Rule recipes for common situations
Ready-made rules for the most common clean-ups: tidy messy merchant names, file Venmo rent under Housing, keep transfers to your own savings out of spending, and tag shared or subscription costs.
Each recipe lists the conditions under If transaction has: and the changes under Update to:. Copy merchant names exactly as they appear in your transaction list, because that is the name rules see. Try them on sample data first:
2 existing transactions would change out of 2 matching.
Clean up messy merchant names
Some purchases arrive with a code on the end, like "AMZN Mktp US*2K3LX0QA2", so every order looks different.
| If transaction has: | Update to: |
|---|---|
| Name Contains "AMZN Mktp" | New Name "Amazon" |
Use the part of the name that never changes. Because matching ignores capital letters, "amzn mktp" works too. Add New Category if you also want them all in one category.
File Venmo rent under Housing
Venmo, Zelle and similar payments all look alike, so match on the amount as well as the name.
| If transaction has: | Update to: |
|---|---|
| Name Exact Match "Venmo" | New Name "Rent" |
| Amount Equals 1800 | New Category Rent |
Other Venmo payments are left alone. If your rent changes, edit the amount in the rule. If it varies a little each month, use Within (for example 1750 to 1850) instead of Equals.
Keep transfers to your own savings out of spending
Banks report a transfer to savings as Transfer, which counts as spending, and the arrival in savings as income. Two rules fix both sides:
| Rule | If transaction has: | Update to: |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Money leaving checking | Name Contains "Transfer to Savings" | New Category Internal Transfer |
| 2. Money arriving in savings | Name Contains "Transfer from Checking" | Add Label ignore |
Rule 1 takes the transfer out of spending and counts it toward your savings rate. Rule 2 stops the same money also counting as income. If you would rather transfers disappear from every number, give rule 1 Add Label ignore instead. If only your checking account is linked, rule 1 is all you need. More background: Transfers and credit card payments.
Put your paycheck in the right category
| If transaction has: | Update to: |
|---|---|
| Name Contains "ACME PAYROLL" | New Category Payroll Income |
| Amount Less than 0 |
Less than 0 limits it to money coming in, so a payroll-related charge is never filed as income.
Tag subscriptions
| If transaction has: | Update to: |
|---|---|
| Name Contains "spotify" | New Category Streaming Services |
| Add Label "subscriptions" |
Create the "subscriptions" label first in Settings > Labels. Make one rule per service, then open the label's page (search "subscriptions" with ⌘K) to see what they all cost together.
Split a household between you and your spouse
If your profile includes a spouse, each transaction has an owner: you, your spouse, or both. Rules can set it.
| If transaction has: | Update to: |
|---|---|
| Name Contains "Costco" | New Account Holder Both |
| Add Label "shared" |
Or the other way round: match Account Holder (your spouse) with Category Eating Out to tag their dining with a label. See Your profile, spouse and home location to add a spouse.
Flag large purchases for review
| If transaction has: | Update to: |
|---|---|
| Amount More than 500 | Add Label review |
Big charges then show a red outline and collect in Review > Review Label.
Not possible with rules
- Matching one name or another: make one rule per name.
- Matching by account or by date.
- Removing a label, or adding two labels in one rule.
- Splitting a transaction automatically. Use Split a transaction.
Common questions
How do I make every Amazon order show as "Amazon"?
Create a rule with Name Contains and the part of the name that never changes (for example "AMZN Mktp"), and New Name "Amazon".
How do I stop transfers to savings counting as spending?
Make a rule matching the transfer's name that sets New Category to Internal Transfer, and a second rule that adds ignore to the money arriving in savings.
Can one rule match two different merchants?
No. Conditions are combined with AND, so make one rule per merchant.
Why did my rule not apply to a transaction?
Check that the name in the rule matches the name in your list, that the amount sign is right (money in is negative), and that no other rule matched that transaction first.
Still stuck?
Email us. A real person who builds FIYR reads every message.