Managing Payees

What Are Payees?

Payees are the "who" of your transactions - merchants, employers, service providers, and anyone else you exchange money with. Every transaction has a payee field identifying where money went or came from.

Clean, consistent payee data makes your budget more readable, enables powerful automation through transaction rules, and lets you give each payee a default category that fills in automatically.

Payee Auto-Complete

When you start typing a payee name in the transaction form, Purpose Budget suggests matching payees from your history. This makes data entry faster and keeps naming consistent.

• Suggestions are based on payees you've used before in the current space
• Selecting from suggestions ensures consistent naming across transactions
• Consistent names make transaction rules and reports more accurate
• You can always type a new payee name if it's a first-time merchant

Payee Default Categories

Each payee can carry a default category. When you select that payee in the transaction form, the category is filled in for you instead of being chosen from scratch every time.

• Set it in Settings > Payees - open "Manage Payees & Rules" and choose a "Default Category" for the payee
• The default only fills in automatically while "Auto-categorize new transactions" is checked for that payee
• A matching transaction rule takes priority over the payee default
• You can always change the suggested category if this particular transaction is different
• A category you picked yourself is never overwritten by a suggestion

Rename Rules

Bank-imported payees often have messy names like "AMAZON.COM*3K2JF8" or "SQ *COFFEE SHOP #42". Rename rules automatically clean these up to readable names so your transaction list stays tidy.

Creating a Rename Rule

1. Go to Settings > Payees and click "Manage Payees & Rules"
2. Switch to the "Rename Rules" tab
3. Enter the text to match (the messy bank name)
4. Choose the match type: "Contains", "Exactly matches", or "Starts with"
5. Pick the payee to rename to - it has to be a payee that already exists
6. Click "Add Rule"

How Rules Apply

• Rules run as new transactions are created - bank sync, file import, and manual entry all check them
• Existing transactions are not retroactively renamed
• Multiple rules can exist - matching ignores capitalization, and the first rule that matches is applied
• If no rule matches, the original bank payee name is kept

Merging Duplicate Payees

Over time you may end up with variations of the same payee: "Starbucks", "STARBUCKS", "Starbucks Coffee". Merging combines these into a single payee for cleaner data.

• All transactions from merged payees are updated to the chosen name
• The surviving payee's default category and any transaction rules apply going forward
• Your transaction history stays intact - only the payee name changes
• This is especially useful after importing transactions from multiple bank connections

Creating Rules from Transactions

The fastest way to set up a categorization rule is directly from a transaction. In your transaction list, open the transaction's actions menu (⋯) and choose "Create Rule from This" - the rule form opens prefilled from that transaction. Rename rules are separate and live in Settings > Payees.

• Categorize the transaction first, then create the rule from it
• The rule applies to future transactions with matching payee names
• Combine with transaction rules for fully automated categorization

Best Practices

• Set up rename rules early: Especially if using bank sync - messy names will keep coming in
• Use simple, recognizable names: "Amazon" not "Amazon.com Inc."
• Be consistent with naming: Always "Walmart" not sometimes "Wal-Mart"
• Review your payee list periodically: Merge duplicates to keep data clean
• Combine rename rules with transaction rules: Clean names first, then auto-categorize for a fully automated import workflow