Automate your bank transaction sync

What you can automate with Max

Any output, any schedule, any infrastructure you already use.

Automation recipes

Copy and paste these patterns to build your own bank data pipeline.

1. Daily CSV to S3

Export a fresh CSV every morning and archive it in S3 for a permanent transaction record.

# crontab -e
0 7 * * * sheetlink sync --output csv --file ~/bank.csv && aws s3 cp ~/bank.csv s3://my-bucket/bank-data/$(date +\%Y-\%m-\%d).csv

2. Weekly Postgres sync and dbt run

Refresh your database every Sunday night and rebuild your dbt models against fresh transaction data.

# crontab -e: every Sunday at 11 PM
DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:pass@host/db
0 23 * * 0 sheetlink sync --output $DATABASE_URL && cd /path/to/dbt-project && dbt run --select finance

3. Monthly CSV snapshot

Write a dated CSV on the first of each month for your monthly review. Google Sheets and Excel aren’t CLI outputs: they sync from the Chrome extension and the Excel add-in when you press Sync now.

# crontab -e: the 1st of each month at 8 AM
0 8 1 * * sheetlink sync --output csv --file ~/reports/bank-$(date +\%Y-\%m).csv

4. Slack alert on large transactions

Save the JSON, look for transactions over a threshold, and post a Slack message.

sheetlink sync > sync.json && node check-large-txns.mjs

// check-large-txns.mjs
import fs from 'node:fs';

const { items } = JSON.parse(fs.readFileSync('sync.json', 'utf8'));
const large = items.flatMap((i) => i.transactions).filter((t) => Math.abs(t.amount) > 500);
for (const t of large) {
  await fetch(process.env.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      text: `Large transaction: ${t.merchant_name ?? t.description_raw}, $${t.amount} on ${t.date}`,
    }),
  });
}

SheetLink in GitHub Actions

Run a scheduled bank sync from a GitHub Actions workflow. Store your Max API key as a repository secret.

# .github/workflows/bank-sync.yml
name: Daily Bank Sync

on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 7 * * *'   # Every day at 7 AM UTC
  workflow_dispatch:        # Allow manual trigger

jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Install SheetLink CLI
        run: npm install -g sheetlink

      - name: Authenticate with API key
        run: sheetlink auth --api-key ${{ secrets.SHEETLINK_API_KEY }}

      - name: Sync transactions to Postgres
        run: sheetlink sync --output $DATABASE_URL
        env:
          DATABASE_URL: ${{ secrets.DATABASE_URL }}

Manual sync vs. scheduled automation

Manual sync (Free and Pro)

• Open Chrome or Excel and press Sync now
• Works well for a personal monthly review
• Syncs to Google Sheets or Excel
• You choose when data is fetched
• No API keys
• Best for: individuals, occasional use

Scheduled CLI automation (Max)

• Cron or GitHub Actions runs it on a schedule
• No manual steps: it runs while you sleep
• Output to Postgres, SQLite, CSV or JSON
• API key auth: no browser required
• Trigger downstream jobs after each sync
• Best for: developers, business owners, analysts

Who automates bank data with SheetLink

Pricing

Scheduled syncs need Max. Compare every plan ›

Questions