I just got started from Canada and I am only having issues with one bank. RBC is working well, but not Manulife. What kind of issues are you having ?
When I try to refresh EQ Bank on https://my.tillerhq.com/, it will authenticate and show all the account balances, but after clicking on the “update” button, it spins for ~ 5 mins and then it returns to the same status (red triangle to the left of the institution name) and the last refresh date remains unchanged, and no new transactions appear in my spreadsheet.
I have used the manual update for these accounts, which works but it is very inconvenient. I’m trying to advocate to my bank to adopt Open standards, looking for alternative products to use (but most seem to have update issues), or find better workarounds within Tiller. I just haven’t had time to do much on this lately.
Good luck @swimkim2
Thanks for responding with such a thorough answer. What you just described is exactly what is happening to me with Manulife Bank. It will definitely be a challenge to be updating manually all the time, especially when you also have to convert pdf to csv, then upload. I am very disappointed that our Canadian Banks are so challenging. I will try to find solutions if I can in the meantime. Yes, our banks in Canada need to adopt Open Standards and I will try my best to get the message through to my banks. Thanks again for your reply.
Hi @jemmoa7 I just found Tiller, it looked perfect, I am also in Canada. Is there an alternative to Tiller that works here? I need a good spreadsheet thing a ma jigger like this just sounded so cool I’m a bit disappointed I can’t use it.
Have you found an alternative to Tiller? It looked…perfect, I was in love at the sounds of it, but alas…what is an alternative that is similar in Canada?
Hi!
I don’t know of any “Tiller-like” service that is based in Canada. But, I have settled on Quicken Simplifi for my budget app. You can use Simplifi for Envelope Budgeting, Zero Based Budgeting, and simply an expense tracker. It has better reports than most other on-line apps. The best part, is it syncs my Canadian banks reliably with no issues so far. (I’ve been using it for two months). AND - it handles syncing of pending transactions (something I’ve wanted for years) as well. It’s handling of long term goals is superb. Support is also the best I’ve ever seen. They have an active user community (like Tiller) and are improving the product regularly. You can talk to support in person. Just give them your callback number and they will help you out. The price is right, too. It cost me around $50 CAD for a year. (they have 40% off their rates ) I still love Tiller, because you can really drill down into your expenses (if that’s your thing!) But it is SO easy to break things in Tiller, since it is designed for spreadsheets. So you have to have good knowledge of either Sheets or Excel. Tiller has taught me everything I know about Sheets! I have set up Simplifi similar to YNAB, (without all the “rules”. ) I’ll get back to Tiller when they figure out how to sync banks a bit better, and support Canadian Banks. Good Luck!
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Sorry for not replying sooner. No, I am still using Tiller and manually uploading a CSV for EQ Bank and I have to manually refresh (requiring 2FA) for two Tangerine accounts. There is a lot to love about Tiller but the lack of support for Canadian Banks is disappointing. I’ll likely cancel before my renewal at the end of January. I’m going to try Quicken Simplifi to see how it handles my Canadian FIs.
Just spent 2 hrs reviewing Simplifi, signed up, paid the annual fee, only to discover that there is a known issue with EQ Bank with no updates since October 2024. Not encouraging.
I want to ask EQ Bank to fix this issue – are there any specific specs that I should be asking for? Open Banking standards and …?
That’s too bad Simplifi is having issues with EQ Bank. I would think that of all the aggregators, Simplifi would try their best to get it fixed. I have found they are the best when it comes to bank syncing. Simplifi also has excellent manual importing, so that might be an option until the EQ bank sync is fixed. As for asking EQ bank for help, they may not want to devote any resources to this. Open banking is not a standard in Canada yet (it’s been in the works for years!) and many Canadian banks are not keen on aggregators’. You could try to talk to them but don’t hold your breath for any help.
You could also initiate a ticket with the Simplifi helpdesk, that might spur them on to get EQ bank fixed if they know customers need it.
As an aside, I’ve been looking at SKWAD budgeting. They have a very unique way of syncing your transactions. Instead of giving out your user id and password, you simply have your bank forward any transaction alert emails to a special email you get from SKWAD. They update your budget transactions that way. It’s pretty fool proof and NO user ID’s and passwords need to be given to them. The only issue is your bank has to have the ability to send an alert email whenever any transactions occur. Some do, some don’t. But if all your banks do, this is the way to go. My chequing account doesn’t have this ability, but my credit cards do.
If the EQ bank issue is a deal breaker, you have 30 days to request a refund from Simplifi, but you have to contact them directly by email to get it.
Another one to check out is Actual Budget. It’s a YNAB look-alike but with none of the rules and huge subscription cost. It will sync bank account, but you have to use the “server” version. You get it hosted for very cheap through Pikapods.com – this assumes you are a bit of a “techy”, but it’s pretty easy to setup. - The hosting costs about $2.00 per month and the syncing costs $2 per month (using SimpleFin which uses MX for aggregating) So it’s the cheapest out there. If you want to import manually (and not use a hosting service like Pikapods, it is entirely free)
Good luck!
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Thanks for all the info, once again. The only reason to move from Tiller at the moment is for a feed that works, so I will be cancelling. I can import my transactions into Tiller via CSV for now, but time consuming. I will definitely check out SKWAD and Actual Budget. Sounds interesting.
I want to contact EQ Bank so that they know customers care about Open Banking standards so that they will prioritize it. Switching to a FI/bank that does use Open Banking Standards is also an option to resolve this issue.
I’d love to hear what they tell you when you contact them. I agree, that auto bank syncing is the most important aspect of paying for a budgeting app.
Canada is slowly moving forward to an open banking standard. Check out this link