Rules belong to a ledger

If you keep more than one ledger, say a household and a business, each one has its own rules. A rule only ever sorts transactions in the ledger it belongs to, so your business rules never touch your household spending. New to rules? Start with create a rule.

How to do it

1. Decide which ledger the rule is for. See choose which ledger your AI works in and workspaces and ledgers.
2. Ask your AI to create the rule and name the ledger. If you don't name one, the rule goes into your AI's active ledger.
3. Check the ledger your AI reports back. Every new rule comes back with the ledger it was saved in.
4. To see a ledger's rules, ask your AI to list the rules for that ledger by name.
5. If the same merchant shows up in two ledgers, ask for a rule in each.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI saves the rule in Studio and says so. It then lists Studio's rules: one rule, matching Vectorly Pro, with the category Software. No transactions change.

For the second, your AI saves the rule in Studio, then lists the rules in Household. Household has none. Your AI explains that the Studio rule only applies inside Studio.

How ledgers and rules fit together

• Saving a rule. Your AI saves a rule in the ledger you name, or in its active ledger if you don't name one. If that ledger doesn't exist, the rule is refused, so it can't land somewhere you can't see it.
• Listing rules. A rule list always covers one ledger, and your AI says which one. If you don't name a ledger, the list is for the active one. Switching ledgers switches the list.
• Looking up one rule. When your AI opens a single rule, for example to show, test, edit or turn it off, Pennyweight finds it in whichever ledger holds it. You don't need to switch ledgers first.
• Testing a rule. A test counts matches in the rule's own ledger only. Asking to test it against another ledger is refused, because it could never match there. See test, edit, turn off or delete a rule.
• New transactions. A new transaction gets the rules of the ledger it lands in. That covers bank transactions when Pennyweight brings them in, imported rows, and transactions your AI adds without a category.
• Applying rules to what's already there. Your AI applies the rules of one ledger to that ledger's transactions. That's your active ledger, the ledger you name, or the ledger that holds the account you name. See apply your rules to transactions you already have.

Good to know

• A new rule leaves existing transactions alone. It sorts new transactions from then on. To sort the ones already in the ledger, ask your AI to apply it.
• Your AI's active ledger is its own. Switching ledgers in one AI doesn't change another AI or the web app. A rule you ask for without naming a ledger follows that AI's active ledger. See choose which ledger your AI works in.
• A rule stays in its ledger. Editing a rule can't move it to another ledger, and there's no copy. To use the same rule in another ledger, ask your AI to create it again there.
• Every rule needs a category. Your AI can't save a rule without one.
• A rule in the wrong ledger looks as if it never ran. If a rule didn't categorize what you expected, check its ledger first. See a rule didn't categorize a transaction.
• Same order within each ledger. When two rules in one ledger match the same merchant, the rule created first wins. Rules in different ledgers never clash. See when two rules match the same merchant.