Categories and Payees

Categories and payees are the organizational backbone of your financial data. Categories classify what the money was for, while payees track who the money went to or came from.

Categories#

Categories are used to classify transactions by purpose (e.g., "Groceries," "Rent," "Salary"). They form a hierarchical tree structure with parent and child categories.

Note: A fresh account starts with a set of default expense and income categories, now translated across all 21 supported locales, so your starting categories appear in your own language. You can rename, recolour, or delete any of them.

Category Hierarchy#

Categories support parent-child relationships for detailed tracking:

Food & Dining (parent)
  |- Groceries (child)
  |- Restaurants (child)
  |- Coffee Shops (child)

Housing (parent)
  |- Rent (child)
  |- Utilities (child)
  |- Maintenance (child)

When viewing reports, you can see totals at the parent level (all "Food & Dining") or drill down to individual children (just "Groceries").

Managing Categories#

Navigate to Tools > Categories to access the category management page.

Creating a Category#

1. Click Add Category
2. Enter the category details:

3. Click Save

Editing a Category#

Click the edit button next to any category to modify its name, parent, type, or colour.

Deleting a Category#

Categories can only be deleted if no transactions reference them. If transactions use the category, you must reassign them first or choose to merge the category into another one.

Viewing a Category's Transactions#

Each category row has a View transactions action. Clicking it opens the Transactions page pre-filtered to that category, so you can review every transaction assigned to it without setting up the filter by hand.

Income vs Expense Categories#

Each category is marked as either Income or Expense:

• Income categories -- Salary, freelance income, investment returns, etc.
• Expense categories -- Groceries, rent, utilities, entertainment, etc.

This classification determines how transactions are counted in reports (income vs. expenses charts).

Categories on Transfers#

Transfers move money between your own accounts, so they are never counted as income or expense. You can still optionally assign a category to a transfer. When you do, the transfer appears under that category in the monthly category breakdown, giving you visibility into where transferred money goes, while remaining excluded from income and expense totals.

System Categories#

Monize includes a set of default system categories that cannot be deleted. These provide a starting point and cover common financial categories. You can rename them or add child categories to customize them for your needs.

Payees#

Payees represent the people, businesses, or entities you transact with. Every transaction can optionally be assigned a payee.

Managing Payees#

Navigate to Tools > Payees to access the payee management page.

Creating a Payee#

1. Click Add Payee
2. Enter the payee details:

3. Click Save

You can add aliases directly during payee creation -- there is no need to save the payee first and then edit it to add aliases.

Payees can also be created inline when creating a transaction -- if you type a name that does not exist, you can create it on the fly.

Editing a Payee#

Click the edit button next to any payee to modify its name, default category, contact details, or notes.

Deleting a Payee#

Payees can be deleted. Transactions that referenced the deleted payee will have their payee field cleared.

Viewing a Payee's Transactions#

Each payee row has a View transactions action. Clicking it opens the Transactions page pre-filtered to that payee, so you can quickly see every transaction with that payee without building the filter yourself.

Default Categories#

One of the most powerful features of payees is the default category. When you assign a default category to a payee:

1. The next time you create a transaction for that payee, the category is automatically filled in
2. This saves time and ensures consistent categorization
3. You can always override the default for individual transactions
4. During import, the default category is applied automatically when the payee is matched

For example, if you set "Loblaws" with a default category of "Groceries," every new transaction to Loblaws will automatically be categorized as Groceries.

Payee Contact Details#

A payee can carry a website, address, email and phone number alongside its name. They appear on the payee form and on the payee's detail page, and an address is clickable -- it opens in the map service you chose under Settings > Preferences > Map provider for addresses.

You can type them in yourself, or let Monize find them (see below).

Payee Lookup#

Rather than typing a payee's contact details in, Monize can look them up for you.

Looking Up a Payee#

• On the payee form (and on the transaction page when you create a new payee), click Look up details
• On a payee's detail page, click Look up contact details

Monize sends the payee's name, together with any notes, website, address, email and phone it already has, so the lookup can tell the right business and the right branch apart. Nothing is saved until you confirm: a Confirm contact details dialog shows each proposed value marked Add or Replace, and where the name matches more than one business it asks you to choose the one you pay.

A lookup can also run automatically when you create a new payee -- see Automatic payee contact lookup.

Configuring the Lookup#

The lookup is answered by one of two sources -- Google Places or an AI provider you have configured. You can reach the same settings panel from either place:

• Tools > Payees > Maintenance > Payee Lookup settings
• Settings > Payee Lookup

They render the same controls, so it does not matter which you use. The full reference -- the two sources, their on/off switches, source ordering, pinning a particular AI provider, and the automatic-lookup toggle -- is on the settings page: Payee Lookup.

Setting up Google Places#

Google Places answers a payee lookup from Google's business directory. It needs an API key from a Google Cloud project with Places API (New) enabled, restricted by IP address rather than by HTTP referrer -- Monize calls Google from the server, not from your browser.

The step-by-step setup, the monthly request limit and its 1,000-request default, the server-wide GOOGLE_PLACES_API_KEY alternative, and troubleshooting are documented on the settings page:

Setting up Google Places -- on the Settings and Security page.

Once a key is saved, the Payee Lookup settings panel shows how many of this month's requests you have used. When the limit is spent, lookups fall back to your AI provider if you have one switched on; the payee form says so directly -- "This month's Google Places lookups are used up. Raise the limit in Payee lookup settings, or wait until next month."

Payee Aliases#

Payee aliases let you map multiple variations of a payee name to a single canonical payee. This is especially useful for imported transactions, where banks often append location codes, reference numbers, or other suffixes to payee names.

How Aliases Work#

When a transaction is imported (via CSV, OFX/QFX, or QIF), Monize resolves the payee name in this order:

1. Exact name match -- If a payee with the same name exists, use it
2. Alias match -- If a payee alias pattern matches the imported name, use the canonical payee
3. Create new -- If no match is found, create a new payee

When an alias matches, the transaction is assigned to the alias's parent payee, and that payee's default category is applied.

Creating Aliases#

Aliases are managed from the payee edit form:

1. Navigate to Tools > Payees
2. Click Edit on a payee
3. In the Aliases section, type a pattern and click Add (or press Enter)

Wildcard Patterns#

Aliases support the * wildcard character, which matches zero or more characters. Matching is case-insensitive.

Tip: Set up aliases for your most common payees before importing transactions. For example, create a "Starbucks" payee with alias STARBUCKS* to catch all Starbucks locations in your bank file.

Managing Aliases#

• Aliases are displayed alphabetically below the alias input field
• Click Remove next to any alias to delete it
• Each payee can have multiple aliases

Merging Payees#

If you have duplicate payees (e.g., "Amazon" and "Amazon.com"), you can merge them to consolidate all transactions under a single payee.

How to Merge#

1. Navigate to Tools > Payees
2. Click the Merge button (purple) on the payee you want to eliminate
3. In the merge dialog:
   • The source payee (the one being merged away) is shown at the top with its transaction count
   • Select the target payee (the one to keep) from the dropdown
   • Optionally check "Add as alias" (checked by default) to create an alias on the target payee using the source payee's name
4. Click Merge Payee

What Happens During a Merge#

Example: You have "Tim Hortons" (50 transactions) and "TIM HORTONS #1234" (3 transactions). Merge "TIM HORTONS #1234" into "Tim Hortons" with "Add as alias" checked. Result: "Tim Hortons" now has 53 transactions and an alias TIM HORTONS #1234 that will catch future imports with that name.

Auto-Merge Payees#

While Merging Payees handles duplicates one at a time, Auto-Merge is a bulk tool that scans your entire payee list and groups together near-duplicate name variants (for example "Amazon", "Amazon.com", and "AMAZON MKTPLACE") so you can consolidate them all in a single pass.

Running the Scan#

1. Click the "Auto-Merge Payees" button on the Payees page
2. Configure how the scan finds groups:

3. Click "Preview" to see the suggested groups

Tip: Auto-Merge makes sweeping changes across many payees at once. Back up your data before applying, so you can roll back if a group merges more than you intended.

Reviewing and Applying Groups#

Groups start de-selected, so you opt in to each merge deliberately. For every group you want to apply:

• Toggle the group on to include it
• Choose which payee to keep (the canonical payee); the rest become aliases on it
• Optionally deselect individual members you do not want merged into the group
• Edit the canonical name and alias if you wish
• Pick a default category for the resulting payee
• Optionally enable back-fill to apply that default category onto the group's existing uncategorized transactions

When you apply, each selected group is merged into its chosen payee, the other members are added as aliases, and the default category (and optional back-fill) is applied. Groups are merged independently, so if one group fails (for example an alias name is already in use) the rest still succeed, and you are told exactly what conflicted.

Deactivating Unused Payees#

Over time, you may accumulate payees that are no longer relevant. Rather than deleting them (which clears the payee from historical transactions), you can deactivate them. Deactivated payees are hidden from dropdowns but remain on existing transactions.

Bulk Deactivation#

1. Click the "Deactivate Unused" button on the Payees page
2. Configure the criteria:
   • Maximum transactions -- Include payees with this many transactions or fewer (0-20)
   • Months unused -- Include payees not used for this long (6-120 months)
3. Click "Preview Unused Payees" to see candidates
4. Review the list, which shows each payee's name, transaction count, and last used date
5. Use "Select all" / "Select none" or check individual payees
6. Click "Deactivate" to deactivate the selected payees

Reactivating a Payee#

To reactivate a deactivated payee:

1. Filter the payee list by Inactive status
2. Click the Reactivate button on the payee row
3. Confirm in the dialog

Auto-Assign Default Categories#

Monize can analyze your transaction history to suggest default categories for payees that do not have one set.

1. Click the "Auto-Assign Categories" button on the Payees page
2. Configure the criteria:
   • Minimum transactions -- Only consider payees with at least this many transactions (1-50)
   • Category match percentage -- The category must be used in at least this percentage of transactions (50-100%)
   • Only without category -- Optionally limit to payees that do not already have a default category
3. Click "Preview Suggestions" to see candidates
4. Each suggestion shows the payee name, suggested category, and match percentage (colour-coded: green for 90%+, blue for 75%+, yellow for below 75%)
5. Select the suggestions you want to apply
6. Optionally enable back-fill to also apply the chosen category onto the selected payees' existing uncategorized transactions (the toggle shows how many transactions would be updated); without it, the category only affects new transactions going forward
7. Click "Apply" to set the default categories

Payee Auto-Complete#

When typing a payee name in the transaction form, Monize provides auto-complete suggestions based on:

1. Existing payees matching your typed text
2. Most frequently used payees appearing first
3. Recently used payees given priority

This makes data entry faster and more consistent.

Most Used and Recently Used#

The payee system tracks usage statistics to improve the auto-complete experience:

• Most Used -- Payees with the highest transaction count appear first in suggestions
• Recently Used -- Payees from recent transactions are prioritized for quick access

The payee list includes a Last Used column showing the date of each payee's most recent transaction, making it easy to identify stale payees.

Sort Preferences#

Sort preferences on the Payees, Categories, Currencies, and Securities pages are saved to your browser's local storage. Your chosen sort column and direction persist between sessions so you do not need to re-sort each time you visit the page.

These statistics are computed efficiently using a single database query that includes the default category information.