Automatic categorisation

For recurring expenses, manual categorisation every month is a waste of time. Action rules handle it: “everything with ‘Albert Heijn’ is Groceries”, “everything from the insurer is Fixed expenses”. Set them up once and Spendle does the rest.

Let Spendle create a rule

The easiest way: simply categorise manually. Spendle detects patterns and suggests creating a rule.

Categorise a transaction. For example: set Albert Heijn Zijlweg to Groceries.
Spendle asks: create a rule? Choose Yes. Or choose Later if unsure.
Check the suggested rule. Spendle shows that future transactions with “Albert Heijn” will automatically go to Groceries.
Confirm. Done. The rule is in the list.

Creating a rule manually

For specific rules, go to More > Administration > Action rules:

Click + New rule.
Fill in the conditions. For example: description contains “Netflix”.
Choose the action. Category = Subscriptions, optionally also add a tag or relation.
Set the priority. Specific rules above general rules.
Save. The rule applies immediately to new transactions. For existing ones: click Apply to existing.

What can be configured?

A rule consists of conditions (when does it match?) and an action (what should happen?). The conditions appear at the top of the rule detail screen, the action at the bottom.

Conditions — If transaction contains

Profile — limit the rule to a specific account profile.
Account — limit the rule to one account.
Counter account — comma-separated patterns that must appear in the counter account (the other party’s IBAN).
Description — comma-separated patterns that must appear in the description.
Memo — comma-separated patterns for the memo field.
Type — Income or Expenses.
Amount between — minimum and maximum amount (separate fields, no >50 syntax).

Description, memo and counter account work with OR between them: if you fill in more than one, a match in any of them is sufficient. The other fields work with AND.

Patterns in Description, Memo and Counter account

Within one field, separate multiple search terms with commas (OR) and use prefixes to control behaviour:

albert,jumbo — match albert or jumbo.
-private — exclude if private occurs (veto).
+supermarket — also require supermarket.
=ah — exact word match (prevents ah matching ahoy).
decl*, *2024, *ah* — wildcards for starts-with, ends-with, and contains.

Short patterns (≤ 4 characters) automatically match whole words; longer patterns search as substring. All patterns are case-insensitive.

The full cheatsheet is in Search operators → Action rules.

Action — Then assign

Book account — post to another account (see Book account).
Relation (merchant) assignment.
Tag addition.
Category assignment, or use Split to distribute across multiple categories.
Rule priority — 0 to 100 (highest). Place specific rules higher than general ones.
Overwrite categorised transactions — check to also overwrite already categorised transactions.

Testing rules via the Matches tab

In the rule detail screen, the Matches tab appears next to Rule with a counter. This shows which transactions the rule affects before saving or applying to existing transactions — preventing accidental overwrites.

Matching rules for a transaction

When a transaction is opened, the matching action rules are immediately visible. A dropdown button in the transaction details shows all matching rules, including which rule actually categorised the transaction. The dropdown links directly to the rule details.