, select the pain.001.001.03 check box in the Account-specific settings section of your Live Banking Connection business account.

Authorize your bank account in finAPI

Most likely you haven't registered your IBAN with finAPI yet. In this case you will see a corresponding message at the top of your account details form. Here you can also find a button that will automatically redirect you to finAPI.

To register your IBAN at finAPI:

  1. In the info message at the top of the screen in Xentral click Register your account at finAPI. You are redirected to the finAPI credentials form. This credentials form will vary depending on your bank but might for example look like this:

    finAPIcredentials1.png
    finAPIcredentials2.png

    For some banks you will be redirected to your bank for login.

  2. Enter your online banking credentials and follow the instructions. You have to authorize the connection with a TAN.

    Note

    During the registration process you can select to save your PIN or your password, depending on the bank. If you do not select to save your PIN or password, the consent of your bank will expire on a daily basis.

    Once authorized, finAPI will retrieve your bank account details. This can take a few minutes.

  3. Once your bank details have been successfully retrieved, finAPI displays a confirmation message. Now select among the following options:

    • You can check the connected bank account by clicking on the blue downward-facing arrow next to Importierte Bankkonten. Your connected bank accounts are displayed.

      ConfirmationfinAPI.png

    • If you have more than one bank account for your company (e.g. additional credit card accounts or department-specific accounts), you can import your other bank accounts by clicking Weitere Konten abrufen.

      Note

      To import your additional bank accounts into Xentral , please create a new business account for each bank account.

    • You can return to Xentral by clicking Zurück zur Anwendung.

  4. Once back in Xentral click Save.

Your IBAN is registered with finAPI and you can use your Live Banking Connection business account to retrieve your bank statements.

You can now switch to Accounting > Receipt of payment where the new Live Banking Business account is displayed. Import your incoming payments by clicking PenIcon.png. The Import payments form is displayed. Click Live import to import the incoming payments.

Note

You might be required to reauthorize the connection from time to time for security reasons. A dedicated message telling you when that is the case will be displayed on top of the business account form. Click the button for reauthorization in the message to start the process.

Do not forget to save your PIN or password in finAPI if you do not want to enter your PIN or password each time you use finAPI.

Convert your HBCI account to a Live Banking Connection business account

If you already have a HBCI account set up, you can convert it to a Live Banking Connection account.

Note

Once you switched the account type to Live Banking Connection you cannot change it back anymore.

To convert your existing HBCI account to a Live Banking Connection account:

  1. Go to App Center > Accounting > Business accounts.

  2. Select the HBCI account you want to convert and click PenIcon.png to open it in edit mode. The following message is displayed on top of the form:

    The HBCI protocol as a way to connect with banks will be discontinued. We recommend switching to PSD2. It will allow you to keep your historical data and configuration. The connection is realized via finAPI. finAPI is BaFin licensed, so your data is secure. For further information, please refer to the Terms and Conditions.

  3. Click Switch to PSD2 to start the authorization. You are automatically redirected to the finAPI credentials form.

  4. In the finAPI credentials form enter your online banking credentials and follow the instructions. You have to authorize the connection with a TAN. Once the connection is established, return to Xentral .

    Note

    During the registration process you can select to save your PIN or your password, depending on the bank. If you do not select to save your PIN or password, the consent of your bank will expire on a daily basis.

  5. If you want to automatically import your bank statements, carry out the following in the business account details form:

    • In the Live import section select the Live import active check box.

    • In the Live import section check your IBAN and the defined date range in the Access data field. If required, you can adjust the number of days of data you want to import.

    • In the Process starter section select the Automatically collect incoming payments check box.

  6. Optional: Select the pain.001.001.03 check box if you want to create a SEPA XML file in pain.001.001.03 format.

  7. Click Save.

The designation of your account will remain the same but the type of the account is changed to Live Banking Connection.

You can now use your former HBCI account to import your incoming payments as usual.

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