Automatically rename transactions
March 11th, 2008 by ShashankBanks or credit card statements are filled with (mostly irrelevant) junk surrounding the main description or payee. And even if we allow you to set automatic tags and get classification done properly, it’s still an annoyance to see those ugly descriptions lying around. Plus, editing every single one is a pain.
No more.
We have added support for easy automatic renaming of transaction descriptions. To get rid of all transactions which look like
CHECK PUR SAFEWAY STORE#12188989 SUNNYVA CA
just set up a rule which says
rename transactions matching SAFEWAY STORE to Safeway
and be done with it!
March 11th, 2008 at 4:22 am
Yippie! My most wished for feature. (Never sent it in as a request though…)
March 11th, 2008 at 11:35 am
You guys are amazing! Great idea.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Wow, that’s great! I’ve also wanted this feature for a very long time ;-)
June 10th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
This feature does not work for me. I set up a rule to rename when description = “awd” to “ATM withdrawal”, but when I enter such a transaction, it does not rename it. I am manually entering the transaction. Does this feature only work when importing from bank statements? Thanks.
June 10th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
@Marty: yes, it only works for imported transactions. But we could make sure it works as a “macro” as you are trying to use it! Thanks for the suggestion; I will keep this in mind…
June 25th, 2008 at 5:05 am
The auto rename transaction feature is great. This feature, along with tagging is what makes Buxfer so forward thinking and Quicken so, well (I’ll be nice) backwards thinking. Does the auto-rename combine with automatic categorization and any auto tagging you have established? I’m new so forgive me if this has been covered.
I like the idea of making this work as a macro as I can see it applying well with cash transactions. I’m a fan of tracking cash transactions on the go with my iPhone, that way the pile of reciepts is less daunting when I finally get around to sorting through them.
Thanks for the great work.
PS. the new UI is great, well done.
May 3rd, 2009 at 8:06 pm
There are problems with this feature…I am just starting to use the service, so I have imported transactions from files. For some reason, Buxfer automatically reformatted the descriptions of these freshly imported transactions prior to my specifying ANY rules.
The effect of these unasked-for renamings were to strip out critical differences in the transactions — such as addresses of stores. The addresses, which were part of the original transaction name, showed when I viewed the detail of the transaction next to the label “Original”. Since there are 5 stores on “Maple St” that I visit, this makes the transactions harder to identify until the detail is viewed.
Unfortunately, when I entered a number of rules to rename transactions based on store addresses (for example to match “123 Maple St”) this rule was ignored — since Buxfer had already reformatted that transaction to the anonymous “ST City Maple St”.
To compound matters, I added a rule the already-reformatted name which unfortuantely renamed 3 of the 5 stores to 1 name.
Ultimately I individually viewed the detail and renamed each transaction.
However, my experimentation evidently created a far-too-generic rule that caused my next experimental import (of my credit card) to rename each transaction (including payments) as my local grocery store. Since I can’t find anywhere to manage the rules I’ve created in order to change or delete them this makes giving the service a trial run almost impossible.
To summarize the issues, Buxfer should apply transaction renaming rules based on the *original* transaction name or at least avoid automatically renaming imported transactions until the user specifically creates a rule. It is also critical to create a management interface for rules so that poorly-thought-out or out-of-date rules can be modified or deleted.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Yay! Found the management area — poorly placed, but it exists already. I am able to review, modify, and delete renaming rules by clicking on the “Tags” icon, then clicking on the “Setup” icon, then clicking on the “Tag Rules” link, then clicking the “Descriptions” link.
Playing with the rules there fixed my over-zealousness, but it is still renaming based on Buxfer’s reformatted transaction description, rather than the original transaction description. Meaning that the single 3 most common charges I make all have to be manually renamed and categorized. :-(