How connecting your bank works in Cowry

Cowry is only as clear as the data behind it. The fastest way to give it a full, honest picture is to connect your bank — after that, balances and transactions flow in on their own, and the numbers on Today and Plan stay current without you exporting anything.

Connecting is read-only and runs through Open Banking, Australia's Consumer Data Right (CDR) framework. Cowry can see your accounts and transactions; it can never move money, make payments, or change anything at your bank.

What "read-only, always" actually means

• Cowry receives account details, balances, and transaction history — nothing more.
• There is no payment permission in the connection. Even if Cowry wanted to move a dollar, the access it holds doesn't allow it.
• Your bank login is never shared with Cowry. You authenticate with your bank directly during the connect flow; Cowry only ever receives the data your consent covers.

The connection is delivered through Mastercard's Open Banking service, an accredited CDR data recipient — the same rails other regulated Australian apps use.

What happens when you connect

From Integrations (or during onboarding), choose Connect a bank:

1. Pick your institution — search the list of supported Australian banks.
2. Authenticate with your bank — you're handed to your bank's own secure screen. Cowry doesn't see your credentials.
3. Choose what to share — accounts and data types are laid out plainly. You approve a specific, time-limited consent.
4. Import — Cowry pulls your recent history and back-fills transactions so budgets, bills, and safe-to-spend have something real to work with.

The first import can take a little while as history is fetched; you'll see its status while it runs.

Staying up to date

Once connected, Cowry re-syncs on a schedule so you're not importing by hand. You control the cadence:

A single freshness indicator in the header tells you how recently data arrived (e.g. "synced today", "3 days old"), so you always know whether you're looking at the latest picture.

Consent is yours — and reversible

CDR consent is time-limited and specific, and you can revoke it any time from Integrations. Revoking stops future syncs immediately. Cowry keeps no standing power over your accounts — the connection exists only while you allow it.

Your data is used to show you your own money. It isn't sold, and the private Cowry for thought reading is separately consented and never used to train models.

Don't want to connect? Upload a statement

Connecting is the smoothest path, not the only one. You can skip Open Banking entirely and still use everything:

• Upload a PDF statement from the header's Upload statement sheet — Cowry reads it and turns it into structured transactions.
• Add accounts and transactions manually for anything you'd rather keep off the connection.

If you later re-upload an overlapping statement, Cowry collapses the overlap into one "merge duplicates?" signal rather than double-counting — see Finding the quiet money leaks for how Cowry keeps the ledger honest.

Try it

1. Open Integrations — choose Connect a bank and pick your institution.
2. Approve a consent that covers the accounts you actually budget from.
3. Wait for the first import, then open Today — safe-to-spend should now reflect real balances.
4. Set a sync cadence that suits you, and note you can revoke any time from the same screen.

A quick note

This article is educational. Cowry is not a licensed financial adviser, and nothing here is financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. Open Banking access is read-only and governed by the CDR; you grant it, and you can withdraw it whenever you like.

Cowry — The clearest mirror of your money. Know what's spoken for. Know what's safe to spend.