How the Expense Category Sets Itself
You do not have to set up categories before you start. The system learns each vendor's usual category from the bills you actually record, and it is careful never to talk over a decision you made...
Last updated
You do not have to set up categories before you start. The system learns each vendor's usual category from the bills you actually record, and it is careful never to talk over a decision you made yourself.
There is nothing to switch on and nothing to configure.
The first real bill teaches it
The first time you record a genuine bill against a vendor that has no category yet, whatever category you used is remembered as that vendor's usual one. No prompt, no question, no extra step.
Two details worth knowing:
- Drafts do not count. A bill only teaches the vendor once it is real, so a draft you were experimenting with never sets anything.
- It reads what was actually recorded, not what was typed on the way through. On a bill split across several lines, the category that ends up on the books is the one that gets remembered.
It never overwrites your choice
This is the part to trust. The learning step only ever fills a blank. If a category is already set, whether you chose it by hand or an earlier bill taught it, a later bill will not quietly change it.
The only things that change a set category are you picking a different one on the row, or you accepting the suggestion below.
The three-in-a-row suggestion
Habits change. A vendor you used to book to one category starts belonging somewhere else.
If the last three bills in a row for a vendor all used the same category, and it is not the one currently on file, you get a single message after saving offering to switch:
Use this category for this vendor from now on?
Acme Plumbing's last 3 bills all used 6250 Plumbing and Drain.
Switch
Dismiss
It never blocks you. Your bill is already saved by the time this appears. Ignoring it, dismissing it, or letting it fade after ten seconds all do exactly the same thing: nothing changes.
It appears once. It fires on the third matching bill and not again for that same run, so it cannot nag you on every bill afterwards.
It stays quiet when it should. You will not see it if the suggested category is already the one on file, if the vendor has been archived, or if you do not have permission to change categories.
Clearing the gaps
The Vendors card counts how many vendors and payees still have no category. Watch that number fall on its own as real bills come through, and use the picker on the list rows to finish off the ones that never will.