Rules or a one-time cleanup?

Your AI can sort uncategorized transactions two ways: with a rule, or with a one-time cleanup. A rule keeps sorting a merchant's new transactions as they arrive. A cleanup fixes only the transactions that are there now.

The short answer

• Make a rule when the same merchant keeps showing up and always belongs in one category: a monthly internet bill, your usual coffee shop.
• Do a one-time cleanup for one-offs, or when the right category depends on more than the merchant name, such as the amount, the date or the account.

How a rule works

• It matches the merchant name only. Capital letters don't matter. It can't look at amounts, dates or accounts.
• It belongs to one ledger, the active one unless you name another, and only touches that ledger's transactions. See rules belong to a ledger.
• It sorts new transactions by itself. Imported rows and transactions your AI adds without a category get the rule as they're saved. New bank transactions get it when Pennyweight brings them in, the next time you open the web app or your AI makes a request. It isn't instant.
• It leaves existing transactions alone until you ask. Your AI can apply it to what's already there as it creates the rule, or later when you ask it to apply your rules. Then it can go through every transaction in the ledger, not just the newest ones. See apply your rules to transactions you already have.
• It never changes a category you set yourself. See who wins: you, your rules, or the bank.
• You can skip it for one batch. Your AI can leave rules out of a single import or a transaction it adds. Bank transactions have no such switch.

How a one-time cleanup works

• Your AI picks the transactions with a search. It can combine the merchant with a date range, an amount, an account or the current category.
• It runs a preview before saving, and usually shows it to you and asks you to confirm. See preview and confirm.
• One pass changes at most 500 transactions, and the preview doesn't say when more matched.
• The categories it sets count as yours. Rules never change those transactions afterwards, even a rule you create later.
• It can also change categories you set earlier. The preview flags recent decisions it would change.
• It doesn't carry over. Next month's charges from the same merchant don't get the category you chose unless a rule covers them.

How to do it

1. Ask your AI which uncategorized charges keep repeating.
2. For a merchant that repeats, ask it to make a rule and apply it to what's already there. New charges from that merchant then sort themselves. Create a rule has the details.
3. For the rest, ask for a one-time cleanup and check the preview before you confirm. Recategorize many transactions at once walks through it.
4. Now and then, ask your AI what's still uncategorized. A merchant that keeps showing up there is a good candidate for a rule. See clean up a year of transactions.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI searches your uncategorized transactions and lists the merchants that repeat, such as an internet provider or a coffee shop. It usually suggests a rule for those, because a rule also sorts their future charges. Nothing changes.

For the second, your AI previews the Daily Grind Coffee charges it found and may suggest a rule instead. After you confirm the one-time fix, it updates them and tells you how many changed. No rule is created.

For the third, your AI saves the rule, then adds the purchase. The new purchase lands in Coffee. The 48 older Daily Grind Coffee charges stay uncategorized until you ask your AI to apply the rule. If a new rule didn't catch something you expected, see a rule didn't categorize a transaction.

Good to know

• A one-time fix is final as far as rules are concerned. If you later make a rule for the same merchant, the transactions you already fixed keep their category. To change them, ask your AI to change them directly.
• For a cleanup bigger than 500 transactions, ask your AI to work through it in batches by date range.
• If your cleanup targets one merchant, your AI may suggest a rule instead. Answer whichever way fits.
• Each ledger keeps its own rules. A merchant you see in two ledgers needs a rule in each.
• New to categories? Start with how categories work.