Categories in Monarch help you organize your financial transactions by grouping similar expenses, income, and transfers together. They function like folders or envelopes, making it easier to track cash flow, analyze spending, and budget effectively. Monarch provides a comprehensive set of default categories, but you can also create custom categories and groups to tailor your financial tracking to your needs.
Monarch will attempt to categorize transactions as best as possible, but if you find that any transactions are not being categorized correctly, you can update the category for the transaction manually or create rules to automatically categorize transactions, or you can set up a transaction review system if you want to ensure everything is being sorted in the right category.
If the default categories are close but not a perfect match for your needs, you can change the default category names or emojis to better suit your style! You can also disable any categories that you don't need (with the exception of Uncategorized, which is required to accommodate transactions that can't otherwise be categorized automatically by the system).
You can view and edit your categories in Settings > Categories.
Table of Contents
Default categories
Income
- 💵 Paychecks
- 💸 Interest
- 💰 Business Income
- 💰 Other Income
Expenses
- Gifts & Donations
- 🎗️ Charity
- 🎁 Gifts
- Auto & Transport
- 🚗 Auto Payment
- 🚃 Public Transit
- ⛽️ Gas
- 🔧 Auto Maintenance
- 🏢 Parking & Tolls
- 🚕 Taxi & Ride Shares
- Housing
- 🏠 Mortgage
- 🏠 Rent
- 🔨 Home Improvement
- Bills & Utilities
- 🗑️ Garbage
- 💧 Water
- ⚡️ Gas & Electric
- 🌐 Internet & Cable
- 📱 Phone
- Food & Dining
- 🍏 Groceries
- 🍽️ Restaurants & Bars
- ☕️ Coffee Shops
- Travel & Lifestyle
- 🏝️ Travel & Vacation
- 🎥 Entertainment & Recreation
- 👑 Personal
- 🐶 Pets
- 😜 Fun Money
- Shopping
- 🛍️ Shopping
- 👕 Clothing
- 🪑 Furniture & Housewares
- 🖥️ Electronics
- Children
- 👶 Child Care
- ⚽️ Child Activities
- Education
- 🎓 Student Loans
- 🏫 Education
- Health & Wellness
- 💊 Medical
- 🦷 Dentist
- 💪 Fitness
-
Financial
- 💰 Loan Repayment
- 🗄️ Financial & Legal Services
- 🏦 Financial Fees
- 🏧 Cash & ATM
- ☂️ Insurance
- 🏛️ Taxes
- Other
- ❓ Uncategorized
- 💸 Check
- 💲 Miscellaneous
- Business
- 📣 Advertising & Promotion
- 📞 Business Utilities & Communication
- 💵 Employee Wages & Contract Labor
- 🍴 Business Travel & Meals
- 🚖 Business Auto Expenses
- 📁 Business Insurance
- 📎 Office Supplies & Expenses
- 🏢 Office Rent
- 📦 Postage & Shipping
Transfers
- 🔁 Transfer
- 💳 Credit Card Payment
- ⚖️ Balance Adjustments
Investment transactions (beta) categories
The first time an institution syncs an investment transaction to your account, two new categories are added:
- ➡️ Buy [Transfer subgroup]
- ⬅️ Sell [Transfer subgroup]
- 📈 Dividends & Capital Gains [Income subgroup]
These categories allow you to categorize your investment buys and sells as transfers instead of income or expense, and your dividends and capital gains as income.
Please Note: These new categories only show up once you sync investment transactions.
Deactivate default categories
Default categories can be disabled but not deleted. Deactivating a default category will remove it from everywhere in Monarch except the settings screen, in case you want to re-enable it in the future.
Note: Uncategorized cannot be disabled, as it is required to accommodate transactions that can't otherwise be categorized automatically by the system
To deactivate a category:
- On desktop, navigate to Settings > Categories.
- Locate and select the category you would like to deactivate.
- Select the Deactivate button.
- Confirm you want to deactivate this category by selecting Disable Category.