Editing & deleting category rules

You may have created Category Rules that don't seem to be working well. You can easily make changes to a category rule in order to widen its application, or you can delete a category rule entirely.

This guide explains how to adjust your Category Rules so that they automatically categorize more transactions.

Why a Category Rule may not work

When a Category Rule doesn't work, it's often because the merchant keywords associated with that rule are too specific. The Category Rule merchant keywords must be edited to remove time, dates or extra information so PocketSmith can make a perfect match every time. 

Example:

Bridie has a transaction from Betty's Liquor with the following merchant name:  Visa Purchase-Bettys Arrow 24 Apr at 11.46pm. Bridie wants all her Betty's Liquor transactions to be automatically assigned to her 🍻Drinks category. She creates a rule when categorizing this transaction without editing the merchant keywords.

Bridie makes another transaction at Betty's Liquor at a later date, and this transaction is imported into PocketSmith with the following merchant name:  Visa Purchase-Bettys Arrow May at 3.16pm. 

Because both transactions have a different date and time, the second transaction does not match the Category Rule which is based on merchant keywords from the previous transaction.

• Original transaction's merchant keywords associated with the Drinks Category Rule: Visa Purchase-Bettys Arrow May at 3.16pm 

• New transactions with merchant keywords that don't match the Drinks Category Rule:

  Visa Purchase-Bettys Arrow 24 Apr at 11.46pm

Bridie needs to edit the merchant keywords so that only "Bettys" remains. Thay way, the Category Rule will match every time she makes a purchase at Betty's Liquor!

Editing merchant keywords

It's easy to edit the merchant keywords for each Category Rule to make them less specific, in order to categorize more transactions automatically.

Steps to edit merchant keywords

1. Head to  Manage > Category Rules, Saved Searches and Filters
2. Navigate to the Category Rule that you want to improve 

3. Click on the three-dot menu and select Edit, or, click on the number of merchant keywords of the Category Rule that you want to edit

   

   
   

4. A list of transaction merchant keywords will be displayed, click on the three-dot menu and select Edit to edit a particular set of merchant keywords

   

   
   
5. Remove merchant keywords so that the Category Rule will match more transactions

6. Click OK to save the change

   

Finding the category rule or filter that was applied to a specific transaction

If a transaction has had a filter or category rule applied to it, you're able to see which one was applied when viewing that particular transaction on the Transactions page. From here, you can edit so that it is applied correctly.

1. When on the Transactions page, locate and click on the transaction you want to find the filter or category rule for, this will open the edit transaction form

2. Click  Filtered in the bottom left of the form

   

   
   
3. Details of the category rule or filter that was applied will be shown.

From here you can:

• View the merchant keywords for the category rule by clicking SHOW CATEGORY RULE

• Or, if it's a filter, you can edit the filter by clicking EDIT FILTER

  

Change the order of the Category Rules

It's a good idea to consider the order of your Category Rules. It's also important to note that your incoming transactions are checked against  Filters before any category rules, and only one category rule or filter can be applied to each transaction. 

In other words, only the first Filter or Category Rule that matches a transaction will edit or assign a category to that transaction. 

We recommend that you check your Filters and Category Rules, and, if you have many similar merchant keywords across different Category Rules, you will need to adjust the Category Rule order so that the category that you'd prefer to be assigned first, is above the other Category Rules. 

The number order is prioritized from lowest to highest. For example, a Category Rule with the order number of 5 will be applied before a Category Rule with the order number of 20.

Steps to change the order of Category Rules

1. Head to  Manage > Category Rules, Saved Searches and Filters

2. Click-and-drag the handles on the left of a Category Rule to change the order

   

   
   

Deleting a Category Rule

You can either delete the category rule for a category so no future transactions are automatically assigned to this category, or you can delete a particular set of merchant keywords if you no longer want certain transactions to be assigned to this category.

Deleting a Category Rule (removes all merchant keywords)

1. Head to  Manage > Category Rules, Saved Searches and Filters

   

   
   
2. Navigate to the Category Rule that you want to delete

3. Click the three-dot menu and select Delete

   

   
   
4. Click OK to save the change

Deleting a specific merchant keyword

1. Head to  Manage > Category Rules, Saved Searches and Filters

   

   
   
2. Navigate to the Category that  includes the merchant keywords you want to delete. Click the three-dot menu, and select Edit
3. Click the three-dot menu beside the merchant keywords you'd like to remove and select Delete
4. Click OK to save the change

Applying a Category Rule to past transactions

When you create a new category rule, it won’t run the rule against any existing transactions - only against new transactions that are imported to PocketSmith in the future. 

However, you can force a category rule to run against your existing transactions!

1. Head to  Manage > Category Rules, Saved Searches and Filters
2. Ensure Category rules is selected in the left menu
3. Navigate to the category rule you're looking for, click the three-dot menu, and select Edit

4. At the bottom of the list of merchant keywords, you'll see a section  Apply category rule to all matching transactions. This section will only show if there are transactions that match your category rule but are assigned to a different category, or are currently uncategorized.

   Tick the checkbox  Manually apply this category rule to all transactions containing the above merchant keywords > Apply category rule > OK