billpay

[tripp+gnucash-devel at perspex.com]

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, Stuart D. Gathman wrote:

> On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, Linas Vepstas wrote:
>
> > On Fri, Aug 29, 2003 at 03:03:30PM -0400, Stuart D. Gathman was heard to remark:
> > > What I can do is sign up for my Bank's Web Billpay.  This has some
> > In prinmciple, OFX supports billpay. But I'm not yet aware of any bank
> > that has enabled OFX billpay.   We also do not currently support
> > 'live' OFX sessions.
>
> It would be an acceptable interim measure to write checks on the web,
> then download transactions to GnuCash.  I'd still have to go in and
> edit each transaction to add accounting detail, but at least the
> cash flow would be mostly automatic (except for remembering to
> download transactions.)  I could also see some scripts recognizing
> common transactions by Merchant, and generating detail automatically.

It also might make sense to investigate offerings other than Quicken, to
see if we can establish relationships or get in to pilot programs for
OFX-based bill presentment and paying:

	http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Financial_Services/Banking_Services/Online_Banking/Bill_Payment_Services/

I notice, for instance, that this company accepts uploads of the Chart of
Accounts and Vendor information from Quickbooks, and provides downloadable
invoice data:

	http://www.apfactory.com/services/servDesc.htm

Granted, they're targeting small business, but their sibling company,
StatusFactory, targets home users.

I suspect that there are a bunch of these "other" service providers that
would jump on the chance to have another client implementing an "open"
standard presentment and payment protocol, so they're not beholden to
Intuit or Microsoft.