Account aggregation is one of the conveniences offered by online banking and web-based financial software.
Quicken and Microsoft Money desktop personal finance software also offer account aggregation with automated transaction downloads and the ability to configure the software to show details for a number of accounts on one screen. However, account aggregation is usually used in reference to web-based financial tools that show all credit card, brokerage, savings and loan accounts held across many financial institutions on one web browser page.
Account Aggregation for Financial Snapshots
The benefit of account aggregation is that you get a snapshot of all financial accounts while being able to easily retrieve account details, like recent transactions, in one place. With account aggregation, you open one software package on your computer or you log on to one web site to see all financial accounts.How to Set Up Account Aggregation
To set up account aggregation, you first need to have online account access set up with the financial institutions that hold each of your accounts. Then, you set up the aggregation in your online or desktop financial software by going through a set up routine where you specify where your financial accounts are held, and you enter your user name or account number and password or PIN for each account.When you log into software that uses account aggregation, one password is entered and then the software uses the aggregation service to securely present log in information and passwords to the individual financial institutions that hold your accounts. Data for each account is then downloaded.
Chances are that you are already using account aggregation if you use online financial software or desktop financial software that pulls in or downloads data from multiple accounts.