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What each column means

One row in the Categorize window has nine parts, each with one job. Once you know them, labelling stops being a guess.

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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The video for this page is being made. The written steps below are the same ones it shows.
Read the transcript

Hi, and welcome. Today a tour of one row in the Categorize window. Nine parts, each with one job, and once you know them, labelling stops being a guess.

The checkbox on the far left. Click it to include this row in a bulk change; a tick appears. Leave it alone otherwise.

The date, as the bank gave it..

The description, the merchant or the payer, as the bank wrote it. Click it to see the whole line when it is cut short.

The amount. Money in shows green with a plus sign. Money out shows red without one. These three come from your bank and you never edit them here.

The personal label box, with a small arrow. This is the one that drives your reports. Click it, type a few letters or open the list, choose.

The business label box, next to it. Use it instead of the personal one when the row belongs to your business, or for a special label like a card payment or a transfer. One row uses one box, never both; if you fill the second, the window clears the first and tells you.

Need and Desire, two small buttons on spending rows only. One click, and the one you chose turns solid. It is not a judgement, it is a pattern you will thank yourself for later.

The memo box, for the detail a label cannot carry. Click it, type, press Enter. The dishwasher repair. The birthday gift.

The three dots on the far right. Click them: Split a transaction, Undo a split, Attach a receipt.

Three columns are the bank's: date, description, amount. The rest are yours. You never need to change the bank's three, and everything else is a choice you make once.

Click the column heading at the top of the amount column and the list sorts by size, so the biggest rows of the month come to the top for a second look.

Now you know the row. See you in the next one.

Hi, and welcome. Today a tour of one row in the Categorize window. Nine parts, each with one job, and once you know them, labelling stops being a guess.

Step by step

  1. The checkbox on the far left
    Click it to include this row in a bulk change; a tick appears. Leave it alone otherwise.
  2. The date, as the bank gave it.
  3. The description, the merchant or the payer, as the bank wrote it
    Click it to see the whole line when it is cut short.
  4. The amount. Money in shows green with a plus sign
    Money out shows red without one. These three come from your bank and you never edit them here.
  5. The personal label box, with a small arrow
    This is the one that drives your reports. Click it, type a few letters or open the list, choose.
  6. The business label box, next to it
    Use it instead of the personal one when the row belongs to your business, or for a special label like a card payment or a transfer. One row uses one box, never both; if you fill the second, the window clears the first and tells you.
  7. Need and Desire, two small buttons on spending rows only
    One click, and the one you chose turns solid. It is not a judgement, it is a pattern you will thank yourself for later.
  8. The memo box, for the detail a label cannot carry
    Click it, type, press Enter. The dishwasher repair. The birthday gift.
  9. The three dots on the far right
    Click them: Split a transaction, Undo a split, Attach a receipt.

The idea behind it

Three columns are the bank's: date, description, amount. The rest are yours. You never need to change the bank's three, and everything else is a choice you make once.

Worth knowing

Click the column heading at the top of the amount column and the list sorts by size, so the biggest rows of the month come to the top for a second look.

Remember

Now you know the row. See you in the next one.
Up next, Chapter 3
Find the rows you want