Rules

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What is a rule?

Rules are created to automatically update certain fields of a transaction based on some criteria. The purpose of a rule is to help you keep your transactions organized and categorized in the way that you choose. Rules can also be used to send you email notifications (i.e. when new transactions come in).

Rule conditions vs. Rule actions

A rule is made up of two parts: the criteria (conditions) and the effect (actions):

  • Conditions determine which transactions a rule should apply to. A transaction will only trigger a rule if it matches the set conditions (i.e. if the payee name is an exact match, if amount is greater than $500, etc.)

  • Actions define what happens once a rule is triggered. These actions can be transaction updates (i.e. set the category, add a tag, update the payee name, etc.), or even having an email sent to you!

Example: If we want to automatically set the category to Ridesharing for transactions where the payee name contains the word Uber (because every Uber transactions is named differently, but always contain the word Uber), then the rule condition would be payee name contains 'Uber' and the rule action would be Set category to Ridesharing.

Supported rule conditions

We support the following conditions for building your rule criteria:

  • Payee name (contains / starts with / matches exactly)

  • Category

  • Notes (contains / starts with / matches exactly)

  • Amount type (expense/debit / income/credit) and amount range (between, >, >=, <, <=, =)

  • Day range (supports date wrapping as well)

  • Account

How do the rule condition operators work?

Criteria

Name

Will match

contains 'Market'

Farmer's Market

Yes

contains 'Market'

FRESH MARKET CO.

Yes

contains 'Market'

Marketing Class 101

Yes

starts with 'Uber'

UBER BV

Yes

starts with 'Uber'

Uber Eats

Yes

starts with 'Uber'

SQ* UBER

No

matches exactly 'Walgreens'

Walgreens

Yes

matches exactly 'Walgreens'

WALGREENS

No

Supported rule actions

We support the following rule actions:

  • Set a new payee name

  • Set notes

  • Set category

  • Set uncategorized

  • Add tag(s)

  • Link to a recurring item

  • Don't link to recurring item (disable recurring suggestions)

  • Don't create a rule

  • Split transaction

  • Mark as reviewed

  • Mark as unreviewed

  • Send me an email

  • Delete (this) transaction*

*The "Delete transaction" action is only accessible when creating a rule via an existing transaction directly. The action will delete that specific transaction when the rule is triggered. This can be useful if you wish to delete a manually-entered temporary transaction once the official transaction automatically syncs in at a later date.

You may also use a rule to split a transaction. If using the "Split transaction" action, please note that splitting and updating the original transaction properties are mutually exclusive, meaning you may only do one or the other!

Rule creation

A rule can be created in various ways:

  1. A category rule is automatically created with a “match exactly” rule whenever you change the category of a transaction. This can be turned off in the Settings.

  2. A suggested rule is automatically created when you rename a payee.

  3. When you edit a transaction, you'll also be presented with an option to create a new rule based on the changes you just made. You can always edit these later in Rules.

  4. When a new recurring expense is created, a system rule is automatically created to match transactions to recurring expenses. We do not recommend editing or deleting these, but the option is there if you need to make some adjustments to ensure they match your recurring transactions.

  5. Lastly, you can create a new rule manually by clicking “Add a new rule” in the Rules page.

Applying rules

A rule in Lunch Money is applied to all inputted transactions. For CSV import tool and developer API, there are options to toggle this off. There is currently no way to avoid rules for manually-inputted transactions or imported transactions from bank syncing. Updating an existing transaction will not trigger rules.

When editing a transaction whose payee name matches many others, you have the option to apply the same changes to those transactions. This will appear as part of a notification system and will show you exactly which transactions will be affected with the option of de-selecting some.

You also have the option to apply rules retroactively via the “Apply” button next to each rule in the Rule page. Before applying, Lunch Money will let you know which transactions will be updated with the option of de-selecting some.

Using one-time rules

One-time rules + "delete transaction" rule action

The use case here is for folks anticipating an imported transaction, but wanting to see the transaction amount adjustments right away. Create a manual transaction that auto-deletes once a corresponding pending/posted transaction is imported.

Steps:

  1. Create a manually-managed transaction

  2. Click into the transaction and select "Create Rule"

  3. Set your conditions (i.e. new transaction with payee 'Walmart' in account 'Bank of America credit card')

  4. Choose 'delete transaction' as an action– this auto-selects the current transaction. Note this feature is only available via "Create a rule" from the Transactions details view.

  5. The option to 'delete rule after use' is automatically selected in this case.

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