How to use rules to automatically categorize transactions

Transaction rules automatically update transactions when they are created or imported. A typical use is assigning a category, budget, or contract to transactions that match a known shop or employer, so you do not have to categorize them by hand.

Rules are applied when transactions are imported (with Apply configured rules enabled) and when scheduled transactions create new bookings.

Managing rules  

Open Automation in the left navigation and choose Rules. Rules are organized into rule groups that are evaluated in order. Use the arrow buttons to reorder groups, and Add rule group to create a new one.

Creating a rule  

Click Add rule inside a group to create a rule. The rule form has three sections:

General  

• Name, a descriptive name for the rule.
• Description, optional details.
• Restrictive, when enabled the changes of this rule are only applied if the fields were not already set.
• Active, rules can be switched off without deleting them.

Conditions  

Conditions decide which transactions a rule applies to. Add one or more conditions; the rule only applies when they all match.

The available conditions are:

For example, a condition Description contains walmart matches all transactions with “walmart” in the description.

Changes  

Changes define what happens to a matching transaction. You can set or change the following fields:

• Source account, the debtor (expense) account.
• Destination account, the creditor (revenue) account.
• Category, assigns a category.
• Budget, assigns the transaction to a budget expense group.
• Contract, links the transaction to a contract.
• Tags, adds one or more tags.
• Change transfer to / Change transfer from, moves one side of the transaction to one of your own accounts, for example to reclassify a payment as a credit card transfer.

  Tip

Start with a rule for your most common expense, like groceries or your mortgage. After importing, check a few transactions to confirm the rule matched what you expected.