Find out why a transaction has its category

Ask your AI about one transaction and it can show every category that transaction has had, who set each one, and the reason recorded with it. For where categories come from in the first place, see how categories work.

How to do it

1. Tell your AI which transaction you mean. A merchant name plus a date or an amount is usually enough, and "my most recent" works too.
2. Ask why it has its category and who set it.
3. Your AI finds the transaction, reads its full detail and explains what it found.

What Pennyweight keeps for each transaction

• Category history. Setting a category adds an entry, and earlier entries stay. The exception is your bank's own entry, which is replaced when the bank sends an updated version of the transaction. Each entry records the category, who set it (you through your AI, a rule, an import or your bank), a confidence and when it was set. Entries from you, from an import, or from a rule your AI applied also keep the reason your AI gave. When a rule categorized the transaction as it came in, the entry names that rule instead of giving a reason.
• Comments. The reasons your AI gave each time it added or changed the transaction.
• Recent log entries. The 10 most recent audit log entries for that transaction, each with the action, the time and the reason.

Which category shows

When more than one entry exists, a fixed order decides which one is the transaction's category: your own choice first, then a rule, then an imported category, with your bank's code last. Within the same kind, the newest entry wins. A newer category from a lower kind never replaces yours. Who wins: you, your rules, or the bank explains the order in full.

What you'll see

For the first prompt, your AI says the Zipline Rides charge got Transportation from the import that brought in your history, and gives the reason recorded at that time. No later change has replaced it. For the second, the Lucky Noodle House charge now has two entries: Restaurants from the import and Eating Out from you. Eating Out shows, because your choice outranks an import. For the third, your AI says the Daily Grind Coffee purchase came in through an import with no category, and nobody has categorized it since. For the fourth, your AI says the new charge is in Parking because your Parking Meter rule categorized it as it was added. You didn't set it by hand.

On the web

On the Transactions page, select a transaction to open its detail panel. It shows the current category and a Source line. Once your AI has added or changed the transaction, it also shows a History list of the reasons recorded, labelled "Your AI" or "You", with their times. The Source line shows where the transaction came from, such as a statement import. It doesn't change when the category changes.

The panel is read-only. It doesn't list earlier categories or who set them. To see those, or to change the category, ask your AI. See change a transaction's category.

Good to know

• Which AI app made a change isn't shown here. The transaction's history says whether you, a rule, an import or your bank set the category. The audit log records which AI app made each change.
• Two kinds of "source". Your AI may also report where the transaction itself came from, such as an import. That is separate from who set its category.
• Each imported transaction has its own log entry. It records the transaction being added, with the reason given for the import.
• Bank entries have no reason from your AI. A category from your bank carries the bank data provider's code and a confidence.
• No pending flag. The detail your AI reads doesn't say whether a bank transaction is pending or posted.
• To find the transaction first, see find transactions.