About
Margins automatically categorizes 99.9% of your bank and credit card transactions. What's left is the small set only you can answer and they're worth two minutes, because every uncategorized transaction is a gap in your spend analysis and your peer benchmarks.
Margins groups open transactions by payee, so clearing your list is usually a handful of clicks rather than a scroll through hundreds of rows.
Good to know: nothing here is permanent. You can change any category later, and Margins learns from every choice you make.
In this article
What Margins needs from you
Clear a whole payee in one go
How Ask AI works
Categorize transactions one at a time
When Margins needs more than a category
FAQs
1. What Margins needs from you
Three kinds of transactions come your way:
Payees Margins doesn't recognize, usually ones specific to your business.
Payees that mean different things to different businesses, an Amazon purchase might be office supplies for one business and packaging for another.
Transactions that need a detail only you have, a tax payment, for example, where Margins needs to know which tax it was.
The first two need a category. The third opens a Smart Flow (see the last section).
Once you've answered, Margins remembers for next time - unless you don't want it to.
Margins only asks for details related to your expenses and payments (your "Money out" transactions). "Money in" transactions are automatically tracked separately by Margins for cash flow purposes.
2. Clear a whole payee in one go
This is the fast path, and it's how your list is set up by default.
Go to Transactions.
Select the Waiting for your input checkbox ①. Your list now shows only transactions that need you, grouped by payee. The count beside each payee is how many you'll clear in one action.
Click the Waiting for your input tag ② on the payee you want to handle.
In the window, you can see exactly how many transactions you're about to clear. Either click Ask AI ① and describe the purchase in your own words, or start typing a category into Select category manually ②.
To be categorized as ① shows exactly where the money will land, for example Sales & marketing (S&M) → Fixed marketing → Marketing agencies & freelancers with a P&L badge showing which financial report it feeds.
Click Apply once ② to categorize just this batch of transactions or or Apply always ③ to categorize everything from this payee the same way from now on. Once you click apply, the group drops off your list and your dashboards pick up the change.
Note: Apply once ② and Apply always ③ stay greyed out until you've chosen a category. If they look inactive, Margins is still waiting on that field.
3. How Ask AI works
Not sure what something should be? Click Ask AI and describe the transaction the way you'd describe it to someone who works with you, like "boxes for shipping orders", "our accountant's monthly fee". You have 200 characters. Click Submit.
Ask AI comes back with up to three categories, each with a short explanation of why it fits.
Ask AI is in beta. It's improving, and the more you tell it the better it does.
Ask AI weighs your description together with:
the payee name
the transaction description (the raw text your bank sent)
your line of business
That last one is why the same words can produce different suggestions for different businesses.
Ask AI works on a group, not just one transaction. Open a grouped payee and Ask AI suggests categories for the whole group at once, which is the fastest way to clear a long list.
Tip: You don't need to know the accounting name for anything, and you don't need to phrase it carefully. Plain words work better than a guess at the right terminology.
4. Categorize transactions one at a time
Grouping multiple transactions by payee is on by default to simplify the review process for you. When one payee's transactions belong in different categories, for example, an Amazon account you use for both packaging and office supplies, you can just turn it off:
Toggle off Show groups at the top of the page.
Categorize each transaction the same way as above.
Tip: You don't need to know the accounting name for anything. Describe what you bought - "boxes for shipping orders"- and Ask AI takes it from there.
If a transaction needs more than a category
Most transactions just need a category. When one doesn't, here's where to go:
If | Do this |
The payment covers more than one category | Click More actions → Split. See Splitting a transaction across categories. |
It's personal spending, or belongs to another business | Toggle on Mark as personal. See Marking personal spending on a business account. |
You've already applied a category and want to change it |
5. When Margins needs additional input
Some transactions are tagged Additional input needed rather than Waiting for your input. These need a specific detail, so instead of a category field you'll get a short flow of guided questions, also known as a Smart Flow.
For example, if Margins sees a payment to the Virginia Department of Taxation, it can't know if this relates to a state income tax, sales tax, property tax, etc. so it asks a couple of questions so the payment is recorded against the right tax.
In this case, just click the Additional input needed tag on the transaction and answer the questions.
FAQs
Can I undo a category after I've applied it?
Can I undo a category after I've applied it?
Yes, any time. See Changing a transaction's category.
What does Apply always do to transactions I've already categorized?
What does Apply always do to transactions I've already categorized?
When selecting Apply always, you can choose to apply the categorization rule retroactively to transactions already categorized or only to the current open transactions and new transactions from this vendor. If you choose to apply it retroactively, it will recategorize your past transactions from this vendor.
I categorized everything, why is my list not empty?
I categorized everything, why is my list not empty?
New transactions arrive as your accounts sync, so the list refills over time. That's normal, and it's usually a much shorter list after the first clear.
Does Ask AI apply a category on its own?
Does Ask AI apply a category on its own?
No. It suggests up to three and explains each one. You choose, then click Apply once or Apply always. Nothing is categorized until you commit it.