Track Spending Without Linking Your Bank Account

You can track every transaction in Skwad without linking a bank account or sharing your bank password. Set up your bank’s own spending alerts, forward them to a private Skwad scan address, and we read the merchant, date, and amount from each one and categorize it automatically. Your credentials never leave your bank, so there’s nothing for a third party to store or breach.

Linking a bank account to an app is convenient, but it means trusting another company with a standing view of your financial data. Skwad gives you another way in. Here’s how our email scanning method works, and why we made it the default.

The risks of bank linking

Many financial apps today rely on users linking their bank accounts directly to the platform. While this may seem convenient, it comes with inherent risks. By providing your bank login credentials to third-party apps, you effectively grant them access to sensitive financial data, including account balances, transaction history, and even the ability to initiate transfers.

This practice raises real security concerns. Every additional intermediary your bank credentials pass through is another potential vulnerability. Even with strong security measures, the risk of a data breach or unauthorized access is always there. And the more apps you link to your bank account, the greater the potential exposure of your sensitive information. If you’d rather not type your login into any app, here’s how to budget without sharing your bank password.

Skwad’s bank-linking-free approach

Skwad’s email scanning approach removes the need for bank linking. Instead of handing over your bank login, you keep control of your financial data while still getting automated transaction import and expense tracking.

How to set up automated transaction import

With Skwad, you import transactions without exposing your bank password. Using your Skwad scan email address, you set up spending alerts with your bank and designate your Skwad scan address as the recipient.

Here’s how it works: whenever a transaction in your bank account meets the criteria in your spending alerts (such as a purchase exceeding a certain amount, even $0.01), your bank automatically sends a notification to your email address. Forward that to your Skwad scan address, and Skwad processes the notification and imports the transaction details into your account, keeping your records up to date without bank linking.

Step 1: get your Skwad scan address

Sign up for Skwad to receive your personalized Skwad scan email address such as [email protected]. This is your dedicated inbox for syncing various financial notifications.

You can find your scan address in your Skwad Settings.

Step 2: set up email forwarding

Set up automatic forwarding from your personal email to your Skwad scan address. This works with Gmail, Outlook, iCloud Mail, Proton Mail, and other email providers.

Setting up Gmail forwarding

Add forwarding address in Gmail

Open Gmail and go to Settings > See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP
Click Add a forwarding address and enter your Skwad scan address (e.g., [email protected])

Verify your forwarding email

Google will send a verification link to your Skwad scan inbox. To verify:

Go to Drawer > Inbox on desktop or More > Inbox on mobile in Skwad
Click on the Gmail verification email to expand it
Copy and paste the verification link in your browser

Create forwarding rules

Once verified, set up filters to automatically forward transaction emails:

In Gmail, click the filter icon in the search bar
Create filters for each bank or card you want to track

Tip: You can create simple filters (1 per bank) or advanced ones that capture all your alerts. Click “Search” to verify what’s being filtered.

Note: Skwad will automatically distinguish between transactions and balance updates. All you have to do is forward them.

Gmail filter action with Forward it to Skwad scan email selected

The most important checkbox is “Forward it to:”. Select your Skwad scan email and check the box next to it.

Creating custom filters automatically

Not sure what filter to use? Gmail can create one for you:

Click into a transaction email you want to filter
Click More (three dots) → Filter messages like these
Gmail will automatically create the filter in the search box
Copy/paste the search box content into your forwarding rule

Step 3: Skwad does the rest

Once you’ve set up email forwarding, Skwad’s parsing engine starts working automatically. It reads the forwarded emails in your Skwad scan inbox, extracts all the critical transaction details like amount, merchant, and date, and categorizes them within your Skwad account.

Just like that, your finances are tracked and organized, with no manual data entry. You can then access your consolidated transaction history and spending analytics within the Skwad app or sync to Google Sheets. You can also track your bank balance the same way, without linking, or skip Plaid altogether with a budget app that works without bank linking.

Troubleshooting

My transactions aren’t showing up in Skwad

Check if your forwarding rule is enabled
Verify the rule conditions match your bank’s email format
Look in your Skwad scan inbox to see if emails are arriving
Make sure your Skwad account is active with a valid payment method

I’m getting duplicate transactions

You may have overlapping rules or multiple alert types from your bank. Review your rules and turn off duplicate bank alerts. See managing duplicates.

Can I forward from multiple email accounts?

Yes! Set up forwarding rules in each email account (personal, work, etc.) to forward to the same Skwad scan address.

Privacy and security first

Your bank login should stay between you and your bank. With Skwad you can track every transaction, watch your budgets, and see where your money goes, without ever handing your credentials to a third party. Budgeting on your terms starts here.