# Connect Your Accounts

### How connections work

Kick supports three ways to bring financial data in:

* **Plaid:** connects to over 12,000 banks and credit cards. This is the primary method for most accounts.
* **Direct connections**: native [integrations](/integrations/integrations.md) for tools like Ramp, Mercury, Gusto, Stripe, and PayPal with richer data syncing, including auto-splits and receipt matching.
* **Universal Importer**: upload PDF bank statements or CSVs for institutions not supported by Plaid, or to backfill historical data.

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### Connect a bank or credit card

1. Go to the **Accounts** tab
2. Click **Add account**
3. Select your institution from the list, or search for it
4. Complete the login flow to authorize the connection
5. Confirm whether each account is **Personal** or **Business**
6. Click **Continue**

Once connected, Kick begins syncing transactions automatically from your bookkeeping start date.

{% hint style="info" %}
When you connect a bank, all accounts at that institution are imported. Each account can be assigned to a different entity if you have multiple businesses.
{% endhint %}

#### Transaction history

Kick pulls in as much history as your bank provides through Plaid - typically 6 to 24 months depending on the institution. If you need older data, upload historical statements via the [Universal Importer](/setting-up/universal-importer.md).

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### Personal accounts

If you sometimes use a personal bank account or credit card for business expenses, connect it as a **Personal** account. Transactions from personal accounts don't post to your books automatically - you review them and move any business expenses across manually.

→ [Personal to Business](/common-workflows/personal-to-business.md)

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### Manage connections

To view, reconnect, or remove an account, go to **Accounts** and click on any connected account to see its settings. If a connection breaks (this can happen when a bank requires re-authentication), Kick will flag it and prompt you to reconnect.