Uncategorized Transactions - what are they and how do I categorise?

You may have noticed there are some transactions which our software has not been able to automatically categorise. These willl pop up as 'Uncategorised Transactions' within your Spend Overview or as an Action Item on your Overview page.

Don't worry this is normal.

These transactions will most likely be you paying a person or a merchant we don't recognise. Overseas purchases or transactions in different currencies will pop up here too. It could also be a transfer you've made between accounts - with only one of the accounts connected to SortMe.

The following article will explain how to manually recategorise these transacations, when to do this and why it is important.

Why should I manually recategorise my Uncategorised Transactions?

Categorizing 'Uncategorized Transactions' is essential for maintaining accurate financial records, gaining insights into your spending habits, and creating budgets. If you combine this with creating 'Rules' it allows a level of personalisation to your Spend Overview. What's even more exiciting is that creating a 'Rule' means you only have to reconcile an Uncategorised transaction once!

When should I tidy them up?

I would recommend making this one of the first things you do. Why — because your expense data presented in the Spend Overview filters through to the rest of the SortMe features. For example if you have an automatic payment to your personal trainer once a week but the reference just shows PT, our software will place it in the Uncategorised subcategory, not in Fitness. If you want an accurate data fast, help us help you!

How do I do that?

Quite simply, it is exactly the same as recategorsing any transaction. If you don't know how to do that yet here's a step by step.

1) Access your Spend Overview in your left side task bar

Easy peasy, if you can't find it you need glasses.

2) Click on the Uncategorized transactions sub category

This will always sit at the top of your Category Groups in your Spend Overview.
Once you click on the Uncategorized transactions sub category the corresponding transactions will pop up on the right hand side.

3) Click on a transaction that needs to be reconciled

Easy peasy, hover your mouse over the transcation you want and click / select.

4) Reconcile to a new category

Start by typing in a key word for whatever that transaction is for. If nothing pops up think of a similar word. For example: personal trainer is a key word that will pop up but strength & conditioning coach does not. Knitting does not have a specific key word but would fit in the Hobbie sub category
Click on the selected sub-category.

4) Decide to make a Rule or not

Is this a commonly occuring transaction? If the answer is yes I would recommend choosing the bottom Rule.
- Rules are created by using the reference on that transaction, so if there are multiple transactions with the same reference but they belong in different categories, do not make a rule.
- Refer to the 'Creating Rules' article for more information.
Is this a one off transaction? If the answer is yes select 'Just this transaction'.

6) Tidy up the rest of your uncategorised transactions

Now when I say ALL I would suggest starting with the last 30 days.
You can also customise the date range and reconcile the last 3 months as your Average Cycle Spend in your Budget is pulled from your last 3 months of expense data.

I have transfer between accounts sitting in the Uncategorised

Well that's a bit unfortunate. Double check both of the accounts — the one receiving the transfer and the one making the transfer — are connected in your SortMe.

If the answer is no, one account is not connected this is an easy fix.

We're good but we aren't mind readers....the software is only as good as the data you provide it with so either;

Connect the missing account
Reconcile the transaction as a Transfer

If the answer is yes, both accounts are connected this is a pesky wee bug!

Please contact us at support@sortme.com and will amend for you ASAP.