Connecting accounts and integrations

Everything that feeds your books is managed from the Accounts page in Mercury Books. That's where you link external bank accounts and credit cards, connect Stripe, PayPal, and Gusto, add manual accounts, fix broken connections, and check what's syncing.

What connects automatically

Your Mercury accounts don't need to be connected. Mercury checking, savings, and credit accounts in your organization syncs to Books automatically, including accounts you've closed — so your history stays complete.

Note: All of your Mercury accounts are included in your books by design. There's no way to exclude an individual Mercury account.

Adding an account

1. Go to Accounts in the left-hand menu of Books
2. Click Link account
3. Choose what you're connecting:
   1. Bank account — an external checking or savings account, linked through Plaid
   2. Credit or other account — an external credit card or other account, linked through Plaid
   3. Payroll or payment processor — Stripe, PayPal, or Gusto
   4. Click Add account — for anything you'll bring in by CSV via manual linking
4. Follow the prompts to sign in and authorize access
    

Note: Linking or reconnecting a bank or credit account requires external account permissions, and connecting payroll requires team management permission. If an option is greyed out, hover over it to see which permission you're missing, then ask an admin on your team.

Finishing setup

Some connections need one more step before anything syncs.

• Stripe and PayPal ask you to map your revenue, fee, and refund ledgers, so Books knows where sales, processing fees, and refunds should post. Until that's done, the connection stays pending and no transactions come through
• Gusto asks for a start date, then backfills your completed payroll runs from that date forward

Tip: Finish the mapping step in the same sitting as the connection. It's the most common place setup stalls, and nothing syncs until it's complete.

Reading account statuses

Each row on the Accounts page shows a status:

• Auto-synced — connected and transactions are flowing
• Setup needed — the connection exists but setup isn't finished
• Sync paused — syncing was stopped for this account
• Connection lost — the connection needs to be re-established

Use the filter tabs above the table to narrow to All, Mercury, Bank, Credit, or payroll accounts.

Fixing a feed that looks out of date

Connections break — usually after a password change, a multi-factor authentication reset, or when your bank requires you to re-authorize access. When that happens the row shows Connection lost.

1. Go to Accounts
2. Click Reconnect on the affected row
3. Sign in again and re-authorize

If a feed looks stale but the status is healthy, check whether setup is complete on that account. A last-synced date can appear while a connection is still waiting on its mapping step.

For more, see our Why some transactions are missing from Books article.

Pausing sync and removing an account

To stop an account from syncing, open the ⋯ menu on its row and choose to stop syncing. The status changes to Sync paused.

To remove an account entirely, open the ⋯ menu, go to Account settings, and click Delete account at the bottom.

Note: Deleting an account isn't reversible. Its transactions and reconciliations are removed from your books along with it.

When your bank can't be linked

Not every institution can be linked through Plaid. If yours isn't available, or the connection won't hold, add a manual account and bring transactions in with a CSV instead. See our Importing transactions with a CSV article.

FAQs

How often do accounts sync?

Bank and credit accounts sync throughout the day. Stripe and PayPal post activity as it happens. Payroll syncs run every 15 minutes.

Can I connect more than one bank?

Yes. There's no limit on how many external bank or credit accounts you link.

Do I need to connect accounts to Books separately from my banking dashboard?

External accounts you link for Books are managed on the Books Accounts page. Your Stripe connection for Books is separate from a Stripe connection used for Mercury Invoicing — if Stripe activity isn't reaching your books, connect it from the Accounts page in Books.

Which integrations does Books support?

See our Integrations Mercury Books supports article for the full list.

Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.