Setting up OFXDirectConnect

Online Banking in Gnucash 2 - OFXDirectConnect

GnuCash 2 can import financial data from several types of files. But you can also connect directly from within your account registers to your financial institutions to download transaction data directly to your registers. In Europe, for banks using HBCI, you can even initiate bank transactions from within GnuCash. Those of us in the U.S., living in a Quicken and MSMoney dominated environment, generally must use OFX based data for online banking.

At present, OFXDirectConnect can be used to download transaction data from credit card and bank accounts. Investment transactions should still be imported from downloaded OFX files (I use ofx.py) via GnuCash's File>Import>Import OFX/QFX... menu option.

AqBanking

GnuCash now uses AqBanking as a means to handle connections to financial institutions. GnuCash must be configured using --enable-hbci and --enable-ofx in order for OFXDirectConnect to be available. AqBanking has its own setup wizard for the purpose of setting up account identification and user login ID for your online connections. This page is intended to document how to use this wizard to enable you to download data directly from your bank or credit card company into the appropriate GnuCash register.

The AqBanking Set-up Wizard

1. From the GnuCash main window, choose the menu item: Tools>HBCI Setup...
2. Click the Forward button in the Initial HBCI Setup window that appears.
3. In the following window, click the Start AqHBCI Wizard button which appears in the upper left
4. In the Configuration window which appears, click on the Backends tab,
   1. Click on the line containing "aqofxconnect" to select the AqBanking backend that handles OFXDirect Connect,
   2. And click the Enable button