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 are used to classify transactions by purpose (e.g., "Groceries," "Rent," "Salary"). They form a hierarchical tree structure with parent and child categories.
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").
Navigate to Tools > Categories to access the category management page.
- Click Add Category
- Enter the category details:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Category name (e.g., "Groceries") |
| Parent | Optional parent category for nesting |
| Type | Income or Expense |
| Colour | Visual colour for reports and charts |
- Click Save
Click the edit button next to any category to modify its name, parent, type, or colour.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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 represent the people, businesses, or entities you transact with. Every transaction can optionally be assigned a payee.
Navigate to Tools > Payees to access the payee management page.
- Click Add Payee
- Enter the payee details:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Payee name (e.g., "Amazon", "City Hydro") |
| Default Category | Auto-assigned category for new transactions with this payee |
| Aliases | Wildcard patterns for matching imported transaction names (can be added during creation) |
| Notes | Optional notes about the payee |
- 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.
Click the edit button next to any payee to modify its name, default category, or notes.
Payees can be deleted. Transactions that referenced the deleted payee will have their payee field cleared.
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.
One of the most powerful features of payees is the default category. When you assign a default category to a payee:
- The next time you create a transaction for that payee, the category is automatically filled in
- This saves time and ensures consistent categorization
- You can always override the default for individual transactions
- 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 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.
When a transaction is imported (via CSV, OFX/QFX, or QIF), Monize resolves the payee name in this order:
- Exact name match -- If a payee with the same name exists, use it
- Alias match -- If a payee alias pattern matches the imported name, use the canonical payee
- 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.
Aliases are managed from the payee edit form:
- Navigate to Tools > Payees
- Click Edit on a payee
- In the Aliases section, type a pattern and click Add (or press Enter)
Aliases support the * wildcard character, which matches zero or more characters. Matching is case-insensitive.
| Pattern | Matches | Does Not Match |
|---|---|---|
STARBUCKS* |
"STARBUCKS", "STARBUCKS #1234", "STARBUCKS MAIN ST" | "MY STARBUCKS" |
*Amazon* |
"Amazon", "Amazon AWS", "Pay Amazon" | -- |
SHELL*STATION |
"Shell Fuel Station", "SHELL GAS STATION #45" | "Shell" |
Tim Hortons |
"Tim Hortons" (exact, case-insensitive) | "Tim Hortons #1234" |
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.
- Aliases are displayed alphabetically below the alias input field
- Click Remove next to any alias to delete it
- Each payee can have multiple aliases
If you have duplicate payees (e.g., "Amazon" and "Amazon.com"), you can merge them to consolidate all transactions under a single payee.
- Navigate to Tools > Payees
- Click the Merge button (purple) on the payee you want to eliminate
- 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
- Click Merge Payee
| Action | Detail |
|---|---|
| Transactions reassigned | All transactions from the source payee are moved to the target payee |
| Scheduled transactions reassigned | All scheduled transactions from the source are moved to the target |
| Alias created (optional) | The source payee's name is added as an alias on the target payee |
| Source deleted | The source payee and all its aliases are permanently deleted |
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 #1234that will catch future imports with that name.
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.
- Click the "Auto-Merge Payees" button on the Payees page
- Configure how the scan finds groups:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Minimum group size | The smallest number of payees a group must contain to be suggested |
| Similarity threshold | How closely names must resemble each other to be grouped (higher = stricter matching) |
| Minimum keyword length | The shortest word length considered a meaningful keyword when comparing names, so short filler tokens are ignored |
| Include inactive | When on, deactivated payees are included in the scan; otherwise only active payees are considered |
- 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.
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.
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.
- Click the "Deactivate Unused" button on the Payees page
- 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)
- Click "Preview Unused Payees" to see candidates
- Review the list, which shows each payee's name, transaction count, and last used date
- Use "Select all" / "Select none" or check individual payees
- Click "Deactivate" to deactivate the selected payees
To reactivate a deactivated payee:
- Filter the payee list by Inactive status
- Click the Reactivate button on the payee row
- Confirm in the dialog
Monize can analyze your transaction history to suggest default categories for payees that do not have one set.
- Click the "Auto-Assign Categories" button on the Payees page
- 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
- Click "Preview Suggestions" to see candidates
- Each suggestion shows the payee name, suggested category, and match percentage (colour-coded: green for 90%+, blue for 75%+, yellow for below 75%)
- Select the suggestions you want to apply
- 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
- Click "Apply" to set the default categories
When typing a payee name in the transaction form, Monize provides auto-complete suggestions based on:
- Existing payees matching your typed text
- Most frequently used payees appearing first
- Recently used payees given priority
This makes data entry faster and more consistent.
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 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.