Add Transaction Rules [edited] (37 Merged Votes)

mazar1977
mazar1977 Member ✭✭✭✭
edited November 2021 in Feature Requests
It would be AWESOME if there were some rules or variables you can set for when it downloads transactions.

Example: I work for Intuit (Yes THAT Intuit) When it downloads a transaction for money leaving my account it ALWAYS sets it as Electronics. Its actually food in the cafeteria. It would be great if I could set a rule that if "Download Name = Intuit and Amount = or < 10.00" then set category as "Cafeteria"
12
12 votes

Completed · Last Updated

Transaction Rules are available as of the 2.14.0 release!

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Comments

  • Coach Paco
    Coach Paco Moderator admin

    @mazar1977 Great suggestion. I changed your post to a idea so we can see if we can get some votes on it to see if we can get that added!

  • mazar1977
    mazar1977 Member ✭✭✭✭
    Thank you
  • Add transaction rules to be able to set the Category, Tag, or Payee Name when a transaction meets the requirements.

  • myf
    myf Member ✭✭

    I can think of many things I do that would use that feature. Example I stop every morning at the same gas/convenience station. Some mornings I just buy coffee ($1-4$). Other mornings I fill up with gas ($20-$30). A rules based categorization would make "If PAYEE= 'Royal Farms' and AMOUNT <$10 then CATEGORY='Coffee Shops' and if AMOUNT> $10 then CATEGORY= 'Gasoline'

  • Coach Nicole
    Coach Nicole Administrator, Moderator admin

    Great suggestion, @jhirasaki@gmail.com! We look forward to seeing feedback from others on this function request!

  • Coach Nicole
    Coach Nicole Administrator, Moderator admin

    Great examples @myf@kemail.id -- I can see how this feature would be extremely helpful. Hopefully, other users feel the same and will vote to see this function added.

  • glenn
    glenn Member

    yes agree completely - also, cant find feature that allows me to identify a payee and make it so that every previous and future transaction get the same category

  • Is this really not already a thing?? The 2 grocery stores I always go to both get auto categorized incorrectly, and I'm having to change each transaction individually. Being able to set a rule would make things SO much easier. It's always been an option on Mint, so I assumed it was standard with similar software!

  • Coach Nicole
    Coach Nicole Administrator, Moderator admin

    Hi @kyrie24 -- Welcome to Simplifi. Sadly, the ability to create manual rules is not currently a feature. However, Simplifi should start to learn the categories and payees you use for specific transactions, so when you download one Simplifi recognizes, it should automatically update the payee name and/or category. Simplifi is continuously learning from the way you use it, but it may miss a few payees or categories here and there along the way.

    If we receive enough users wanting the ability to create manual rules, we'd be happy to reconsider this feature. We look forward to any further suggestions or feedback you may have! Thanks

  • bcrossman
    bcrossman Member ✭✭✭✭
    This strikes me as an essential feature. I honestly can’t imagine that I would regularly use a financial transaction aggregator that didn’t allow me to set rules for naming, categorizing, and tagging transactions. The current AI seems pretty rudimentary. It only categorizes a transaction in accordance with the last transaction from the payee. That’s really not very useful for oddly named payees or frequently occurring payees that cover many different categories of transactions (e.g., Amazon).

    I really hope Simplifi prioritizes a rule making feature. Otherwise, I fear it will lag behind mint, personal capital, and other free competitors.
  • jaarso
    jaarso Member ✭✭
    I think that the basic functionality of transaction category rules should be an essential part of Simplifi.
  • myf
    myf Member ✭✭

    I don't see any way around not having rules to set downloaded transactions. Vendors often name every cash register with a different name that authorized the debit. (RITEAID_1527_2, RITEAID_1527_3, etc). So I get 3 different names from one store. Forget Amazon! Every debit is named differently depending on where it is fulfilled. That is asking a lot from AI to remember all of the exotic names and match them to what I call it.

  • grahonan
    grahonan Member ✭✭
    edited January 2020

    This is a key feature gap. I highly recommend adding this functionality. This is one of my two main pain points when using Simplifi.

  • steveb
    steveb Member

    Is there a way to make (and maintain) rules around payee transaction names? For example, I have a recurring transaction "Withdrawal ACH CITI AUTOPAY/TYPE: PAYMENT CO: CITI AUT" from my bank, which I'd rather name "Costco Visa Autopay", so that any further transactions that come in use the (more meaningful) name. Assuming we can do this, where and how do we maintain this?

  • bcrossman
    bcrossman Member ✭✭✭✭

    I don’t think Simplifi includes any “rules” feature for payees or categories. But others have requested this feature. I think it’s essential and hope Simplifi adds it soon.

  • Coach Paco
    Coach Paco Moderator admin

    @steveb In Simplifi, there isn't an option to create renaming rules, like you would see in Quicken. Rather, once you rename a payee, it may take a few times, Simplifi will remember that you've changed the name of that downloaded transaction and start to rename it for you!

  • steveb
    steveb Member

    @Coach Paco I think that should be fine, thank you!

  • Coach Paco
    Coach Paco Moderator admin

    @steveb No problem :smile:

  • bcrossman
    bcrossman Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2020

    @Coach Paco said:
    once you rename a payee, it may take a few times, Simplifi will remember that you've changed the name of that downloaded transaction and start to rename it for you!

    Having used Simplifi for a couple months now, this has not been my experience. There are transactions that Simplifi routinely miscategorizes and I find myself having to change the payee and category every time. My local pizza place, for example, always drops part of the payee’s name and categorizes as “childcare.” (I wish childcare was that cheap!)

    The ability to set rules for transactions is a critical feature that is sorely lacking in Simplifi. Mint does a pretty good job, but its rules feature leaves room for improvement. I’d like to see Simplifi incorporate something at least as sophisticated as Mint.

    Edit: grammar

  • Coach Paco
    Coach Paco Moderator admin

    @bcrossman What I'll do is make this post into an idea so we can have members of the community vote to have it added!

  • bcrossman
    bcrossman Member ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks! I know this has been proposed and discussed in other threads, so perhaps it would be useful to consolidate those discussions (and votes!) in a single place.

  • mazar1977
    mazar1977 Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2020

    @Coach Paco What is the status on this? It seems to be the most requested feature... and it seems that there are a couple suggestions related so maybe those can be added to this instead?

  • Coach Paco
    Coach Paco Moderator admin

    @mazar1977 No status at this time but we are looking into adding it to our roadmap. We do have a couple of other things that will be rolling out first, so stay tuned.

  • D$M
    D$M Member

    The inability to create rules really does make this somewhat cumbersome. I am surprised this was not recognized as one of the necessary features with the initial roll out.

  • mazar1977
    mazar1977 Member ✭✭✭✭

    @D$M I 100% agree with you. This is a VERY basic and needed function of ANY finance platform.

  • Ciarroni
    Ciarroni Member

    Set default rules to categories like...
    If Payee contains "X" use Y category
    All "Y" category defaults to "remove from spending plan" and/or "Reports"
    If amount is over "X" use Y category

  • Coach Nicole
    Coach Nicole Administrator, Moderator admin

    Hi @Ciarroni -- Thank you so much for taking the time to share your feedback. I'm happy to advise that there are several other users, including my self, wanting to see this type of feature. Currently, we have an open Idea for this suggestion that has very similar -- Add Transaction Rules -- that has 26 votes, so I'm going to merge your post into this one so we can track the requests all in one thread. Thanks!

  • nicholaswayne4
    nicholaswayne4 Unconfirmed, Member

    @Coach Nicole I was told this is on the roadmap. Can you provide a specific date for the release with this update? I'm trialing Simplifi and a couple others and it'd be a dealbreaker for me, and it sounds like many others, if Simplifi doesn't incorporate this ASAP.

    Thanks!

  • Coach Paco
    Coach Paco Moderator admin

    @nicholaswayne4 It's something that is being reviewed at this time but we have no ETA at this time to provide nor a release. We will be posting a notification if this becomes available :)

  • nicholaswayne4
    nicholaswayne4 Unconfirmed, Member
    Thanks @Coach Paco . With a face like that it's hard not to take your word for it ;)
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