Create and Manage Rules

Build rules that suggest transaction categories based on descriptions or amounts, then maintain rule priority and scope from the Rules page.

Purpose

Use this workflow when you want SPRK to suggest the same category or split treatment for repeated bank transaction patterns.

Prerequisites

  • At least one bank or credit card account exists.
  • The destination accounts you want rules to apply are available.
  • You know the text pattern or amount pattern that should trigger the rule.

Steps

  1. Open Rules to manage rules centrally, or open Banking and use the row-level create rule action on a pending transaction to start from a real example.
  2. Select New if you are creating the rule from the Rules page.
  3. Enter a Rule name.
  4. In Apply to accounts, leave the field blank to let the rule work across all bankish accounts, or choose specific bank or credit card accounts.
  5. Choose the match logic:
  • All conditions (AND) requires every condition to match.
  • Any condition (OR) allows any one condition to match.
  1. Add one or more conditions. Current fields support:
  • Description
  • Amount (Spent)
  • Amount (Received)
  1. Choose the condition operator and value:
  • Text operators include contains, does not contain, starts with, ends with, is, and is not.
  • Numeric operators include >, <, and between, where between uses min,max.
  1. Choose how the transaction should be categorized:
  • Use Categorize to for one target account.
  • Or add split rows and choose a split type.
  1. If you use amount-based splits and the split lines will not consume the full amount every time, choose Balance to for the remainder.
  2. Save the rule.
  3. Review the rule list and adjust rule priority if needed:
  • Drag rows to reorder them.
  • Or use Reorder rule.
  1. Edit, deactivate, or delete rules as your transaction patterns change.

Expected Result

The rule is saved and becomes available when SPRK evaluates pending bank transactions. Current general ledger impact as of 2026-05-02:

  • Creating, editing, reordering, activating, deactivating, importing, or deleting rules does not post to the general ledger.
  • Rules suggest or prefill categorization for pending transactions.
  • A general ledger entry is created only when the bank transaction itself is later confirmed from the Banking workflow.

Common Mistakes

  • Assuming rule creation confirms existing pending transactions automatically.
  • Creating overlapping rules without checking priority order.
  • Using a text condition that is too broad and catches unrelated transactions.
  • Forgetting that split rules need valid totals or a balance account when using fixed amounts.

Info

  • App sections: banking, rules
  • Last validated: 2026-05-02
  • Screenshot status: not-started