First Direct connection issues

Glad to have you here in the Community, @jjeh102.

You've got me here to share some insights about the security requirements that you've been through when accessing you bank feeds.

QuickBooks is compliant with the new legislation through Open Banking. It allows customers to share their financial information electronically, securely, and with permission that is confirmed every 90 days. This can be the reason that you're required to input my special word and auto-generated passcode to access your feed. 

To get this issue sorted out, you may check out the link attached to verify if your bank supports this feature already since it has been effective starting March 2020: Understanding if you can upgrade your bank feeds to Open Banking.

To give you the complete details what Open banking is all about and on how does it work in QuickBooks Self-Employed, please visit these articles below:

• Open Banking FAQ
• What is Open Banking?

Let me know if you have any other questions. I'll make sure you're all set. Take care, Jeff.

I've had the same issues with having to use the 'Update' button, then having to access my bank feed by entering my First Direct password and key-pad generated number. It first happened around the 4/5th March, but I resolved it eventually by disconnecting, and then re-connection the 2 FD accounts I had linked to QB.

The QB help 'chat' mentioned 'Open Banking' issues with FD being a probable cause, but FD are fully compliant with this as far as I know...The same thing has just happened again today (3rd April), and despite clearing my cache, the 'Update' button just gives the message to 'try again tomorrow'......

Getting v.frustrated.  :(

We don't want you to feel that way, RY- Cambridge.

You'll want to check with First Direct Bank if they have an ongoing bank maintenance, or a system upgrade.

Sometimes bank connectivity issue is due to bank's maintenance which hinders the connection with QuickBooks Self-Employed.

I also recommend reaching out to our QB Self-Employed support so they can check your account.

1. Click Assistant at the top.
2. Type Talk to a human.
3. Select from Message an agent or Get a callback.

Note that we have limited staff due to COVID-19, here's our available support hours.

I'll be here if you have other questions.

I too am having the same frustrating connection issues with First- Direct. 

Thanks for following on this thread, @joesharps.

We received similar reports from other users experiencing the same behavior when connecting to First Direct. Our product engineers are working to find a permanent solution.

To get new information and progress of the investigation, I recommend giving our QBO Care Team a call. This way, you can sign up for the list of affected users. After adding, you’ll receive an email once more information is available.

Here’s how to contact them:

1. Go to the Help icon at the top to select the Contact Us link.
2. This will open another window where you can enter the issue/topic.
3. Once done, click on the Let’s talk button to view the support information.
4. Choose how you want to contact our QBO Care Team: Start a chat or Call us.
5. Provide this number to expedite the process: INV-43299.

I appreciate your patience while we’re working through this. Reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. I’ll be right here to answer them for you.

I have been having similar issues. I was able to connect around 23rd March and, having had several long chats with QB support I received 2 emails yesterday telling me my problem had been resolved - I did mange to connect both Online and Self-employed apps yesterday - but last night and today I keep getting connection issues again.

I', not convinced it's anything to do with the new government regulations because when I contacted First Direct open banking they said,

"This issue is caused by the fact that you can no longer log on to Online Banking with us using just a password. You now need to enter a log on code each time. Quickbooks will need to change their service to provide you with an open banking method of linking to first direct. To troubleshoot further, please contact them"

and, indeed, the security log in via QB seems slow and laborious ending up with that "try again later" message. 

I don't know whether to change bank of ditch QBs...

Has anyone resolved it yet?

Dermot

Hi Dermot,

I haven't resolved it yet either. However, given the end of the financial year, my solution is to stop using First Direct for any business banking. 

That said, my issue now is that American Express isn't Open Banking compliant so QB has stopped the stream. I'm wondering if it might be possible to do all my (relatively simple) self-employed work through Tide this year.

Jeff

Hello JJeh102, 

Welcome to the Community page, 

Both American Express and First Direct are not on open banking yet, so you would need to CSV your transactions into your account to then do your books until there is an available feed. You have mentioned tide, they are on the new open banking connection already. 

I am getting the same issues and phoned FD, they said it was a Quickbooks Issue although Im not convinced the lady I spoke to was at all sure what Open Banking is.  The weird thing is that on my phone when I log into my FD accounts and look at the Open banking tab it says under Account Information Sharing....

Active - No Authourisations

Inactive - Intuit Ltd

When I click on Inactive it shows...

Access Started 26/09/2019

Access Expired 25/12/2019

So it obviously worked at some point but not sure how to re-instate ?

I appreciate you for providing on-point details about the banking access you have with your FD accounts, @rossholmes. Rest assured that I'll share the information about this bank connection issue. 

We want to make sure we're compliant with the new Open Banking regulations. With this, there are no changes to your existing connection. For more details, see the First Direct section through this article: Understanding If You Can Upgrade Your Bank Feeds To Open Banking. 

As for the re-instating the FD connection, the investigation (INV-43299) about this is still in progress. I assure you that our product engineers are actively working to resolve this disruption. I'd suggest contacting our Customer Care Team so you'll be added to the notification list. They can send you the investigation updates via email. You can also refer to the steps provided by Rasa-LilaM above on how to get in touch with them. 

Once Open Banking connection is available for First Direct, you'll see a banner on the Banking menu. You'll also receive an email from us that contains the steps you'll have to perform to complete the update. For more information, check out this article: Upgrade Your Bank Feed Connection To Open Banking. 

You can count me in if there's anything else you need. Take care always, @rossholmes.

Same problem here. Since the ease of connecting bank accounts was my reason for subscribing to QuickBooks this is very frustrating.  And First Direct DOES support Open Banking: https://www1.firstdirect.com/banking/ways-to-bank/open-banking/

Welcome to the Community, @cmray. I appreciate you for sharing the link about the support of First Direct for Open Banking. 

I understand the impact of this banking connection issue on your business. The investigation's status (INV-43299) is still in progress. Rest assured that we are working closely with First Direct to provide the Open Banking feeds.

For now, there are no changes to your existing connection. Kindly see the First Direct section through this article for more information: Understanding If You Can Upgrade Your Bank Feeds To Open Banking. 

Also, I'd suggest contacting our Customer Support Team. They can add your company to the notification list so you'll receive email updates about the issue. 

Once the new connection is available for your bank, just go to the Banking page. Then, click the banner from there. This way, you can upgrade your bank feed connection to Open Banking. Also, we'll send you steps to complete the update through your email. 

I'm always here to lend you a helping hand if you have other concerns. Stay healthy and keep safe always, @cmray.

Still ongoing issues on March - 15th May 2020.... Pulling my hair out as QuickBooks say its a First Direct issue and First Direct say its a QuickBooks Issue! There are three Security Codes required by First Direct after you add your Memorable word. "Logon", "Transaction" and "Re-Authentication" Security Codes. If you use the normal "logon" code ( which times out after 30 seconds ) its a one time only connection - hence why we all have the faff to do it every time we log into QB. 
I just wish someone would identify the issue and tell us what to do! We are paying for a full service after all and it shouldn't be down to us, the customers to find out the solution. Narked off!

Hello Lee, 

Welcome to the Community page, 

This is how the First direct bank works, they have more security in place for their customer so that each time you log in, you have to put the security details in, it is on the bankside, not ours. There is no way of changing this either. 

Mmm...
Has this been communicated to all First Direct customers? - This is definitely a recent problem as before the end of March I had no problems with a continuous connection into First Direct.
Hence why there is this thread!

What a joke!!

Hello Lee, 

Due to the new legislation that came out, all banks had to move over to open banking but not all of them were ready in time in March.  So because First direct was one of them they changed their security and now you have to pout it in every time you log in now. 

This is just NOT true. I have confirmed with First Direct that their open banking works and their tech team know for a fact that Quickbooks have opened an investigation because they confirmed there is a probelm at their(Quickbooks') end with information not being pulled from First Direct - the investigation code fthey have given First Direct for this is 43299.

Looks like Quickbooks really owe their customers a proper explanation and stop trying to put the blame elsewhere. My main reason for joining Quickbooks was the convenience of linking to bank accounts. They are just not delivering the service we are paying them for. 

Hello Cmray, 

Welcome to the Community page, 

So first direct bank has just come onto open banking on Quickbooks, So you will now be able to link your bank account in Quickbooks and get the automatic transactions though. We have had no reports of any customers having issues trying to reconnect to the new feed. 

That's not correct. I cannot connect today having been able to connect a month ago. The information with the investigation code was given to me TODAY

And I don't need to be welcomed to the thread thanks, I posted on April 24th about this too

Not sure if this helps but I have had the same ongoing issues with connections to First Direct.  It came to a head the other day when using the new inconvenient method of entering security details everytime I did a bank update, this failed and started to ask me to reset my sign in details asking for login name, password and memorable information ..... I was unable to get past this and seemed to be in a never ending loop.  I spoke with First Direct and they checked all my details and said it wasnt on their side and that I should only ever be asked for 2 security questions.  I then contacted my Accountants who provide my Quickbooks subscription and asked if they could remove my bank account and then re-add it.  This was done and I was asked the usual two questions and had to generate a logon code from my phone app.  Once this was done everthing worked fine and even better it no longer asks me to enter these details each time I do an Update.  At least that has been my experience to date.  Hope this helps.

Hello rossholmes :waving_hand:, Thanks for reaching out and sharing your experience, With First Bank you will be prompted to input your security information in to get your transactions as this is down to the connection that it is on, We don't have a connection to open banking as of yet. This may be something that changes in the future, but as of now, there have been no changes that have been made to the current connection.  

I'm also having these issues. I'm having to reconnect First Direct every time I open QuickBooks.

I really hope QuickBooks gets to the bottom of this soon rather than continue to make excuses. I have no issues connecting First Direct to other services via open banking. I'll be closing my QuickBook account if it persists

---

@Becky29 wrote:

Hello rossholmes :waving_hand:, Thanks for reaching out and sharing your experience, With First Bank you will be prompted to input your security information in to get your transactions as this is down to the connection that it is on, We don't have a connection to open banking as of yet. This may be something that changes in the future, but as of now, there have been no changes that have been made to the current connection.  

---

Becky, you haven't even managed to name the bank correctly - it's 'First Direct' not 'First Bank'. First Direct DOES use open banking and it has worked sporadically with QuickBooks so stop trying to claim that FD doesn't have open banking. Your company has already acknowledged TO First Direct that QuickBooks has a problem under investigation - they gave FD an investigation code which I mentioned before - 43299 - so trying to put the blame elsewhere is just not satisfactory customer service.