Banking / Bank Feed Integration is where ERP discipline either begins or breaks.
Automated Bank Feed Connection via Plaid / Open Banking looks operational from far away. In a real finance team, it is a chain of assertions: the right actor started the work, the required records existed, the control policy was applied, the state change was preserved, and the outcome can be explained later without rebuilding the transaction from emails and spreadsheets.
The expected business outcome is specific: Bank transactions appear in the ERP within hours of posting without manual CSV exports, reducing data-entry effort to zero for connected accounts.
The control flow a finance team actually needs.
Step 1
Complete OAuth Handshake Within The ERP...
Step 2
Encrypt Plaid Access Tokens Using...
Step 3
Import Historical Transactions Up To 24...
Step 4
Deduplicate Transactions By Plaid...
Step 5
Reconnection Flow When Bank Requires...
The ERP surface involved.
Module
Banking / Bank Feed Integration
Actors
Finance Administrator, Plaid API, Bank Institution
Tier
Tier 1
Finance area
Cash Management, Treasury & Banking
Region lens
US and UK finance teams
Publication date
March 23, 2026
Complete OAuth handshake within the ERP UI without leaving to an external page; encrypt Plaid access tokens using AES-256 with per-entity keys stored in AWS Secrets Manager; import historical transactions up to 24 months on initial connection; deduplicate transactions by Plaid transaction_id (external_id); support reconnection flow when bank requires re-authentication; handle Plaid error codes ITEM_LOGIN_REQUIRED and INSTITUTION_DOWN gracefully with retry and user notification; pull frequency configurable from 1 to 24 hours; support ≥5000 institutions covered by Plaid.
US and UK teams have different compliance hooks, but the same control problem.
US teams usually care about clean evidence for audit support, vendor records, payment controls, tax reporting, and management review. UK teams usually care about VAT-ready records, approval evidence, digital-record discipline, and traceable postings. The country-specific details differ, but the operating pattern is the same: the ERP needs controlled records, explicit ownership, defensible state changes, and evidence that survives beyond the person who completed the task.
The control matrix.
| Control area | Requirement | Acceptance proof |
|---|---|---|
| Control 1 | Complete OAuth handshake within the ERP UI without leaving to an external page | Given a finance administrator initiates Plaid Link OAuth for a new institution |
| Control 2 | encrypt Plaid access tokens using AES-256 with per-entity keys stored in AWS Secrets Manager | when the OAuth handshake completes and the access token is stored |
| Control 3 | import historical transactions up to 24 months on initial connection | then 90 days of historical transactions are imported within a configurable window, each line carries amount_minor + currency_code + posted_date + plaid_transaction_id as external_id, duplicates on re-pull are rejected, and incremental pulls run at configured frequency |
| Control 4 | deduplicate transactions by Plaid transaction_id (external_id | negative) when Plaid returns ITEM_LOGIN_REQUIRED then the connection status is set to RECONNECTION_REQUIRED and a user notification is emitted with no data loss. |
| Control 5 | support reconnection flow when bank requires re-authentication | Bank transactions appear in the ERP within hours of posting without manual CSV exports, reducing data-entry effort to zero for connected accounts. |
| Control 6 | handle Plaid error codes ITEM_LOGIN_REQUIRED and INSTITUTION_DOWN gracefully with retry and user notification | Bank transactions appear in the ERP within hours of posting without manual CSV exports, reducing data-entry effort to zero for connected accounts. |
Audit evidence is a chain, not a folder.
| Evidence layer | What should be preserved |
|---|---|
| Business event | A finance administrator initiates a new bank connection by selecting the institution from a searchable directory and completing the Plaid Link OAuth flow within the ERP UI. Plaid returns an access token which the ERP encrypts at rest using AES-256 and stores per-entity. The system immediately pulls 90 days of historical transactions and then schedules incremental pulls every 4 hours. Each transaction is mapped to a pending bank statement line with amount_minor, currency_code, posted date, description, and bank-assigned transaction ID as external_id. The finance administrator is notified of the first successful sync. |
| Control rules | Complete OAuth handshake within the ERP UI without leaving to an external page; encrypt Plaid access tokens using AES-256 with per-entity keys stored in AWS Secrets Manager; import historical transactions up to 24 months on initial connection; deduplicate transactions by Plaid transaction_id (external_id); support reconnection flow when bank requires re-authentication; handle Plaid error codes ITEM_LOGIN_REQUIRED and INSTITUTION_DOWN gracefully with retry and user notification; pull frequency configurable from 1 to 24 hours; support ≥5000 institutions covered by Plaid. |
| Acceptance proof | Given a finance administrator initiates Plaid Link OAuth for a new institution; when the OAuth handshake completes and the access token is stored; then 90 days of historical transactions are imported within a configurable window, each line carries amount_minor + currency_code + posted_date + plaid_transaction_id as external_id, duplicates on re-pull are rejected, and incremental pulls run at configured frequency; (negative) when Plaid returns ITEM_LOGIN_REQUIRED then the connection status is set to RECONNECTION_REQUIRED and a user notification is emitted with no data loss. |
| Data record | |
| System event | |
| Lifecycle state | |
The useful version of this workflow is not only fast. It is inspectable. A controller, auditor, or operator should be able to move from source event to system record to state transition to final business outcome without guessing.
Implementation contracts.
Reference data model
`bank_connection` { connection_id: string, entity_id: string, institution_id: string, access_token_encrypted: bytes, status: enum(ACTIVE, RECONNECTION_REQUIRED, INACTIVE), pull_frequency_hours: int, external_id: string }; `bank_statement_line` { line_id: string, connection_id: string, amount_minor: int64, currency_code: char(3), posted_date: date, description: string, external_id: string, status: enum(PENDING, MATCHED, UNMATCHED) }; (reference, product may differ).API and events
`POST /v1/banking/connections` { institution_id, plaid_public_token, pull_frequency_hours } -> 201 { connection_id, status: "ACTIVE" }; `GET /v1/banking/connections/{id}/statement-lines` { from_date, to_date }; emits `banking.connection_created` and `banking.statement_lines_imported` events; idempotent via external_id on statement lines.State transitions
`PENDING_OAUTH -> ACTIVE -> RECONNECTION_REQUIRED -> ACTIVE`; terminal `INACTIVE`; guard: statement line import blocked while connection status is RECONNECTION_REQUIRED.Common implementation traps.
Treating the workflow as data entry
If the ERP only stores the final record, the team loses the decision trail that explains how the record became valid.
Hiding exception logic
Exceptions need owners, reason codes, and time stamps. A vague pending state is not a control.
Posting without recovery design
Retries, duplicate submissions, and partial failures must be explicit so the system does not create inconsistent records.
Skipping evidence design
A workflow that cannot produce evidence on demand will eventually push finance teams back into manual screenshots and spreadsheets.
Where Rivane fits.
Rivane is built for finance workflows where automation must stay tied to source documents, approvals, state transitions, ledger impact, reporting, and audit evidence. Use this guide as a checklist for evaluating whether an ERP workflow is merely digitized or actually controlled.
References and source basis.
These sources provide the standards, regulatory, or government context around the flow. They are included so the guide is useful to finance operators, auditors, and implementation teams, not only buyers reading software copy.