Categorizing with rules

A rule says "transactions from this merchant go in this category". Mozaic applies your rules first, before any other way of choosing a category. It also writes rules for you when you correct a category.

Open the rules page

On the Transactions page, select Manage Rules. The Transaction Rules page lists every rule. Use Search rules... to find one by pattern or category, and the All Rules or Active Only tabs to filter.

Each rule shows its pattern, its category and an Active or Inactive badge. Rules Mozaic made carry a line saying where they came from: Learned from your edits or Suggested by AI. Your own rules have no such line.

Create a rule

1. Select New Rule (or Create Your First Rule if you have none yet).
2. In Merchant Pattern, type the text to look for, for example a store name.
3. Choose the category.
4. Choose a Match Type (see below). Contains is the default.
5. Leave Active on so the rule runs on new transactions.
6. Turn on Apply to Existing if you also want it to fill your uncategorized transactions now.
7. Select Create Rule.

To change a rule later, select Edit on it, make your changes and select Update Rule.

Match types and priority

Rules look at the merchant name (or the description when there is no merchant) and the ticker symbol. Upper and lower case don't matter.

• Exact: the whole name must equal the pattern.
• Starts With: the name begins with the pattern.
• Contains: the pattern appears anywhere in the name.
• Regex: the pattern is a regular expression, for advanced use.

When several rules match, the more precise one wins: Exact, then Starts With, then Contains, then Regex. You can't have two rules with the same pattern and the same match type.

Apply rules to past transactions

Apply on a rule, Apply All at the top of the page, and Apply to Existing in the rule form only fill uncategorized transactions. They never replace a category that's already set. To change transactions that already have a category, edit them, or use Categorize on a selection in the Transactions list.

How Mozaic learns from your edits

Each time you change a transaction's category, Mozaic:

• Creates or updates a Learned from your edits rule for that merchant, used for future transactions. It recognizes the merchant across branches and store numbers.
• Refiles your other stored transactions from the same merchant, in the same account group and the same direction (money in or money out), that you haven't edited by hand.

A few limits apply:

• Transactions matched by one of your active rules keep that rule's category.
• A change in your personal group never refiles your business group.
• Nothing is learned for brokerage transactions, for transactions without a merchant name, or when one of your own rules (active or switched off) already covers the merchant.

Turn rules off or clean up

• Disable pauses a rule without deleting it; Enable turns it back on. A rule you switched off stays off.
• Clean Up deletes the rules that never matched a transaction.
• Delete removes one rule; Delete All removes every rule. Both are permanent.