I am receiving a 163 error trying to connect to my Greater Bank account. I've tried to connect for the last week and it wont do so. Please help!

Hi there, @claudesrepairs. 

Thanks for your first post. I'm here to help ensure you can connect your Greater Bank account in QuickBooks. 

s an insight, error 163 is an Online banking error means QuickBooks for some reason is not able to connect with your banking website to download and fetch user's data from it. 

Here are some possible causes of error 163 in QuickBooks: 

1. The error is also triggered by the cache and junk files present in the browser you are using to access QuickBooks Online banking.
2. Poor internet connectivity or no internet connection.
3. If your banking info like the website, routing number, or account number is changed.
4. Banking website temporarily down for maintenance.

To fix this issue, let's first use an incognito or a private window to confirm a browser-related problem. Follow these keyboard shortcut keys below: 

• Google Chrome: press Ctrl + Shift + N  
• Mozilla Firefox: press Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: press Command + Shift + N

Then, follow these steps to connect your bank: 

1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online account and choose Banking from the left side.
2. Click the banking tab, then select the Edit option with a pencil icon.
3. Choose Edit Sign-in Info beside your bank account.
4. Type the correct login credentials of your online bank account for verification.
5. Once successfully log in to your bank account, save the login info and try updating the transactions once again.

For future reference, read through this article to learn more about what you'll need to do if you get a bank error or can't download transactions in QuickBooks Online. 

Feel free to message again if you have additional concerns. I'm always around to get back and help. 

It’s been 2 weeks and my bank hasn’t been restored, invoices are overdue that are payed. I can’t believe this isn’t being resolved. 

Hi Shane,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  Can I please confirm if you have followed the below steps? 

1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online account and choose Banking from the left side.
2. Click the banking tab, then select the Edit option with a pencil icon.
3. Choose Edit Sign-in Info beside your bank account.
4. Type the correct login credentials of your online bank account for verification.
5. Once successfully updated, save the login info and try updating the transactions once again.

Thank you, Kay.

Yes, every time I’m invoicing I try log back in, it just keeps showing the error 163. It’s been over 2 weeks now. 

Thank you for letting us know Shane.

As you have followed the provided steps, can you please follow the below contact us link so that we can connect with you directly and help resolve this enquiry.

https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_AU/contact

Thank you,

Kay.

I understand this error is because the Greater has "updated" their website and it will no longer talk to Quickbooks

So, change banks or change accounting software. 

Sure will.

This is the latest reply from the Greater

As it is against our Terms and Conditions to provide Internet Banking codes to third parties, Greater Bank is unable to support the use of internet banking codes on third party sites. It is for this reason that the transaction information is no longer working and also why it won't be rectified. The most secure way to import the information to Quickbooks, is to export your transaction listing as a csv file and upload it manually to Quickbooks.

Greater Bank does have arrangements with Xero and MYOB in relation to bank feeds if either of these software packages would be an option for you.

Thanks for the update. Now to decide if it’s the greater or QuickBooks I get rid of. QuickBooks keep acting like it’s something they’re going to fix🤬 they’ve basically lied to me, they knew exactly why it wasn’t working. I’m going to change banks and accounting software. 

Hi 10Shane, 

Thank you for following up on this and sorry that's how you feel. 

As discussed in previous replies, our Online Banking engineering team is that there have been changes made by Greater Bank which is causing the connection with our bank feed not working. They are working through on solution to accommodate this change. 

Thank you and please let us know if you require any additional assistance.

Can someone from Quickbooks PLEASE let me know if you are actually working with the Greater to fix this!

Latest reply from the Greater:

Statement data is only provided to XERO and MYOB after our customer signs an 'Authority to Disclose Information' form. The statement data is transmitted via secure encrypted links and cannot be accessed by anyone except the customer and (if allowed by the customer)their accountant. This is the most secure way to share data.

Providing your username and password to third parties can actually give them full access to your accounts including the ability to withdraw funds via third party transfer, BPAY and OSKO.
There has been no recent change to our General Banking Terms & Conditions in regards to providing your online banking details to a third party.
As per point 43.1 on page 39, 'You should make sure that no one knows your online banking username and password or Greater Bank app access code including any joint account holder. This is because we will assume anyone with access to your online banking (including through mobile banking or the Greater Bank app) has your authority to use any of the products or services available through online banking.'
If QuickBooks records were fraudulently obtained and a Greater Bank customers accounts were compromised due to a customer providing their online banking details to QuickBooks, our customer would be liable for any of these financial losses.

You can certainly manually upload transactions to Quickbooks after exporting transaction listings from Online Banking as a CSV file. This is the most secure way to import information to Quickbooks.

Can you PLEASE confirm that this is actually progressing and an idea of a timeframe for it to be fixed or not?

HI Kimm5,

Thank you for reaching out. 

This issue happens because there has been a change in the Greater Bank website layout with added encryption. Our engineers are aware of this change and working on a solution to accommodate the new layout.

While we have not been advised of an ETA on the solution, we are monitoring progress and will provide an update as soon as it is received. Please consider doing .csv file upload to bring in transactions into your QuickBooks Online. 

Thank you and please let us know if you require any additional assistance.

Can I suggest that you update your customers on a regular basis - say weekly - to ensure that those affected do not lose confidence and change software or banks. Good customer service would dictate nothing less.

Hi again, Kimm5,

Thank you for your valuable feedback. I have forwarded it to our relevant team. In case you want to do the same by submitting an in-product feedback so our product team can hear your voice and better improve our product and service for you, here is how:

How do I submit feedback?

Actually, the greater informed me it’s against their terms and conditions to allow 3rd parties to access banking information, I’m not sure QuickBooks is going to be able to fix it. My whole accounting has turned into a mess, if I wanted to manually download bank transactions i wouldn’t pay QuickBooks. They still take my money though?

They told me the same, but that I could use MYOB or Zero. So if they can provide bank feeds to other providers, why not Quickbooks? They have been doing it for at least 5 years that I know of. 

I agree with this. It is a piss poor effort by QB, and I have been told the same BS on their online chat for a month now. I have asked for a refund given that the software is now basically useless, and I would suggest everyone demand a refund. I’m also taking the matter to Fair Trading. If Xero and MYOB can manage secure connections, it tells me very clearly that the problem sits with QB, not the bank/s.

I spoke to a person on QB, I mentioned the fact my account is basically useless and I don’t think I should be paying for pathetic service, he totally acted like I never mentioned it. They lied for the first week or two about what was actually causing the issue, covering up the fact they knew it wasn’t being fixed anytime soon. Let us know how the fair trading goes, I’m not happy at all with QuickBooks. It’s hard to even import my bank csv file to keep everything up to date, at least give us detailed information on how that’s done. 

Hey there, @10shane.

This isn't the kind of experience that we want you to perceive. Let me make it up to you by providing the steps on how to manually import bank transactions in QuickBooks. This will help us make sure that your books are up to date. Here's how:

1. Go to the Banking menu or Transactions menu. Then, select the Banking tab.
2. Click the blue tile for the account you want to upload the transactions into and select the Link account ▼ drop-down list. Then, Upload from file.
3. Select Browse and choose the file you downloaded from your bank. 
4. Click Next and select the account you want to upload the transactions in the QuickBooks account ▼ drop-down menu
5. Select Next and follow the onscreen steps to match the columns on the file with the correct fields in QuickBooks.
6. Click Next and select the transactions you would like to import. 
7. Once done select Next and select Yes.
8. When you're ready, click Let's go.

Please take note that the maximum file size is 350 KB. If your file is too big, shorten the date range and download your transactions in smaller batches. Also, ensure you have formatted the CSV file in the correct format before you upload it.

Once your transactions are in QuickBooks, it's time to match and categorise them. They will go directly into your accounts after you review them.

I'm always here to help if you have any other concerns or questions. Just tag my name in the comment section and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

To make matters worse, the support agent told me to unlink the bank account and they would restore the transactions once reconnected. Asking me to do that when they knew this is a long term problem was atrocious, and I now don’t have any transactions for the entire year. Surely they could re-load them. Making us manually fix their issue is going to take hours of work, as it is not just a case of uploading CSV files, all transactions then need to be recategorised. When asking about a refund, they said they will look into once the problem is fixed. Really, fantastic way of keeping customers rather than jumping straight onto it and offering an upfront refund for the drama they have created. I don’t blame the bank as it was a dodgy practice to ask for user ID and password credentials for the bank to create the link.

Unbelievable!

So sorry.

I have put through a request for a reduction in the subscription price and a refund from 22/03/21 when the feed stopped through the feedback icon in the software. I'm not sure who actually sees these posts. Surprisingly, I have not received a reply yet.

This is NOT fixing the issue. We are paying for and signed up for a data feed that is not happening. 

QuickBooks tried ringing me today, all you get is diversion tactics and zero accountability. I’m sick of it, I’m moving to xero and changing banks, the greater must be after a monetary deal with QuickBooks.