A bank connection keeps an account's balance and transactions current on its own, so you approve rows instead of typing them. Nothing you do in Forward changes anything at your bank.
Linking
On Accounts, tap + and choose Connect a bank. A secure Plaid window opens; you pick your bank and sign in there, and Forward never sees your bank password. In Link accounts you choose which accounts to bring in. Where you already have a matching account, such as one you imported or entered by hand, you can pick An account you already have instead of A new account, and its history stays one copy.
Owners and members can connect a bank; viewers can't. Connecting a bank is part of the founding membership.
Forward brings in up to two years of history. Rows dated on or before the account's starting-balance date stay in the register for reference and never touch your envelopes, because that money is already inside the starting balance. Forward works the starting balance out from that history, so until it has arrived the account says its balance is still settling. There is nothing for you to type.
Syncing
Your bank tells Forward when there is new activity, and twice a day Forward catches up any connection that hasn't synced in the last several hours. Each account shows how fresh it is, such as Synced 3 hours ago. A charge still pending at your bank shows under the Pending bank chip on Transactions, and Pending transactions are invisible to budget math by design
. Once it posts, it waits for you to approve it. If you already approved it while it was pending, it keeps your category, your approval and any funding you confirmed from it: posting is not news.
Some cash-management accounts, such as Vanguard Cash Plus, report each deposit or interest payment twice: once as the money arriving, and again as a matching "Sweep in", "Swept" or "Reinvestment" line going the other way, even though your balance never moved on the second one. Forward lands that second line removed, so it never asks for a category. You can still see it, and restore it, under the Removed chip.
Reconnecting and unlinking
Banks sometimes stop sharing, usually after a password change or a security check on their side. The account then shows Reconnect needed, Reconnect by a date, or Access revoked · reconnect. Only the person who connected the bank can reconnect it.
Unlink from bank ends the connection for every account on it. The accounts stay, and the accounts turn manual and keep every transaction
. The person who connected the bank, or the household owner, can unlink it.
If your membership ends, syncing pauses for 30 days and renewing picks up where it left off. After that the accounts become manual, every row kept.
What to do
- Open Accounts and tap the chip on the account, such as Reconnect needed.
- Tap Reconnect and sign in to your bank in the window that opens.
- If you didn't connect this bank, ask the person who did to do steps 1 and 2.
Your accounts, balances and history stay as they are either way.