Categorize bank transactions

Tell Nova what each bank line was for: pick a category and sales tax, mark it personal or a transfer, match it to an invoice, or split it, one at a time or in bulk.

In the sidebar, open Bookkeeping, then Transactions. The page address is /bookkeeping/transactions.

Before you start

• Import or add the lines first (see Import a bank statement).
• Your role needs permission to categorize transactions. Transfers, matching and splits need permission to manage transactions as well.
• If the same store shows up every month, set up a rule once instead; see Set up auto-categorize rules.

Steps

To categorize one line:

1. Under Account at the top, pick the bank account.
2. Click a line, or open its actions menu and choose View / categorize. A window opens with the line's description, date, amount and status.
3. Under Categorize, choose the Category, which is the income or expense account the money belongs to.
4. If tax was charged, pick it under Sales tax, or leave No tax. Nova treats the amount as including tax and splits the tax out. If the tax you need is missing and your role can manage tax profiles, press + New tax profile, add a name and its rates, and press Create tax profile; Nova picks it for the line.
5. Press Save category. Nova shows Transaction categorized. and the window closes. The line's status reads categorized and it now counts in your reports.

To categorize many lines at once:

1. Tick the box on each line, or tick the header box to select every line showing. A bar appears with the count selected.
2. Press Categorize selected. Choose the Category and, if it applies, the Sales tax.
3. Press Apply to selected. Nova tells you how many lines were categorized. Clear drops the selection.

What you see

The line's window also offers, when your role allows:

• Mark personal: for money that is not business. Confirm in Mark as personal?. Nova records money out as an owner's draw and money in as an owner's contribution, never as income or expense.
• Transfer between accounts: pick the other bank or card account under Transfer to and press Mark as transfer. Each line you mark records the whole move, so if the same transfer also shows in the other account, mark only one of the two lines.
• Match to a document: ties the line to an invoice or expense already in Nova, so the money is not counted twice. The Document / invoice # box does not take the invoice number; paste the code at the end of the invoice's page address, or an expense's Ref (both start with cdoc_), then press Match.
• Split across categories: type an amount and pick a category for each part, press + part for more parts, then press Apply split. You need at least two parts that add up to the line's total. The line then shows the status split; the parts are not listed separately.

If something looks different

• A categorized line reads Unknown under Category in the list: the list cannot show the category's name. Open the line to see it.
• The window only shows a Category line with a dash and no controls: your role can see transactions but not categorize them.
• Save category is greyed out: you have not chosen a category yet.
• Split must sum to the transaction total shows under the split: the split failed. The pop-up message says why, for example a part with no category.
• Nova says the accounting period is closed: the line's date is in a closed period. Reopen the period first (see Close the books for a period).
• Nova says the transaction is locked by a completed reconciliation: reopen that reconciliation before you change the line (see Reconcile a bank account).
• Match answers Not found: the box got an invoice number instead of the page-address code.

Open Transactions