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 original statement, merchant name, amount, and more, and then automatically rename the merchant, update the category, add tags, set the owner, or even hide the transaction altogether.

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

Table of Contents

• Creating and editing rules
• Order of rules
• Rule components
• Tips & Tricks

Creating and editing rules

1. Navigate to Settings > Rules
2. Select Create rule (or, on mobile, tap the + sign)
3. Set the If transaction matches criteria
4. Then input the Then apply these updates data
5. Optional: View changes in the Preview changes tab
6. If there are existing transactions that match this criteria, select the checkbox Apply # changes to existing transactions to retroactively apply the rule
7. Select Save to save your changes

Tip: On desktop, you can preview your rules by selecting the Preview changes tab.

Quick rules

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. When you see the pop-up box in the lower right corner, select Create rule to save a rule with that action.

Creating splits

1. Navigate to Settings > Rules
2. Select Create rule (or, on mobile, tap the + sign)
3. Set your If transaction matches criteria 
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 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 apply the rule
8. Select Save

Deleting all rules

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

Deleting a single rule

1. Navigate to Settings > Rules
2. Click on the rule in question
3. Click on Delete in the lower right corner

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).

Rule components

Matching Criteria ("If")

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

• Original statement: Use Exactly matches or Contains filters to match against the raw bank statement description (the original text from your financial institution). You can add multiple conditions which are combined with OR logic.
• Merchant name: Use Exactly matches or Contains filters to match against the merchant display name that Monarch assigns. You can add multiple conditions which are combined with OR logic.
• Amount: Dollar amounts as either debit (expense) or credit (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.
• Owners: Constrain a rule to run on transactions owned by specific household members or jointly-owned transactions. (Requires collaboration tools to be enabled.)
• Accounts: Constrain a rule to run on one or more specific accounts.
• Businesses: Constrain a rule to run on transactions assigned to specific business entities or unassigned transactions. (Requires the business entities feature.)

All criteria are combined with AND logic--a transaction must match all enabled criteria for the rule to trigger.

Exactly matches versus Contains

Exactly matches

• The value you enter must match the entire original statement or merchant name. 
• For example, "Exactly matches Walmart" will only match transactions where the full merchant name is "Walmart" — it will not match "Walmart Supercenter" or "Walmart Gas Station."

Contains: 

• The value you enter must appear as an exact, contiguous phrase somewhere within the original statement or merchant name. 
• For example, "Contains CASH APP" will match "CASH APP*JOHN DOE" but will not match "CASH BACK APP" because the word "BACK" breaks up the phrase. 
• Similarly, "Contains HOME DEPOT" will match "THE HOME DEPOT #4521" but will not match "HOME SUPPLY DEPOT."

Both modes are case-insensitive, so "walmart," "Walmart," and "WALMART" are all treated the same.

Actions ("Then")

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

• Rename merchant: Change the merchant to a different name.
• Update category: Change the category.
• Update transaction owner: Assign ownership to a specific household member or set to shared/joint. (Requires collaboration tools to be enabled.)
• 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. You can optionally assign a specific household member to review.
• Link to save up goal: Link a transaction to a savings goal.
• 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.
• Link to pay down goal: Link transactions from liability accounts to debt paydown tracking.
• Set business: Assign a business entity to the transaction. (Requires the business entities feature.)
• Split transaction: Automatically split the transaction into multiple parts by percentage or by dollar amount.

Tips & Tricks

• Use Original Statement for more reliable rules: The original statement is the raw description from your bank and rarely changes, making it ideal for building consistent rules. Merchant names can be re-categorized by Monarch, but the original statement stays the same.
• Have more than one person in your household? Use Shared Views and rules together for extra granularity! You can set ownership criteria to target transactions for specific people, and use ownership actions to automatically assign transactions.
• 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. You can even assign a specific household member to review certain transactions.
• 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.
• 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!
• Combine Original Statement and Merchant Name criteria: Both can be enabled simultaneously on the same rule. The transaction must match both to trigger (AND logic), giving you very precise targeting.
• Use business entity rules: If you track business expenses, you can automatically tag transactions to the correct business entity based on merchant, statement, account, or any other criteria.