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How do you connect a bank feed for rental property bookkeeping?

DoorKeeping team

3 min read

Pick the property's own bank account, connect it through your bookkeeping tool's secure bank sign-in, and let the tool pull in posted transactions. Then review every line before you accept it: a feed brings in the bank's raw data, not finished books. Use a read-only connection, connect each LLC's account to that LLC's books, and reconcile the account to its statement every month.

How a bank feed works

A bank feed copies your account's transactions into software so you do not type them in. You sign in to your bank in a secure window, choose the accounts to share, and the software then receives new transactions as the bank posts them. Many tools use a data provider such as Plaid for the connection. Plaid's documentation describes a transactions product that reads an account's history and updates.

The feed gives you dates, amounts, descriptions and sometimes a category guess. It does not know which property a deposit belongs to, which tenant sent it, or whether a charge is a repair or a purchase of an appliance. That judgment is the bookkeeping, and it is still yours.

Why read-only access matters

A good connection can read balances and transactions and cannot move money. Check the tool's description of what it can do, and avoid sharing your bank password or any key that can send payments. You should be able to remove the connection from your bank's security settings as well as from the tool.

  • Prefer a bank sign-in window over typing your password into the tool.
  • Connect only the accounts that belong in these books.
  • Remove a connection when you close an account or stop using a tool.
  • Expect an occasional request to sign in again, because banks expire links on purpose.

Connect an account in five steps

  1. Decide which LLC's books the account belongs to. One bank account belongs to one set of books.
  2. Open the connect screen in your tool and choose your bank.
  3. Sign in at the bank's window and select the single account for that LLC.
  4. Set the start date for imported transactions to the first day of a month, so your opening balance is clean.
  5. Compare the first imported month to the bank statement before you accept anything.

Example a made-up LLC's account opened October with $3,000. The feed shows deposits of $5,200 and withdrawals of $2,350. The statement closes at $3,000 + $5,200 - $2,350 = $5,850, and the feed's ending balance reads $5,850, so the import is complete and you can begin reviewing lines.

Review feed transactions before you accept them

Treat each feed line as a question: which property, which account, which tenant. Deposits from a payment platform may carry several tenants' rent in one amount, so they need splitting. A single transfer between your own accounts is neither income nor an expense and must not be counted twice. Loan payments need splitting into interest and principal.

Rules help, but they should save you typing, not replace judgment. A rule that tags every Home Depot charge as repairs is wrong the day you buy a water heater, which is a capital cost under IRS rules for improvements. Review the rule's output every month.

How DoorKeeping handles it

DoorKeeping connects each property's bank account through a read-only bank feed. Deposits are matched to the rent each tenant owes, using the unit and last name memo, the exact amount and the sender, and anything unclear waits for your one-tap confirmation. AI reading and coding of your bills proposes each bill's property and category for your confirmation. Rent stays in your own bank account and DoorKeeping never holds your money. It is $2 per unit per month with $0 in other fees.

Sources

  1. Plaid documentation, Transactions, read Oct 30, 2026
  2. IRS Publication 527, Residential Rental Property (repairs and improvements), read Oct 30, 2026
  3. IRS Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records, read Oct 30, 2026

Questions

Is a bank feed safe?
A read-only feed that you sign in to through the bank's own window is a common way to connect accounts. Check what the tool can do, avoid sharing passwords, and remove the connection when you stop using it.
Do I still need to reconcile if I use a feed?
Yes. A feed can miss, duplicate or mislabel a line. A monthly reconciliation to the bank statement is what proves the books are complete.
Why did my feed stop updating?
Banks expire connections or ask for new sign-ins from time to time. Reconnect the account in your tool, then check that the days in between were imported without gaps.

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