How and when bank transactions arrive

Once you connect a US bank, new transactions come in without you doing anything. They don't appear the instant you swipe your card, though. This article explains when they land, what happens to pending charges, and how to check where things stand.

How new transactions reach your ledger

1. Your bank reports new activity. When your bank has new transactions, our banking provider, Plaid, notifies Pennyweight.
2. A background job collects them. Pennyweight fetches the new transactions and encrypts each one before storing it. The job can't read them back. Only a signed-in session can open them.
3. Your next session adds them to your ledger. Opening the web app unlocks the waiting transactions and adds them. Asking your AI something usually starts the same step.

When you ask your AI something, that step runs in the background and doesn't hold up the answer. Pennyweight doesn't check for waiting transactions on every request, only every few minutes. So new rows can land after the answer that triggered them. If something is missing, ask again in a few minutes or open the web app.

There is no "sync now" command. Your AI can't pull from your bank on demand. It can tell you when each connection last synced and whether anything is waiting.

Pending charges

Your bank can report a card purchase as pending first and send the settled version later. Pennyweight adds pending transactions to your ledger and they count in your totals.

When the charge settles, the bank sends the final version. Pennyweight replaces the pending row with the settled one and keeps what you added to it: your category, notes and comments. Splits and transfer links carry over too, as long as the amount didn't change. If a tip or other change altered the amount, the splits and link are dropped.

Now and then both versions stay in your ledger. If you see the same charge twice, one pending and one settled, see the same charge appears pending and posted.

If your bank withdraws a transaction, Pennyweight removes it from your ledger.

What the connection statuses mean

Ask your AI about your bank connections and you'll see one status per bank:

• healthy: the connection works and nothing is waiting.
• stale: the connection works, and new transactions are waiting to be added. Your next session adds them.
• needs_reauth: the bank wants you to sign in again. Your AI gets a link to reconnect.
• error: any other bank error, or a connection that was removed or revoked.
• manual: an account you added yourself, with no bank connection.

Each bank also shows when it last synced and, per account, the earliest and latest dates the bank has sent. Right after you connect, the bank may still be sending older history, and that date range keeps growing. To fix a connection that isn't healthy, see check whether your bank connections are working.

How to see it

1. Ask your AI when your banks last synced and whether anything is waiting.
2. If a recent purchase is missing, ask your AI to check the connection and look for the transaction.
3. If the connection is healthy and the charge still isn't there, give your bank time to report it. See recent transactions are missing.

What you'll see

Your AI can see each bank's name, status and last sync time, and the date range each account holds. A stale status tells it new transactions are waiting. For a missing purchase, it can also search your recent transactions for the charge.

Good to know

• Bank linking is available for US banks only.
• When you connect, Pennyweight asks for up to two years of history. How much you get depends on what Plaid can provide for your bank. See add older history to a linked bank account.
• Bank transactions arrive with the bank's own category code, such as FOOD_AND_DRINK, or OTHER when the bank gives none, unless one of your rules matches. See how categories work.
• Your rules categorize new bank transactions as they're added at your next session, not in real time. Transactions already in your ledger keep their category until you ask your AI to apply your rules to transactions you already have. See create a rule.
• Transfers aren't paired automatically on bank sync, even when a rule gives a bank row a transfer category. A bank row labeled as a transfer still stays out of spending. See transfers aren't spending.
• Your AI's search results don't say which rows are still pending. Its duplicate check does use the pending mark to find leftover pending charges.
• Waiting transactions are stored for up to 90 days.
• When a ledger is read-only (no subscription after the trial), new bank transactions stop being added to it. Your other ledgers keep syncing. Adding resumes once that ledger has a subscription. See this ledger is read-only.