Merchant intelligence: Every narration, resolved to a name.
Bank narrations are written for the bank: SQ *BLUE BTL 4471, AMZN MKTP US*2K4, POS 0923 SHELL OIL. Bankflow identifies the business behind each one, saves it as a merchant with its own rules, and gives every merchant a page of spend, trend, and history.
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- Identified automatically
- Spend ranked by merchant
- Rules per merchant
You cannot ask what you spend on a supplier the statement never names.
The simplest questions about spending are about who: how much went to the cloud provider this year, which subscriptions are still running, whether the same vendor is being paid from two cards. Statements make those questions hard, because one merchant appears under five different narrations and a processor's prefix hides the business entirely. Answering them by hand means building a lookup table that is out of date by next month. The narrations need resolving once, into merchants that stay resolved as new statements arrive.
How it works
How a narration becomes a merchant
- 01
Categorized first, then identified
After a statement's transactions are categorized, descriptions that look like a business are matched against your saved merchants and merchant rules. Only what is left is sent for identification.
- 02
Saved, linked, and given rules
A recognised business is saved as a merchant, linked to its transactions, and given reusable match patterns, so its next appearance resolves without being identified again. Fees, transfers, and salary are filtered out rather than turned into merchants.
- 03
Ranked by what they cost
The Merchants page ranks every merchant by total spend, number of transactions, or average spend, so the biggest suppliers and the most frequent small charges are both one sort away.
- 04
Opened to their whole history
Open a merchant for its category mix, monthly spend, linked rules, and every matching transaction, sortable and complete.
Categories and the rules behind each; merchants carry their own rules the same way. - 05
Corrected where needed
Rename a merchant, edit its patterns, or link a rule to it. Automatically created merchant rules behave exactly like ones you write, and are edited in the same place.
What the Merchants workspace gives you
Automatic identification
Businesses are recognised from their narrations as statements are processed, with logos where one can be found.
Spend rankings
Merchants sorted by total spend, frequency, or average transaction, for the view that answers the question you have.
Cached, not re-asked
Identification results are remembered per account, so a recurring description is resolved once rather than on every statement.
A detail view per merchant
Monthly spend, category distribution, the rules that link to it, and a searchable list of its transactions.
Editable rules
Merchant patterns pass the same conflict checks as any rule and can be edited, extended, or removed.
Can be turned off
Automatic identification can be disabled under Settings, Privacy, if you would rather resolve merchants yourself.
FAQ
Common questions
Do I have to run a scan to identify merchants?
No. Identification runs automatically after categorization as each statement is processed. The Merchants page is where you review and edit the results.
What counts as a merchant?
A business you paid or were paid by. Generic lines such as bank fees, transfers between accounts, and salary are deliberately filtered out.
What happens the next time the same merchant appears?
Its saved patterns match first, so it is linked without being identified again. Results are also cached per account, so a recurring description never needs a second look.
Can I merge two merchants that are really one?
Link the second narration's pattern to the saved merchant you want to keep, and every matching transaction, past and future, resolves to it.
What is sent for identification, and can I opt out?
Only descriptions that no saved merchant or rule already covers are sent to an AI model to recognise the business, and the results are cached for your account alone. Automatic identification can be switched off entirely under Settings, Privacy.
How do I see it on my own statements?
Upload a statement on the free tier, which includes 50 page credits and needs no card, and open the Merchants page once it has processed.
Keep exploring
Categorization Rules
Include, exclude, and scope rules that run on every import.
Risk Review
An evidence-backed read of a set of statements, with no verdict.
Workflows
Folders and forwarded email in; files and webhooks out.
Bank Statement Converter
What a converter has to get right, and what the file looks like when it does.
Bank Statement → Excel
Download a clean XLSX of every parsed transaction.
Find out who you actually pay.
Upload a few months of statements and open the Merchants page ranked by total spend.