Re-Categorising a Transaction: why you may want to do this and how.

One of the delights you enjoy in your SortMe is automatic categorisation of your transactions. I must say, we are pretty damn good at it too — some would say the best in the country! That does not mean we are infalible — we sometimes get it wrong — or that you can't change where you want this transaction to be categorised if it's not to your liking.

Why would I change something SortMe has done for me already?

There are a couple of reasons for this:

1)  You may decide to personalise your Spend Overview feature so the reporting & tracking aligns with your  life.

There is no compliance involved in personal finance which means there are no universal or legislated rules for how you should code / categorise your transactions.

For example: if you want to re-categorise 4Square transactions to 'Super Market' from 'Dairy & Convenience' because that's your local supermarket, you can and you probably should.

2) The software logic may have got it wrong.

As impressive as the SortMe automatic categorisation is, sometimes the logic just doesn't quite logic. That is why it is SO important to do a full review of your Spend Overview when you first connect all your accounts. Make sure EVERYTHING is where it should be and it all makes sense to you

For example: A restaurant called The Library' has been categorised under 'Books & Reading'. AI may be smart but it's not exactly wise. Knowledge is knowing tomatoes are a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

Let me show you how to do that in 5 easy steps

Just a quickie — you can recategorise transactions in both your Transactions & Spend Overview features.

1) Click on the transaction you want to recategorise.

2) Start typing in a keyword.

Quick tip: if we don't have your key word, broaden the definition of what the transaction is.

For example: 'Woolen yarn' is quite niche, so is 'knitting' if you start typing in 'hobbie' you will find we have a category for that.

3) Select the category you want to recategorise the selected transaction to.

4) Click 'Save'.

5) Select a rule to finalise the change.

Quick tip: To avoid having to reconcile every one of these past / future transactions select the last rule. I've selected it in the screenshot below.

It's as easy as that!