FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between categories and tags?
Both categories and tags are used to organize your transactions, yet they serve different purposes. Categories dictate how the transactions will be treated throughout Lunch Money (expense vs. income, or excluded from totals), and are also an essential part of the budgeting aspect, as budgeting works on a category basis.
On the other hand, tags are used to further organize transactions for personal analytics. Tags are much more flexible to use than categories as they would be more specific and generally not associated with as many transactions as a category would. Moreover, unlike with categories, a transaction can be associated with multiple tags!
Some uses of tags may include tracking transactions associated with a specific event (eg. birthday party, wedding, etc.), a trip (eg. Brazil 2020, Italy 2021, etc.) or a particular project (eg. kitchen renovation, bedroom makeover).
To learn more about tags, see here and here.
What are category rules?
Category rules are used to automatically categorize transactions based on defined parameters. These rules can be set up via the Rules page, and will appear under the 'Category Rules' section of the Rules page:
For example, you can set up a rule that says: "If a transaction’s Payee name matches 'Pizza Hut' then set the category to 'Restaurants'".
To learn more about Rules, see here.
How can I view all transactions assigned to a specific category?
There are various ways to get a filtered view of transactions associated with a certain category. On the Categories page, this is done by locating the magnifying glass icon on the far-right of the row for any of the categories.
How do I request a new feature for Categories?
We are always looking for feedback on new features, and recommend opening a feature request ticket on the Feedback Board here: https://feedback.lunchmoney.app/categories-tags
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