Read Only Banking Access for GURU customers

Removing friction points via ‘read-only’ banking access

In the GURU team, we’ve been hard at work this month analyzing our process with the aim to make your bookkeeping run smoother and remove friction points.

We have asked many of you to provide us with feedback, and a few common themes have emerged. You’ve told us that you do not like:

  1. Our regular requests for bank statements. We used to be able to pull your bank statements from the web, however this software functionality has stopped working in most cases due to the banks tightening up their access levels. This means that you have to take time out of your day to download and send us your bank statements.
  2. Our regular requests for you to re-link your bank account to Xero or QBO. These connections regularly break due to software limitations in both QBO and XERO, and since we don’t have any level of access to your banks, we need you to take time out of your day to reconnect then.
  3. Our regular requests for you to send us details about Electronic Funds Transfers and Interac money transfers. Without asking you for clarifying information, it is nearly impossible for us to determine what the specific bill, invoice and purpose of an e-transfer is without you providing additional details.

These three things add substantial friction to our bookkeeping relationship, and they force you to engage with us in low value ways that eat your time by having to respond to low value, repetitive tasks, creating un-needed headaches for you.

Why provide us with Read-Only access?

We are asking all our GURU clients to set our firm up with “read-only” access to your corporate bank accounts on or before December 31, 2023.

This will virtually eliminate the three main problems that you’ve told us about:

  1. We will be able to download your bank and credit card statements without involving you.
  2. We will be able to reconnect your bank accounts to QBO and Xero when the connections break.
  3. We can see the details of most EFT and Interac Money transfers, greatly reducing our need for us to ask you about them.

Commercial banking account type (and associated fees)

Many of you use introductory banking plans, or personal banking plans, to run your business. We understand that moving to a proper company bank account that allows you to provide us with Read Only Access comes with a cost, often corporate plans run $20-50/month. Many banks provide this level of access at no additional cost. We have tested read-only access with some customers and we can confirm that the friction has been removed, and the time, headaches and irritation that these customers have saved due to not having to respond to these three types of repetitive, mundane requests has by far offset the bank fees associated with these plans.

Security considerations for read-only access

By providing us with Read-Only access to your company’s bank accounts, we can only view your transactions and bank statements, which is effectively what happens when you provide us with your bank statements and link your QBO and Xero accounts to your bank. Generally, Read-Only users cannot initiate transfers, make payments, or make any changes to your account. That’s why it is important to provide us with “read-only” access and not a higher level of access.

Our login credentials are stored in our firm’s Keeper account and can only be used (and not viewed) by the relevant members of your bookkeeping team. Our firm policy is to use passwords that are complex, and greater than 12 digits in length, if allowed by the vendor.

Provide Read-Only Access by December 31, 2023

We’re asking all our GURU customers to have read-only access setup for us by December 31, 2023. You can accomplish this by either adding, Clayton Achen (clayton@achenhenderson.ca), or George Henderson (george@achenhenderson.ca) as a “read-only” user in your online portal.

If you do not have the correct functionality in your current banking plan, please contact your banker to have it added. We are happy to liaise directly with your banker to remove friction from you, please connect Clayton or George directly with your banker and we will work through any challenges directly wit them.

Thank you very much!

Clayton, George and the entire GURU Team

Questions about read-only access?

RBC

Many who use the RBC Online Banking platform will need to upgrade their service to the RBC Express Platform, which is a more advanced online platform, requires a full onboarding process with training, and involves a different fee structure.

Scotiabank

Scotiabank’s platform is called Scotia Connect. There are fees associated with Scotia Connect ranging from basic to robust – depending on the type of transactions that are occurring in the account. Please arrange this through your business banker or you can  contact:

Alim Aibhai | Regional Director Small Business Development | 403-998-7310 | alim.alibhai@scotiabank.com.

cIBC

CIBC Customers need to be on a Smart Business Banking. It should be noted that CIBC does not charge additional for their business banking platform. Please arrange this through your business banker or you can  contact:

Katlin Woulds | Tel: 403 974-6322 ext. 400 | katlin.woulds@cibc.com OR Kaki Sowmya | kaki.sowmya@cibc.com.