Categorization
Categorization helps you understand where your money goes. Every expense or deposit can be assigned a category — Groceries, Rent, Wages, and so on — so reports and budgets reflect real spending patterns.
Big Picture Money uses several layers to suggest categories automatically. You stay in control: your choices always win.
How categorization works
When a transaction is created or imported, the app tries to assign a category in this order (highest priority first):
- Your rules — patterns you define (for example, "description contains STARBUCKS → Restaurants")
- Your learned aliases — when you categorize a payee once, the app remembers for similar descriptions
- Merchant recognition — the shipped Merchant Recognition database matches common merchants and MCC codes
- Manual assignment — you pick a category inline in the register
If nothing matches with enough confidence, the transaction appears in the Review queue until you confirm or change the suggestion.
What you can do
| Action | Where |
|---|---|
| Pick a category on a transaction | Transaction register — Categorize a transaction (may offer similar payees; paper checks only same amount) |
| Create auto-categorization rules | Categories & Rules — Create a categorization rule |
| Add or edit categories | Categories & Rules — Add a category, Edit a category |
| Work through uncertain items | Review queue — Work the review queue |
| Add cross-cutting labels | Tags — Tag a transaction |
| Split one purchase across categories | Split a transaction |
Why it matters
- Reports group spending by category
- Budgets track progress against category targets — see Budgets
- Search and filters let you find all vacation-tagged or grocery transactions quickly
The app shows why a category was chosen (for example, "Matched rule: Starbucks → Restaurants") so you can trust or override the suggestion.
Related
- Merchant Recognition — offline merchant database
- Category tree — default categories and hierarchy
- Transaction fields