Debit & Credit User Guide
Categorisation on Import
Categories in Bank Files
Most bank files don't include categories for expenses. They only include payees. This is why categorisation based on payees is an important concept to understand.
The Concept of the Last Used Category
Debit & Credit remembers the last category used for any payee you use in the app. For example, if you create a transaction with a payee "eBay" and a category "Household," the app will remember that relationship. Next time you create a new transaction and select "eBay" as a payee, "Household" will be suggested as a category. The same concept applies to imported transactions.
If you have previously used the app for a while and created a number of payees and categories, then most likely you already have an established database of categories and payees. However, if you are just getting started, please refer to the suggested approach below to get most of your transactions categorised.
Suggested Approach for the First Import
The best way to establish a database of payees in the app is by importing a small number of transactions (e.g. transactions for one month). Once imported, go to the app settings and go through the list of imported payees. You most likely will find "non-pretty" payee names, such as "eBay *12345" which you can rename. If you are using the Mac app, you can select multiple payees at once (hold the Command button on your keyboard), right-click one of them, and select "Merge".
Once you have a list of payees that you intend to use in the future, review the list of transactions that you have previously imported. Manually edit transactions and set the right categories (where payees were imported). The app will remember the categories you selected for your payees while editing.
On your next import, make sure to match payees from bank files to the one in your database (match "eBay *12345" to "eBay"). If you do that, your transactions should have correct categories automatically applied.
Related topics: general information about import and export, how to convert imported transactions into transfers, advanced features of the app.