Excluding transfers and other non-expenses

In this article, you'll learn how to keep money that moved but wasn't spent out of your books. Transfers between your own accounts, paying off the business credit card and owner draws all show up in your bank feed, but none of them is an expense. Left in, they'd make it look like you spent far more than you did.

There are two ways to handle them: exclude the transaction completely, or file it to a category that sits outside profit and loss. A rule can do either one for you every time.

Note: Bookkeeping is an add-on. If you don't see it in your menu, turn it on in Features first.

To open your transactions:

  1. In the menu, click Bookkeeping.
  2. Make sure the Transactions tab is selected.

Exclude a transaction

Excluding takes a transaction out of the books completely. It's still there to look at, it just doesn't count.

  1. Click the merchant name on the row. The row opens up underneath.
  2. Click Exclude (transfer, not an expense).
Opening a row and excluding a transfer

Here's what changes:

  • The row moves to the Excluded view.
  • Its category column reads Excluded, and the whole row turns faded.
  • It no longer counts toward the In, Out and Net figures at the top, or the in and out totals on its month header.
  • There's nothing to approve. An excluded row doesn't sit in Needs approval.
Tip: Click Excluded in the row of views (next to Needs approval, Approved and All) to see everything you've set aside. The number beside it is how many there are in the year you're looking at.

Bring an excluded transaction back

If you excluded something by mistake, you can undo it.

  1. Click the Excluded view.
  2. Find the row and click Include at its right end.
Bringing an excluded transaction back

The transaction comes back uncategorized, so it lands in Needs approval. Pick a category for it and approve it like any other charge.

Note: If a rule was what excluded it, the next sync will exclude it again. Giving it a category by hand stops that, because a category you set yourself is never overwritten by a rule.

File it outside profit and loss instead

Sometimes you'd rather keep a transfer in the ledger with a proper label than hide it. The category dropdown on each row has three groups for exactly that:

  • Transfers (not profit or loss) for money moving between accounts you own
  • Owner money (not profit or loss) for draws and money you put into the business
  • Loans & liabilities (not profit or loss) for loan payments, credit card payoffs and the like

Pick one of those categories, then approve the row as usual. The transaction stays in your books and shows its category, but it doesn't count as income or an expense. Instead, the total shows up in small type under your In, Out and Net figures as "moved between accounts, outside profit and loss".

Note: Transfers should cancel out, since both sides are accounts you already track. If they don't, a red warning replaces that line and tells you how far over or short they are. Usually it means one side is missing, or money came in from an account that isn't in your books, which is an owner contribution, not a transfer.

You can add, rename or hide categories in each of these groups on the Rules & settings tab, in the Categories section. There they're headed Transfers — never profit or loss, Owner money — never profit or loss and Loans & liabilities — never profit or loss.

Let a rule handle repeats

If the same transfer or card payment comes through every month, set a rule once and stop doing it by hand.

  1. Click the Rules & settings tab.
  2. Under Categorization rules, click + New rule.
  3. Under When, choose what to match: A charge, A deposit or Any transaction. Then choose how it matches (contains, starts with, is exactly or matches the pattern) and type the words to look for, such as the name of your card company. The rule checks the description and memo together and ignores capitals.
  4. Under Then, choose Exclude it from the books. Or, to file it instead, choose File it as and pick a category from the Transfers, Owner money or Loans & liabilities group.
  5. Check Matches this month at the bottom to see which transactions it would catch.
  6. Click Save rule.
Starting a rule that excludes card payments

In the rules list, a rule that excludes shows Exclude from the books in its Then column. An exclude rule always acts on its own when the bank syncs, whether or not Auto-categorize matching transactions is checked on the rule, and whether or not Auto-categorize with rules is on in the Automation section. Those switches only matter for rules that file to a category.

Tip: A new rule runs on the next bank sync. To apply it to what's already in your books, click Re-run rules on this month in the Automation section. It goes over everything you haven't approved yet, and leaves approved rows and hand-set categories alone.

On a phone

On the phone app, and on the web at phone size, there's no Exclude button. You can open the Excluded view and tap Include to bring a transaction back, but to exclude one by hand, use the web on a computer.

You can set up an exclude rule from a phone, though. On the Rules & settings tab, under Categorization rules, type the text to match, pick how it matches and what it applies to, choose Ignore instead of Categorize, and tap Add rule. The rule shows as Ignore in the list and works the same as one made on the web.

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