Account aggregation is one of the conveniences offered by online banking and online financial apps.

Account aggregation is a service that consolidates information from many financial accounts into one convenient place, such as a home page in online personal finance software.

Quicken and other desktop financial software offers account aggregation with automated transaction downloads and the ability to configure the software to show details for a number of accounts on one screen.

However, account aggregation is usually used in reference to Internet-based financial tools that show all credit card, brokerage, savings and loan accounts held across many financial institutions on one web browser page.

Financial Snapshots

The benefit of account aggregation is that you get a snapshot of all financial accounts while being able to easily retrieve account details like recent transactions, in one place. Using this feature, you open one software package on your computer or you log on to one web site to see all financial accounts.

How to Set Up Account Aggregation
To set up account aggregation, you first need to have online banking set up with the financial institutions that hold each of your accounts. Then, you set up the accounts in your online or desktop financial software by going through a set up routine where you specify where your financial accounts are held, and enter your user name or account number and password or PIN for each account.
When you log into your software, a password is entered and the the software uses the aggregation service to securely present log in information and passwords to all of the individual financial institutions that hold your accounts.

Data for each account is then downloaded.

Chances are that you are already using account aggregation if you use online financial software or desktop financial software that pulls in or downloads data from multiple accounts.

Where to Find Account Aggregation Services
Many bank web sites and some online brokerages offer account aggregation for the convenience of their customers. The latest online personal finance offerings such as Mint, Mvelopes and online tax software provide account aggregation. Yodlee, a well-known and respected account aggregation service, offers Yodlee MoneyCenter as an online personal finance tool. Many iPhone apps and Android financial apps aggregate accounts as well