

Buxfer is giving Mint, other personal finance sites, a run for their money - ashu
http://venturebeat.com/2008/01/04/buxfer-is-giving-mint-other-personal-finance-sites-a-run-for-their-money/

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marvin
A major problem with all of these personal finance startups is that I can't
use their software.

I happen to live in Norway...have you thought about the problem of getting
access to data from banks that aren't quite as standards-compliant as their
American counterparts? We have excellent Internet banking systems over here
(generally speaking better than yours, or so I hear), but there is no chance
in hell that you'll have time to make a database of every single bank and its
system. I tried out one of the other startups mentioned in the article, and
one of them actually has _one_ Norwegian bank in its database...out of 30 or
so.

I do, however, want to use your software. The systems currently in place are a
_lot_ more clunky than they should be, and it is difficult to see the big
picture in my personal finances without the pie charts.

Any suggestions? I have the potential to be a really devoted customer.

~~~
ashu
Marvin: I know that Norwegian banks don't use OFX, but maybe they use an
equivalent protocol. Do you know if they use / support HBCI? Or anything else?
Let us know!

Also, there _is_ a chance that we can make a system for each of the banks
(since we have the infrastructure already working!) All we need are test bank
accounts -- if you could provide them, you'd be set :)

~~~
marvin
There _is_ a test account for my bank, and probably the rest of them as
well...but it is in Norwegian.

<https://nettbank.edb.com/3625/demo/index.html> (just give blank names and
passwords)

I have looked around for any export options, but I couldn't find any. I did
send an e-mail to the corporation (<https://nettbank.edb.com/>) that maintains
the system asking whether they have plans to support any such protocols.

The language barrier is a bitch, eh... :/ I'd say we abolish all other
languages than English. Much easier.

~~~
ashu
The language barrier is suddenly problematic. However, not having an export
option is more of an issue, I think. Aren't even CSV / Excel exports provided?

~~~
marvin
Oh my. You're not half bad at this. I am sorry I missed it. Now I feel really
embarassed :\

There are two links, not implemented in the demo, that export either a .csv
file or an Excel spreadsheet containing data on all transactions in a single
account, for the last 1.5 months. Four columns: date, explanation, in, out.

Here is an image to help:
[http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2175536082&size=...](http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2175536082&size=o)

Sadly, the account selector doesn't seem to be implemented in the demo. The
links to export are

    
    
      csv: https://nettbank.edb.com/payment/transigo/transactions_export?debtaccount=MY-ACCOUNT-NUMBER
    
      xls: https://nettbank.edb.com/payment/transigo/transactions_export?type=excel&debtaccount=MY-ACCOUNT-NUMBER
    

...MY-ACCOUNT-NUMBER being replaced by eg. 1234.56.78901.

Does this help? I still think it's a bit of a cludge to have to implement this
manually for every bank, but maybe you will think of a better way...

------
Xichekolas
I just use it to split up bills and such, but I really do love buxfer. If you
guys ever want a third, I'd probably work for you for free... I'm a nut for
personal finance...

~~~
ashu
Hey, we are not hiring just right now, but will be doing so very soon. Send
your resume our way? :)

~~~
Xichekolas
I was out of town until today, so I just saw your comment. Rest assured when
I'm done with my current gig this May I'll shoot one your way. Thanks for the
glory that is Buxfer!

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tocomment
I still don't understand how these sites access the banks' data. Is it screen
scraping?

~~~
ashu
We use the Direct OFX protocol for accessing the data. We use screen scraping
only for 2-3 banks which either don't support OFX or charge their users
exorbitant fees for OFX access.

