You will need the Full Write Accounting permission to perform this action.
A bank rule lets you define a set of criteria the system uses to recognize imported transactions and automatically categorize them. You can also have a rule auto-confirm the transaction straight into your general ledger, so it bypasses the manual review step entirely.
Creating a bank rule
Go to Accounting > Banking and select the Bank Rules tab.
Click Add New to create a new rule. To edit an existing rule instead, click its name in the table.
In the Add Bank Rule window, give the rule a Name and set the criteria and actions described below, then click Save.
Naming the rule
Set these two fields at the top of the window:
Name - a descriptive name that tells you what the rule does. Required.
Enabled? - when toggled to No, the rule is saved but is skipped when transactions are imported.
Setting the Criteria
The Criteria section defines which imported transactions the rule should match:
Direction - whether the rule applies to money coming in (Balance increases) or money going out (Balance decreases).
Account - choose Any to apply the rule to every register account, or Specific to limit it to one account (for example, your checking account). Only accounts marked to be used as registers appear here. To change which accounts are registers, go to Accounting > Settings > Chart of Accounts.
Conditions - choose whether All or Any of your conditions must be true for the rule to match, then add one or more conditions. Each condition checks the transaction's Description or Amount using contains, does not contain, or is exactly. For example, you might match transactions where the Description contains "5/3 Bankcard." Use the + button to add another condition and the × to remove one.
Setting the Actions
The Actions section determines how a matching transaction is categorized:
Category - the income or expense account the transaction is assigned to. Required.
Fund - the fund the transaction is assigned to. This field appears below Category after you choose a category.
Payee - an optional vendor or payee to set automatically.
Memo - an optional memo to apply to the transaction.
Auto Confirm? - when toggled to Yes, the rule applies these actions and immediately confirms the transaction into your general ledger. When set to No, the actions are applied but the transaction stays in the Pending list so you can post it yourself.
How rules are applied
Pending transactions are included. When you save a rule, it is also applied to matching transactions already waiting in the Pending view, not just ones imported later.
Capitalization doesn't matter. A condition of contains "icechoice" matches a bank description of "ICECHOICE VEND."
Extra spaces are removed. Spaces at the end of a condition value are trimmed when you save the rule.
You can see which rule matched. On the Transactions tab, a matched transaction shows a Rule Applied label with the rule's name, and the Assign To column shows the category and fund the rule set.
Note: Turning a rule off with Enabled? stops it from matching new transactions, but it doesn't remove the category and fund it already assigned to pending transactions. To change those, click Categorize on the transaction and update it.
Managing your rules
Every rule you create is listed on the Bank Rules tab, with columns for Name, Direction, Criteria, Actions, Auto Confirm?, and Enabled? Click a rule's name to edit it, or use the actions menu at the start of its row for more options. To stop a rule from running without deleting it, edit the rule and toggle Enabled? to No.
Tip: You can also create a rule directly from a transaction while reviewing it. In the review window, use the create new rule option to build a rule from that transaction's details. See How do I categorize imported bank transactions?
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