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:
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.
A suggested rule is automatically created when you rename a payee.
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.
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.
Lastly, you can create a new rule manually by clicking “Add a new rule” in the Rules page.
How to create a Category Rule
If you’d like your transactions to be categorized automatically, you can create Category Rules. These rules only need to be set up once, and will automatically apply to any new transactions that match the conditions you’ve defined. To set up a new category rule, follow these steps:
Go to the Rules page (Setup > Rules)
Click on 'Add a New Rule'
In the 'Create transaction rule' panel, enter your conditions and effects, example: If.. payee name contains "Pizza"; Then.. set category "Restaurants".
To save, click on 'Create' (or 'Create & Apply' if you'd like to retroactively apply this rule to existing transactions as well).
Applying rules
A rule in Lunch Money is automatically applied to all synced transactions and transactions manually-added via the Transactions page or the CSV/PDF import tool, while the default for transactions added via the developer API is to not apply rules. The CSV/PDF import tool and the developer API allow toggling this preference on or off.
To have rules automatically apply when updating existing transactions, you will need to have the "Run rule on transaction updates" setting enabled for the rule:
Auto-created rules when updating payee names
If you have the 'Auto-create suggested rule when updating payee' preference enabled on the Settings page, then you will see a notification at the bottom left corner whenver you edit a transaction whose payee name matches others. From that notification, you'll have the option to apply the same changes to all other similar transactions. If you click on "Apply to 50 similar transactions", it will open a pop-up where you can review and decide exactly which transactions to apply the changes to, and which ones not to:
These payee rules are also saved on the Rules page, and can be reviewed and approved via the Suggested Rules view. Once approved, you will also have the option to apply rules retroactively using the “Save and Apply” button in the 'Edit Rule' panel. 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:
Create a manually-managed transaction
Click into the transaction and select "Create Rule"
Set your conditions (i.e. new transaction with payee 'Walmart' in account 'Bank of America credit card')
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.
The option to 'delete rule after use' is automatically selected in this case.
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