Bank feed integration
In one sentenceLinking the accounting system to the business's bank accounts to import transactions or send payments electronically instead of entering them by hand.
Simply put
With bank feed integration account transactions reach the system automatically or through a file from the bank, so bank reconciliation becomes a quick comparison rather than entering everything again.
It may be direct through an API the bank provides, or by importing the bank statement file periodically. In both cases the accountant still has to review the differences.
Example
A business receives dozens of transfers from customers every day, so it imports the bank statement into the system every morning, the system matches each transfer to the customer's invoice by amount and reference, and the accountant is left with only what was not matched.
Don't confuse it with
API integrationAn API is a general technical method of integration, and bank feed integration is a specific application of it with banks.