Auto-Categorization
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If you already connected a banking institution and have transactions synced, the “Set Autocategorizations” button will be made available on the right-side above the table on Categories page:
Clicking on “Set Autocategorizations” will take you to the ‘Auto-Categorization Settings’ page. On the left side of the page, there will be a list of general categories and clicking on any of them will display a table with a list of various detailed subcategories with names, descriptions and an option to create or assign categories.
The categories and subcategories that you see here are the same ones used by Plaid, our third-party bank syncing partner. When transactions are imported, Plaid pre-assigns one of the categories listed on this page. To ensure all your transactions are categorized within Lunch Money, you will need to map your own categories to Plaid’s predefined ones.
The first category in the list (the one without a description) is a general “catch-all” category. This means that if that’s the only category that you set up and assign, all transactions that match any of the unassigned subcategories below it will fall into the general “catch-all” category instead. If a transaction matches a subcategory that you assigned however, it will be prioritized over the general “catch-all” category.
The status icons
On the Auto-Categorization Settings page, there are status icons next to the list of general categories on the left. The status icons are used to guide you and let you know where there is a category that needs your attention to be assigned.
If there are subcategories that need to be assigned, you will also see an information icon next to the subcategory name revealing additional information such as how many uncategorized transactions are associated with it:
How to assign an individual category
To assign a Lunch Money category to the pre-defined categories, you can either click on “Create” or choose one of your existing categories by clicking the drop-down menu under the “Assign to Category” column in the table:
Clicking on “Create” will create a new category with the same name on the Categories page and assign it to the pre-defined category listed.
Alternatively, if you want to have a different name for the category, or already created your own category for categorizing these types of transactions, you can click on the drop-down menu and type the category name there.
How to set up all available categories for auto-categoriation in bulk
To have the categories created and assigned for you automatically, click on "Create missing categories" at the top of the table. Once clicked, categories that have matched uncategorized transactions will be created and mapped, and a green confirmation message will appear at the bottom-left of the screen.
If you have uncategorized transactions associated with one of the the set up categories, a prompt dialog will also appear to let you know how many uncategorized transactions there are, with the option to run the auto-categorization rules. Clicking on "Run rules" will show you the list of all affected listings to review and confirm.
How to re-run categorization rules on uncategorized transactions
In some cases, you may have uncategorized transactions that match your assigned categories, but haven’t been assigned that category. To quickly update the category on those transactions, click on the “Re-run categorization rules” button above the table:
Auto-categorizations are run before rules. This means that any other category rules that you have set up on the Rules page will overwrite your auto-categorizations.
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