Find the rows you want

Four small controls turn a wall of rows into a short list: the filter tabs, search, sort and a date range, with Clear to bring everything back.

5 min Categorize Basics

Your workbook may look different. If there is no brown band of buttons along the top, use the Money Mastery menu in the menu bar above your workbook. The names are a little different there: Categorize is Categorize Transactions, Reports is Clarity AI & Reports, Dashboard is Open Dashboard, and Start Here is Getting Started.

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Hi, and welcome. Today four small controls that turn a wall of rows into a short list of clear decisions.

The tabs across the top. All, Uncategorized, Income, Expense, Clarity. Each has a number: how many rows it holds right now. Click Uncategorized and only the unlabelled rows stay; the number on the tab is your to-do count.

The search box, to the right of the tabs. Click it and type a word; the list keeps only rows that contain it, in any column, as you type. A merchant, an amount, a word from a memo. Type Netflix and every Netflix row lines up.

Sort by, under the tabs. It is set to date. Click the small up and down arrows next to it to flip between newest first and oldest first, so the month you are working on sits at the top. Click the Sort by box to sort by amount or description instead.

The date range: two boxes, from and to. Click the first and choose a date from the calendar, click the second and choose a date, and only that stretch stays. One month, nothing else.

Clear, next to the date boxes. One click brings every row back and empties the search.

Use them together. Click Uncategorized, set the date range to this month, sort oldest first. Now work down the list from the top.

They are not there to be clever. Narrow first, then decide. A list of eight rows is a job; a list of three hundred is a wall.

The search box looks inside memos too, so a word you wrote in a memo in March, like dentist, finds the row in December.

Tabs, search, sort, dates, Clear. That is it. See you next time.

Hi, and welcome. Today four small controls that turn a wall of rows into a short list of clear decisions.

Step by step

The tabs across the top

All, Uncategorized, Income, Expense, Clarity. Each has a number: how many rows it holds right now. Click Uncategorized and only the unlabelled rows stay; the number on the tab is your to-do count.
The search box, to the right of the tabs

Click it and type a word; the list keeps only rows that contain it, in any column, as you type. A merchant, an amount, a word from a memo. Type Netflix and every Netflix row lines up.
Sort by, under the tabs

It is set to date. Click the small up and down arrows next to it to flip between newest first and oldest first, so the month you are working on sits at the top. Click the Sort by box to sort by amount or description instead.
The date range: two boxes, from and to

Click the first and choose a date from the calendar, click the second and choose a date, and only that stretch stays. One month, nothing else.
Clear, next to the date boxes

One click brings every row back and empties the search.
Use them together

Click Uncategorized, set the date range to this month, sort oldest first. Now work down the list from the top.

The idea behind it

They are not there to be clever. Narrow first, then decide. A list of eight rows is a job; a list of three hundred is a wall.

Worth knowing

The search box looks inside memos too, so a word you wrote in a memo in March, like dentist, finds the row in December.

Remember

Tabs, search, sort, dates, Clear. That is it. See you next time.

Up next, Chapter 3

Label many rows at once