Cake Budget connects to US and Canadian banks through Plaid, and to the stubborn ones through SimpleFIN. Neither reaches a bank outside North America. Lunch Flow does.

Lunch Flow is an independent service that connects to banks in the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Brazil, and parts of Asia, as well as the US and Canada, and sends read-only account data to apps you choose. You pay Lunch Flow directly, and Cake Budget reads from it. Your bank login never touches Cake Budget.

When to use Lunch Flow

Your bank is outside the US and Canada. This is the only way to connect it today.
Your US or Canadian bank won’t connect through Plaid or SimpleFIN.
You already use Lunch Flow with another app, such as Lunch Money or Actual Budget, and want the same feed here.

If Plaid works for your bank, keep using Plaid. It’s included in your plan, syncs within seconds of a transaction posting, and needs no extra account.

What to expect

	Plaid	Lunch Flow
Cost to you	Included in your plan	From $5.49 a month for 4 banks, paid to Lunch Flow
Coverage	US and Canada	UK, Europe, US, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, parts of Asia
How fast transactions appear	Within seconds of posting	Once a day, plus a Sync now button once an hour
Pending transactions	Shown as pending	Not shown until they post
Counts toward your plan’s bank connections	Yes	No
Works during the free trial	Yes	Yes

Everything else is the same. Transactions from a Lunch Flow bank land in the same list, match the same rules, fund the same slices through funding schedules, and appear in AI chat and insights.

Prerequisites

A Cake Budget account on any plan, including the free trial.
A Lunch Flow account at lunchflow.app. Check their bank coverage page first to confirm your bank is listed.

Step 1: Connect your bank to Lunch Flow

Sign up at Lunch Flow and verify your email.
From the dashboard, choose New Connection, find your bank, and sign in. This happens on Lunch Flow’s site, or your bank’s, never on Cake Budget.
Wait for Lunch Flow to show your accounts.

Step 2: Add the SimpleFIN Bridge destination

Lunch Flow sends data to apps through “destinations”. Cake Budget reads the one called SimpleFIN Bridge, which is Lunch Flow speaking the same open format SimpleFIN uses. You don’t need a SimpleFIN account for this.

In Lunch Flow, open Destinations and choose Add Destination.
Choose SimpleFIN Bridge and give it a name, such as “Cake Budget”.
On the destination’s page, toggle on each account you want Cake Budget to see. Accounts you leave off won’t appear in Cake Budget.
Choose Generate Setup Token and copy the long string it shows. A setup token works exactly once and expires after 7 days, so generate it right before you paste it.

Step 3: Paste the token into Cake Budget

Lunch Flow tokens go into the same place as SimpleFIN tokens.

During onboarding, on the Connect Your Bank step, choose Bank not working with Plaid? Connect with SimpleFIN instead. under the Plaid button.

After onboarding, go to Settings, scroll to Accounts, and choose Connect with SimpleFIN.

Either way:

Paste the setup token and choose Continue.
Cake Budget lists the accounts you toggled on in Lunch Flow, grouped by bank. Untick any you don’t want.
Pick a type for each account you keep: Checking, Savings, Cash, or Credit card. Lunch Flow doesn’t tell us the account type, and it matters: checking and cash count toward Safe to Spend, and credit cards are treated as money owed. If two accounts share a name, use the balance to tell them apart.
Choose Add accounts.

Your last 90 days import in about a minute. Imported history is treated as history: it doesn’t trigger rules, funding schedules, or emails, the same as a new Plaid connection. From then on, new transactions follow your rules like any others.

During onboarding, the step waits for that first import so the automatic analysis has something to work with, then continues.

Where Lunch Flow accounts show up

In Settings, Lunch Flow accounts appear inside the Accounts card under the SimpleFIN heading, because they arrive through the same door. You’ll see the time of the last sync, a Sync now button, and Disconnect. Everywhere else in the app they look and behave like any connected account.

Syncing

Lunch Flow refreshes from your bank once a day, so Cake Budget syncs once a day too. Sync now pulls whatever Lunch Flow has right now and can be used once an hour. Only posted transactions come through. Balances update on every sync.

Currencies

Amounts are stored in your account’s own currency, so a GBP account holds GBP amounts and a EUR account holds EUR amounts. Cake Budget shows every amount in one display currency: US dollars, euros, or pounds. If your first connected account is in pounds or euros, that becomes the display currency automatically. You can change it any time in Settings under Appearance, and the choice carries into emails and AI chat. Mixing currencies in one budget isn’t handled specially: Safe to Spend adds the numbers together as if they were one currency. Keep a budget to one currency.

If Lunch Flow reports a problem

Banks in the UK and Europe ask you to renew your consent every few months. When a connection needs your attention, Lunch Flow emails you directly. Fix it on Lunch Flow’s site and Cake Budget’s next sync picks it up.

If you delete the destination in Lunch Flow, or the token stops working, Cake Budget marks the connection as needing a new token, sends you one email, and shows a Reconnect button. Generate a fresh setup token from the same destination in Lunch Flow and paste it there. Your accounts are matched back up automatically, nothing is duplicated.

Adding an account you skipped

Toggle the account on in the Lunch Flow destination first. Then the SimpleFIN group in Settings shows 1 account not added. Choose it, pick a type, and it comes in with its own 90-day history.

Disconnecting

Disconnect stops the feed and forgets the token. Nothing is deleted. Your accounts stay as manual accounts with every transaction, balance, and slice assignment intact. Reconnecting later with a new token picks the same accounts back up.

Common questions

Q: Do I need a SimpleFIN account as well? A: No. Lunch Flow’s SimpleFIN Bridge destination speaks SimpleFIN’s format, which is why the token goes into Cake Budget’s SimpleFIN box. Two accounts total: Lunch Flow and Cake Budget.

Q: Does a Lunch Flow connection use one of my plan’s bank connections? A: No. Starter, Budget Pro, and Family limits apply to Plaid banks only.

Q: Can I use Plaid for one bank and Lunch Flow for another? A: Yes. Plaid for a US bank and Lunch Flow for a UK one works fine, as long as you keep in mind the currency note above.

Q: Can I connect the same bank through both? A: You can, but you’ll get every transaction twice. Pick one per bank.

Q: Does Cake Budget see my bank password? A: No. You sign in to your bank on Lunch Flow’s site or your bank’s. Cake Budget only receives a read-only feed, and stores the Lunch Flow access key encrypted.

Q: I already pay Lunch Flow for Lunch Money. Do I pay again? A: No. A paid Lunch Flow plan can send the same banks to more than one destination. Add the SimpleFIN Bridge destination next to your Lunch Money one and both apps get the same feed.

Need more help?

Email support@trycakebudget.com and tell us which bank and country you’re connecting. We’re tracking which banks work best through which route.