Auto-sync banks outside the US & Canada: Orbiq Core + LunchFlow setup

For years, "automatic bank sync" in personal finance apps meant one thing: you live in the US or Canada. Aggregators like Plaid cover North America well and thin out fast beyond it. Orbiq Connect still uses Plaid for Canadian and US banks — and that is the whole of the sync Orbiq bills you for. If your bank is in the UK, the EU, New Zealand, Brazil, Singapore, Hong Kong, or dozens of other countries, sync is possible but it is bring-your-own-key: you take out your own account with LunchFlow — a separate company that bills you directly — and connect it to Orbiq Core. Their network covers the US and Canada too, so the same setup works there if you prefer it. This guide walks through it end to end, including what it costs you on both bills.

What you get

LunchFlow is a consumer bank-aggregation service — a separate company you contract with directly, not a part of Orbiq. Its underlying rails — GoCardless (UK / EU), Akahu (New Zealand), Pluggy (Brazil), Finverse (parts of Asia), plus MX / Finicity for North America — reach 25,000+ institutions across 40+ countries. Once your banks are connected there, Orbiq reads your accounts, transactions, and balances through their REST API and folds them into the same ledger as your imported and Plaid-synced data.

Everything Orbiq already does then applies to that synced data automatically: per-transaction FX captured on each transaction's date, cross-border and remittance detection, categorization, budgets, and Ask Orbiq — across all 15 supported currencies.

Before you start

• An Orbiq Core plan (or an active free trial). This path runs on Core — you do not need Orbiq Connect for it. Connect is only for Plaid-based Canada / US sync.
• Your own LunchFlow account. LunchFlow is a separate service you sign up for and pay directly; it is not resold by Orbiq and it is not part of your Orbiq subscription. A 7-day trial is available if you want to test the flow first.
• A few minutes to connect your banks inside LunchFlow the first time.

Set it up in six steps

1. Start Orbiq Core

   If you're not already on Orbiq, open the app and start your free trial — no credit card. Core is the only Orbiq plan this needs; the second bill comes from LunchFlow, not from us.

2. Create your LunchFlow account and connect your banks

   Sign up at lunchflow.app and connect each bank you want to track inside LunchFlow's own dashboard. This is where the bank authentication happens — on LunchFlow's regulated rails, never inside Orbiq.

3. Generate a LunchFlow REST API key

   In LunchFlow, create a REST API destination and copy the API key it gives you. That key is what lets Orbiq read your LunchFlow data on your behalf. Treat it like a password.

4. Paste the key into Orbiq

   In Orbiq, go to Connect a bank → Global banks via LunchFlow and start the setup. Paste the API key from your own LunchFlow account and give the connection a label. Orbiq validates the key live and never displays it again after you submit it.

5. Choose which accounts sync

   Orbiq lists the accounts it found in LunchFlow. Toggle on the ones you want as Orbiq accounts; each becomes a normal Orbiq account tagged with a LunchFlow source badge, in its own currency.

6. Let it run

   Orbiq polls your LunchFlow account on a schedule (about every six hours) and reconciles new and updated transactions with no duplicates. Want fresher data right now? Hit Refresh on the connection — manual refreshes are available with a generous daily allowance.

How your data (and your bank password) is handled

You authenticate your banks inside LunchFlow, so your bank credentials never touch Orbiq — exactly the same principle as the Plaid path on Connect. Orbiq only ever holds the key from your own LunchFlow account, and it's encrypted at rest and never returned to your browser or written to logs. You can re-paste a new key if you ever rotate it in LunchFlow, and removing the connection in Orbiq stops the sync while leaving the transactions you've already imported untouched — they're your data.

Honest limits

• India isn't covered by sync yet. LunchFlow has no Indian bank rail, so Indian accounts stay on Orbiq's file, PDF, and screenshot import — which already reads Indian transaction codes (TDS, WTax, SIP, dividends) natively.
• Sync isn't instant. LunchFlow refreshes each bank on its own upstream schedule and Orbiq polls roughly every six hours, so data can trail real time by a few hours. Orbiq shows a "last synced" time and will alert you if an account goes stale.
• No portfolio valuations. Orbiq tracks the money that moves, not live stock or fund prices — so even where LunchFlow exposes brokerage holdings, Orbiq doesn't invent a "current portfolio value."
• LunchFlow is a third party. It's a separate service with its own pricing and terms; Orbiq consumes the key you provide and adds no charge of its own.

Frequently asked questions

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