Monarch will automatically apply categories to each transaction as it arrives; however, you can further personalize your transaction categories using rules. 

Creating rules can help you rename and recategorize your transactions as they come in--no extra work required! You can set criteria based on merchant name, amount, and more, and then automatically rename the merchant, update the category, add tags, or even hide the transaction altogether.

You can view and edit your rules in Settings > Rules.

Table of Contents

• Creating rules on desktop
• Quick rules on desktop
• Setting up smart splits on desktop
• Deleting rules
• Order of rules
• Updating rules
• Tips & Tricks

Creating rules on desktop

Rules are automations that run every time new, non-pending transactions are received from an account connection.

1.  
   1.  
      1. Navigate to Settings > Rules
      2. Select Create rule.
      3. Set your If transactions matches criteria...
      4. Then set your Then apply these updates...
      5. Select Save to save your changes

Tip: You can preview your rules by selecting the Preview changes tab.

Quick rules on desktop

A rule widget appears automatically when you make any changes to a transaction anywhere in Monarch. This allows you to quickly create rules right from the transaction page.

1.  
   1.  
      1. Select Create rule
      2. Set your If transactions matches criteria...
      3. Then set your Then apply these updates...
      4. Select Save to save your changes

Creating a smart splits on desktop

1.  
   1.  
      1. Navigate to Settings > Rules.
      2. Select Create rule.
      3. Set your If transactions matches criteria...
         (Note: There must be an amount filter set to Equals to automate splitting)
      4. Select Split transaction
      5. Set the rule to split by percentage or by dollar amount and add as many splits as needed by selecting Add a split
      6. View impending changes in the Preview changes tab
      7. If there are existing transactions that match this criteria, select the checkbox Apply # changes to existing transactions to retroactively update these with this smart split rule.
      8. Select Save

Deleting rules

1.  
   1.  
      1. Navigate to Settings > Rules
      2. Select Options
      3. Select Delete all rules

Note: If a user is deleted, and there are rules in which that user is referenced as a criteria, action or split action, then those related rules will be deleted too

Order of rules

If you have multiple rules they are run in the order they are listed, meaning that if two rules match the same transaction, the first rule in the list will be applied first, and then the second rule will be applied. You can reorder rules by dragging and dropping them into a different order (this is available on web only now).

Updating Rules

The first part of a rule is the If or matching criteria. You can match transaction using these properties:

• Merchant: Use Exactly matches or Contains filters to pinpoint the Merchant Monarch automatically creates or the Original statement.
• Amount: Dollar amounts as either expense or income. Operators include equal to, greater than, less than or a range between.
• Categories: Constrain a rule to run on one or more specific categories.
• Accounts: Constrain a rule to run on one or more specific accounts.

The second part of a rule is the Then or updates they can make to transactions. You can make these types of changes to transactions with rules:

• Rename merchant: Change the merchant.
• Update category: Change the category.
• Add tags: Add one or more specific tags.
• Hide transaction: Hides the transaction from budget and cash flow calculations.
• Review status: Mark transactions as needing review or already reviewed.
• Link to goal: Select a goal to link a transaction to it. Linking to a goal requires having an Account selected in the If column.

Tips & Tricks

• Have more than one person in your household? Use Shared Views and rules together for extra granularity!
• Customize settings for transactions that need review: You can fully customize which transactions are marked for review (and in turn, which ones aren’t). Only want to be notified about transactions over a certain amount? Create a custom rule for this on the rules page.
• Hide transactions from your budget: You can hide particular transactions from showing up in your budget and cash flow, individually or in groups, by creating rules. Learn more here.
• Use tags for added insights: Tags can be a great way to review your expenses other than at the category or merchant level. For example, tag all transactions from a recent vacation and you can easily see how much you spent on your trip across all categories. You can create a rule to automatically apply tags to certain transactions!
• Use Original Statement for rules: Want to make a rule based on Original Statement data? You can do that! Just select "Original Statement" instead of "Merchant Name"!