Create a categorization rule

A rule saves your decision about a merchant: every charge from it belongs in one category. From then on, Pennyweight gives that category to the merchant's new transactions as they come in. Your AI can also apply the rule to the charges already in your ledger as it creates it. Not sure a rule is the right tool? See rules or a one-time cleanup.

How to do it

1. Pick a merchant that keeps showing up and always belongs in the same category. See clean up a year of transactions.
2. Ask your AI to make a rule for it. Name the merchant and the category.
3. Say whether to apply it to the transactions already there. A new rule leaves existing transactions alone unless you ask.
4. Check what your AI reports back: the merchant pattern, the category and the ledger.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI saves the rule and tells you what it matches, its category and the ledger it belongs to. No transactions change yet.

For the second, your AI saves the rule and applies it to the Daily Grind Coffee charges in your ledger. It tells you how many it categorized. If applying would replace a bank category on a recently updated transaction, your AI asks you to confirm first and saves nothing until you do.

For the third, your AI saves the rule and adds the charge. The rule puts the new charge in Parking as it's added. The six earlier Parking Meter charges stay uncategorized, because they were there before the rule.

When a rule applies

• New transactions, as they come in. A rule categorizes matching transactions you import, transactions your AI adds without a category, and new bank transactions. Bank transactions are added at your next session, when you open the web app or ask your AI something, so this isn't real time. See how and when bank transactions arrive.
• Existing transactions, when you ask. Transactions already in your ledger keep their category until your AI applies the rule to them, as it creates the rule or later. See apply your rules to transactions you already have.
• If a rule skipped a transaction you expected it to catch, see a rule didn't categorize a transaction.

How a rule matches

• A rule looks at the merchant name only. Capital letters don't matter. It can't match on amounts, dates or accounts.
• A rule matches when the merchant name contains its pattern. You can also ask for a name that starts with, ends with or is exactly a given text.
• If you describe the rule in a sentence, your AI works out the merchant from it. Check the pattern it reports. If it caught one word instead of the full name, ask your AI to fix it; see test, edit, turn off or delete a rule.

Good to know

• Always name the category. Pennyweight won't save a rule without one, even when you describe the rule in a sentence.
• A rule belongs to one ledger. It goes into your active ledger unless you name another, and only touches that ledger's transactions. A merchant you see in two ledgers needs a rule in each. See rules per ledger.
• A rule never changes a category you set yourself. That includes a category you or your AI give a transaction as it's added. See who wins: you, your rules, or the bank.
• Two rules for one merchant. If an active rule already matches the same merchant pattern with a different category, your AI gets a warning. The rule created first wins. See when two rules match the same merchant.
• Pinned decisions. If the rule contradicts a category you pinned for that merchant in your AI's memory, your AI asks you to confirm before saving it.