Auto-Categorization

Auto-categorization

When a transaction arrives, Satsuma immediately tries to assign a category. It works through four tiers in order and stops at the first confident match:

1. Your rules The first pass checks your category rules — including rules Satsuma has automatically built from your own past manual choices. If you've ever manually categorized a transaction at "Trader Joe's" as Groceries, Satsuma creates a rule for that merchant. Future transactions at Trader Joe's are categorized automatically.

2. Your bank's category label Many banks include their own category (e.g. "Food & Beverage"). Satsuma maps these to your categories where it can.

3. The shared merchant directory A shared directory — built from categorization decisions made by all Satsuma users — provides a starting guess for well-known merchants. Starbucks → Coffee, Amazon → Shopping, etc.

4. Local AI model When no other tier has a confident answer, a local AI model makes a cold-start guess. Its decision is fed back into the shared directory to improve future accuracy.

Manual always wins

If you categorize a transaction yourself, Satsuma marks it manual and never touches it again. Auto-categorization only runs on uncategorized transactions and never overwrites a manual choice.

Correcting a category

Click any transaction and choose a new category from the picker. Your correction automatically generates a rule, so similar future transactions are categorized the same way.

Category rules

You can view and manage all your category rules at Settings → Categories (under the Rules tab). Rules can match on merchant name, description keywords, or the bank's own category label.