How to Work with Your Transactions in Bankflow

One Ledger for Everything

Transactions in the sidebar is every transaction from every statement you've imported, in one list. Each row shows the date, who it was with, category, tags, the statement it came from, and the amount. A row linked to a contact leads with the contact's name and logo, such as Whole Foods Market, followed by the bank's own text in grey; hover over it to read the bank's text in full. The figures along the top count what's in view: Transactions, Expenses, and Income.

To see only the rows that need a decision from you, such as a row that doesn't fit the statement's balances or a suspected duplicate, set the state filter to Needs attention.

Search and Filter

Type in the search box to match descriptions as you type. Click Filters for everything else:

• Date: a preset range or your own dates. If your workspace's months start on a day other than the 1st, a month here covers your period, and the filter says which days.
• Type and state: expenses or income, and rows that need attention, were edited, are flagged, or have (or don't have) a linked document.
• Category, Merchant & Tags: one or several of each.
• Folder and Source: a folder of statements, or specific banks, accounts, and statements. Picking an account (a bank and the last digits its statements print) covers every statement of that account, including ones you import later.
• Amount: above, below, or equal to a figure.

Active filters show as chips you can remove one at a time, or clear with Reset all filters. Filters are shared: the Dashboard uses the same filter bar, and the Categories, Merchants, and Tags tabs total only the transactions your filters include. Pick a statement here and open Merchants, and you'll see that statement's merchants.

Edit a Transaction

Right-click any row for quick actions:

• Category, Tags, and Contact, each searchable, with an option to create a new one on the spot.
• Edit to change the date, description, amount, type, category, or the statement it belongs to, with a reason ("Corrected parser output" is offered to start with; change it to say why). Every change and its reason are kept in the transaction's Edit history.
• Review in source opens the statement workspace on that row, with the PDF beside it. The same menu, without this item, is on every row in the workspace too (see reviewing a statement).
• Create rule turns the row's description into a rule, so next month's matching rows are categorized for you.
• Mark as reviewed, Flag for review, Exclude from analytics, Copy, and Delete transaction.

Edits save instantly. A category you set by hand is yours: rules and automatic categorization won't change it later.

Work on Many Rows at Once

Click a row to select it, Shift+click to select a range, or press Ctrl/Cmd+A to select every row that's loaded. Press Ctrl/Cmd+A again, or use the prompt in the selection bar, to select every row that matches your filters, even ones you haven't scrolled to. Escape clears the selection.

The selection bar's menu applies an action to every selected row: set the category, tags, or merchant; review the rows in their source statement; create a rule from the selection; flag or unflag them; exclude them from your totals or include them again; or delete them.

Flag and exclude

• Flag marks a row for review and puts its review on the Tasks list. It changes nothing else about the row, and flagged rows show up under Needs attention.
• Exclude keeps a row out of your dashboard, cash flow, and totals without deleting it. Use it for transfers between your own accounts, a loan you'd rather not count as income, or a one-off that distorts the picture.

Flag for review, from the right-click menu or the selection bar, asks why, who should look and by when, all optional. Type a reason, such as "Ask the client what this is", choose someone in the workspace, and set a date; Cancel changes nothing. The review goes on the Tasks list, given to whoever you chose, and they're told. Rows flagged together with the same reason are one line there. Clearing the flag, or marking its task done, finishes the review.

Excluding asks Why? (optional) the same way. Either reason shows when you hover over the row's Flagged or Excluded badge, and in the row's edit history, so whoever picks it up knows why. Removing a flag or an exclusion asks nothing, and clears its reason.

For a few seconds after an exclusion, its message has Undo, which puts the rows back as they were. A flag is saved at once, with its task; clear the flag to take it back.

Add a Transaction by Hand

Click Add transaction to record something your statements don't have, like a cash purchase. Choose the date, description, amount, type, currency, and category. By default it goes into Manual entries, and it is listed with the rest straight away. You can add it to an uploaded statement instead, but that changes the statement's balance reconciliation.

What the Row Badges Mean

• Duplicate: the same transaction appears elsewhere in your ledger.
• Flagged: you flagged it to come back to. Hover over it to see why, when a reason was given.
• A warning triangle: the parser wasn't confident about this row. Hover to see why, or click to open the row in its statement and check it against the PDF.
• Excluded: it doesn't count in your totals.
• A paperclip: an invoice, receipt, or other document is linked to the row.

Deleting and Undoing

A deleted transaction goes to the trash, and the confirmation offers Undo. You can restore it later from History, on the Trash tab. See history and notifications.

Next Step

When the rows look right, export them or see what they add up to on the dashboard. To stop categorizing the same merchant by hand every month, set up rules.