CUNNTAS
Open Banking & Bank Security
Banking is central to bookkeeping and accounting. It is also one of the areas in which security, accuracy and trust matter most.
CUNNTAS is designed to connect eligible Organisation bank accounts with the accounting platform through supported Open Banking and banking services, allowing authorised financial information to flow into CUNNTAS without requiring Users to manually recreate their bank statements.
Our approach is based upon an important distinction:
CUNNTAS should help you account for what happened at your bank. It should not allow the underlying banking record to be rewritten simply to make the accounts fit.
This page explains how banking connections work within CUNNTAS, the security principles behind them, and how connected banking information contributes to the integrity of an Organisation's accounting records.
CUNNTAS is awaiting completion of the required FCA approval process before automated Bank Connections can be provided. Manual statement upload and controlled reconciliation remain available during this period.
1. What Is Open Banking?
Open Banking provides a secure framework through which an authorised User can permit regulated services to access eligible banking information.
Instead of giving accounting software the credentials used to sign into online banking, the User is directed through the appropriate bank or authorised Open Banking process to approve access.
The financial institution or relevant provider then makes the authorised information available through a controlled technical connection.
CUNNTAS can use that information to support banking, reconciliation, bookkeeping and accounting functions.
2. You Do Not Give CUNNTAS Your Online Banking Password
CUNNTAS does not require Users to provide their online banking password directly to CUNNTAS in order to establish an Open Banking connection.
Authentication with the bank takes place through the relevant banking or Open Banking authorisation process.
This means the User authenticates with the institution or authorised service responsible for the banking relationship rather than handing their ordinary online banking credentials to CUNNTAS.
3. You Control the Connection
A bank account should only be connected by a User who is authorised to access that account and to establish the relevant connection.
The User follows the applicable authorisation process and approves the access required for the banking service.
CUNNTAS does not treat possession of a CUNNTAS User Account as authority to connect any bank account.
The User must have the necessary authority in relation to the Organisation and the financial account being connected.
4. Bank Accounts Belong to Organisations
CUNNTAS separates individual Users from Organisations.
A User may have access to several Organisations, but a connected bank account belongs within the financial records of the relevant Organisation.
This separation helps ensure that banking information is associated with the correct accounting entity even where the same User manages several companies or Organisations through one CUNNTAS account.
5. Banking Information and the General Ledger
Connected banking is not intended to exist as a separate information feed that has no relationship with the accounts.
Bank transactions can be reviewed and reconciled against the Organisation's accounting records.
For example, banking activity may correspond with:
- Customer receipts
- Supplier payments
- Payroll payments
- Tax payments
- Bank charges
- Transfers between accounts
- Other income or expenditure
Reconciliation establishes the relationship between the external banking activity and the Organisation's accounting treatment.
6. The Bank Record Is Evidence
CUNNTAS treats information received from a connected banking source as evidence of what the financial institution reported.
That distinction is important.
If a bank reports that £500 left an account on a particular date, accounting software should not permit somebody simply to rewrite that imported banking transaction as £450 because that makes another record easier to reconcile.
The appropriate accounting response is to investigate and correctly account for the difference.
For this reason, CUNNTAS is designed to preserve the integrity of connected bank information rather than allowing Users to freely alter imported bank-statement lines.
7. No Manual Rewriting of Connected Statement Lines
Users work with the accounting treatment of a connected bank transaction rather than rewriting the underlying transaction supplied by the banking source.
This preserves two distinct records:
What the bank reported, and
How the Organisation accounted for it.
That separation strengthens the auditability of the accounts.
If the accounting treatment is wrong, the accounting treatment should be corrected. The evidence supplied by the bank should not simply be changed to conceal the discrepancy.
8. Reconciliation
Bank reconciliation compares the banking information available to CUNNTAS with transactions recorded within the Organisation's accounts.
The objective is to identify the correct relationship between the two.
Where CUNNTAS can identify an appropriate corresponding accounting transaction, the banking activity can be reconciled with that record.
Where the correct treatment is not yet known, the transaction remains available for appropriate review rather than being silently forced into an incorrect accounting category.
9. Banking Connections Are Mandatory Where Required by the CUNNTAS Banking Model
CUNNTAS is being developed around connected banking rather than the unrestricted upload and alteration of bank-statement information by Users.
Once an Organisation establishes an account intended to use connected banking, the appropriate banking connection forms the source of the statement information used by that function.
This reduces the risk of incomplete, selectively edited or manually reconstructed bank records being presented as though they were the original banking information.
10. Account Validation
Where supported, CUNNTAS can use banking validation services to assist with identifying and validating bank-account information.
Depending upon the bank, branch and information available through the relevant service, this may include information associated with account identifiers, sort codes, BIC/SWIFT information, IBAN information or other banking references.
Not every bank or branch exposes every possible identifier.
The absence of a particular banking reference does not necessarily mean that the underlying account is invalid.
CUNNTAS therefore distinguishes between information that cannot be verified and information that has positively failed validation.
11. Open Banking Providers
CUNNTAS may use authorised external providers to establish or maintain Open Banking connectivity.
These providers form part of the technical and regulatory infrastructure through which banking information can be securely obtained.
The precise provider or connection method may change as CUNNTAS develops, as banking services evolve, or where another provider offers a more appropriate connection for a particular function.
Any provider used for regulated banking functionality must be appropriate for the service being provided.
12. Regulatory Framework
Open Banking and payment-account information services operate within a regulated environment.
Mayside Partners Limited, trading as CUNNTAS, is developing its banking functionality with the intention that applicable regulated activities are undertaken within the permissions, registrations, exemptions or provider arrangements required by UK law.
The precise regulatory wording applicable to production Open Banking services will be published through CUNNTAS as those arrangements are finalised.
CUNNTAS will not represent itself as holding a regulatory permission that has not been granted.
13. Read Access and Payment Authority Are Different
Access to banking information should not be confused with authority to move money.
A service that receives account information for bookkeeping and reconciliation purposes does not automatically have authority to initiate payments from the account.
CUNNTAS will distinguish between account-information functionality and any payment functionality that may be supported.
Where a function requires additional User authorisation or regulatory permissions, those requirements will apply separately.
14. Banking Information Is Sensitive
Bank-account and transaction information can reveal significant information about an Organisation and, in some circumstances, individuals associated with it.
Access to banking functions is therefore governed by CUNNTAS User and Organisation permissions.
A User should only have access to banking information where their role within the relevant Organisation requires it.
15. CUNNTAS User Security
Every CUNNTAS User is required to use Two-Factor Authentication.
This provides an additional security layer beyond the User's password before access to CUNNTAS financial information is granted.
Trusted-browser functionality may reduce repeated Authenticator challenges on a device controlled by the User, but it does not remove Two-Factor Authentication from the User's account.
Users remain responsible for protecting their CUNNTAS credentials, Authenticator information and Recovery Codes.
16. Bank Authentication Remains Separate
CUNNTAS authentication and bank authentication serve different purposes.
Signing into CUNNTAS establishes the User's identity and permissions within CUNNTAS.
Authorising a bank connection establishes the authority required by the relevant bank or Open Banking process.
A User being authorised within CUNNTAS does not mean CUNNTAS can bypass the bank's own authentication and consent requirements.
17. Consent and Reauthorisation
Open Banking access may require consent to be renewed or reconfirmed in accordance with the requirements applying to the particular connection.
Where a banking connection requires User action, CUNNTAS can identify that the connection requires attention and direct the User through the appropriate authorisation process.
A banking connection should not be treated as permanently authorised merely because it was connected once.
18. Connection Interruptions
Banking connections depend upon systems outside CUNNTAS as well as the CUNNTAS platform itself.
A connection can therefore be affected by circumstances including:
- Bank availability
- Open Banking provider availability
- Expired or withdrawn consent
- Changes to a bank's technical interface
- Maintenance
- Account changes
- Security requirements
- Temporary communication failures
An interruption does not alter historical transactions already legitimately recorded within CUNNTAS.
Where attention is required, the platform can identify the connection status so that the User can take appropriate action.
19. No Assumption That Missing Data Means No Transaction
Banking information can sometimes be delayed, unavailable or incomplete because of the bank or connection through which it is obtained.
CUNNTAS should therefore not assume that the absence of a transaction from a temporarily unavailable feed proves that no transaction occurred.
Reconciliation and accounting integrity require the information available from the relevant source to be considered appropriately.
20. Multiple Bank Accounts
An Organisation may operate more than one bank account.
CUNNTAS can maintain separate bank-account records within the Organisation so that transactions are associated with the appropriate financial account.
This is important for reconciliation, transfers between accounts and the accuracy of the General Ledger.
21. Transfers Between Accounts
Where money moves between two bank accounts belonging to the same Organisation, the transaction is not ordinarily income or expenditure merely because money left one account and entered another.
CUNNTAS can use the accounting relationship between the accounts to record an appropriate transfer.
Connected banking information on each side of the transfer can then be reconciled with the corresponding accounting transaction.
22. Archived Bank Accounts
An Organisation may stop using a bank account without wanting to destroy its historical accounting information.
CUNNTAS is designed to allow bank accounts to be archived rather than requiring historical records to be deleted.
Archived accounts can remain associated with the transactions and accounting periods in which they were used.
Where appropriate, an archived account may subsequently be restored.
23. Banking and VAT
Bank transactions can provide important evidence of payments and receipts, but the movement of money alone does not always determine the correct VAT treatment.
VAT depends upon the nature and tax treatment of the underlying transaction.
CUNNTAS therefore connects banking with the accounting records rather than attempting to determine every tax consequence solely from the bank feed.
24. Banking and Payroll
Payroll payments appearing through a connected bank account can be reconciled against the corresponding payroll and accounting records.
The bank transaction confirms the movement of funds while the payroll records explain the underlying wages, deductions and liabilities.
This is another example of why CUNNTAS treats banking as part of an integrated financial system.
25. Banking and Auditability
Connected banking provides an independent source of financial information against which accounting records can be reviewed.
Preserving the underlying bank information and recording its relationship with accounting transactions strengthens the audit trail.
Where several Users have access to an Organisation, CUNNTAS audit and event information can provide additional accountability for actions taken within the platform.
26. Data Protection
Banking information processed through CUNNTAS is subject to the data-protection and security principles described in the CUNNTAS Privacy Policy and Data Protection & Your Data information.
CUNNTAS does not sell an Organisation's banking information.
Bank transactions are processed for the legitimate purposes associated with providing the banking, bookkeeping, accounting, reconciliation, security and related CUNNTAS services.
27. Third-Party Banking Services
Where CUNNTAS uses a banking or Open Banking provider, that provider may process information required to provide the relevant connection.
Such processing is governed by the applicable regulatory, contractual and data-protection arrangements.
Use of a third-party connectivity provider does not transfer ownership of the Organisation's accounting or banking records to that provider.
28. Security and Integrity Work Together
Bank security is not simply a question of encrypting a connection.
A trustworthy accounting platform must protect:
- Who can access the bank information.
- How the connection is authorised.
- Whether the source banking information can be altered.
- How banking activity is reconciled with the accounts.
- Whether important actions can be audited.
CUNNTAS has been designed around all of these requirements.
29. The CUNNTAS Approach to Banking
Our approach can be summarised simply:
- The User authorises the connection.
- The bank or authorised provider supplies the banking information.
- CUNNTAS preserves that source information.
- The Organisation determines the appropriate accounting treatment.
- Reconciliation connects the bank record with the accounts.
- Audit information provides accountability for important actions.
This allows connected banking to contribute to the reliability of the Organisation's financial records rather than becoming merely a convenient way of importing editable transactions.
30. A Core Part of CUNNTAS
Banking and reconciliation form part of the core CUNNTAS platform.
They are not intended to require a separate CUNNTAS banking subscription on top of the standard service.
Eligible Organisations can therefore use supported banking and Open Banking functionality as part of the £30 per Organisation per month, plus VAT CUNNTAS subscription.
The objective is not merely to show bank transactions inside accounting software.
It is to connect reliable banking information with a coherent, secure and auditable accounting system.
The name CUNNTAS is pronounced “KOON-tas”. It comes from the Scottish Gaelic word cunntas, meaning “account”, “accounts”, “accounting” or “reckoning” — a name that reflects both the purpose of the platform and its Scottish identity.
Last Updated: 10 August 2026