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1. Obtain Your Plaid Credentials

To connect Bigcapital (self-hosted) to Plaid, you need your Client ID and Secret. These can be found in your Plaid Dashboard:
  1. Log in to your Plaid Dashboard.
  2. Navigate to Developers > Keys or go directly to Account Keys.
  3. Copy your Client ID and Secret for the environment you wish to use (Sandbox, Development, or Production).
Never share your secret key publicly. Treat it like a password.

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2. Configure Environment Variables

Add the following environment variables to your .env file or your deployment environment: 
# The Plaid environment to use ('sandbox', 'development', or 'production').
# See: https://plaid.com/docs/#api-host
PLAID_ENV=sandbox

# Your Plaid keys, which can be found in the Plaid Dashboard.
# https://dashboard.plaid.com/account/keys
PLAID_CLIENT_ID=your_client_id_here
PLAID_SECRET=your_secret_here

# (Optional) Webhook URL for Plaid Link events.
PLAID_LINK_WEBHOOK=https://your-domain.com/api/banking/plaid/webhooks
If your PLAID_SECRET is for the production environment, make sure to set PLAID_ENV=production to match. Using the wrong environment may cause authentication errors or prevent access to live data.

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Variable Descriptions

  • PLAID_ENV: The Plaid environment to use. Use sandbox for testing, development for real data with limited access, or production for live data.
  • PLAID_CLIENT_ID: Your unique Plaid client ID from the dashboard.
  • PLAID_SECRET: Your Plaid secret key from the dashboard.
  • PLAID_LINK_WEBHOOK: (Optional) The URL where Plaid will send webhook events. This should be publicly accessible if you want to receive real-time updates from Plaid.

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4. Setting Up the Webhook (Optional)

If you want to receive real-time updates from Plaid (such as transaction updates), you need to set up a webhook:
  1. Deploy your API endpoint to a publicly accessible URL (e.g., using ngrok for local development).
  2. Set the PLAID_LINK_WEBHOOK variable to your endpoint URL.
  3. Ensure your endpoint is configured to handle Plaid webhook events. See Plaid Webhooks Documentation - To configure your webhook URL in the Plaid Dashboard.
    • From Plaid Dashboard. Go to Developers > Webhook URLs.
    • Click Add webhook URL (or edit an existing one).
    • Enter your endpoint URL (the same as PLAID_LINK_WEBHOOK).
    • Save your changes. For more details, see the Plaid Webhook Configuration Guide.

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5. Enable Bank Feeds Feature

After completing the Plaid configuration, you must enable the bank feeds feature in your environment. Add the following variable to your .env file or deployment environment: 
BANK_FEED_ENABLED=true
This setting activates the bank feeds integration, allowing your Bigcapital instance to sync and process bank transactions via Plaid.

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Additional Resources