All transactions recorded to your Flare book accounts (bank accounts you've created in Flare) are recorded to a chart of accounts category. The default category for all bank/financial account transactions is "Uncategorized".

In Flare, bank transaction categorization can be performed manually in your Flare bank accounts or automatically during bank reconciliation.

Learn how to perform:

• Manual transaction categorization.
• Automated transaction categorization during bank reconciliation.

Manual transaction categorization

To categorize a bank transaction, do the following:

1. Click Bank in Flare's main menu (1 below) then click the accounts dropdown menu (2) and click the name of a bank account (3).
   
   
   
   
2. Hover your mouse over a transaction's category field (4 below) and click the pencil icon. Click the transaction's category dropdown menu (5) and select the appropriate chart of accounts category (6).
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Click the confirm checkmark (7 above). To cancel, click the cancel icon .

Automated transaction categorization

Automated transaction categorization occurs when you are using Flare's bank reconciliation feature. After importing bank transactions and selecting a chart of accounts category for a transaction, Flare looks for transactions that have the same amount/description and auto-selects the same chart of accounts category.

Follow these steps for auto-categorization:

1. Click Bank in Flare's main menu (1 below). Click the account dropdown menu (2) and select a bank account or financial account (3).
   
   
   
   
2. Click the import icon (4 below). If you have set up bank feeds, skip to step 4.
   
   
   
   
    Click the "View sample" link on the import form to view the import file format accepted by Flare. Currently, Flare accepts CSV files with the following format include the header row. Dates are in mm/dd/yyyy format and currency has two digits after a decimal place. Debits start with a minus sign "-" (no space between the sign and dollar amount).
   
   
   
   
3. Browse for the CSV (5 below). Flare will begin the import. If the import is successful, you will see a success message.
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Reconcile button (6 below). The bank reconciliation window will open. Imported bank transactions will be displayed on the left of the screen and the Flare bank account will appear on the right. If Flare finds transactions in your Flare accounts that match those you have just imported, it will suggest that you match them. If imported bank transactions do not exist in your Flare bank accounts you can add them (or ignore them).
   
   
   
   
    See Bank Reconciliation Steps for more details about matching, adding or ignoring transactions.
   
   
5. Select a category for each transaction (7 below).
   
   
   
   In the example above, we selected the Revenue > Services category. Notice that Flare found a recurring transaction with the same amount and description and auto-categorized it (outlined in green below).
   
   
   
   Flare also recognized two recurring payments of 107.00 and categorized them as "Accounts Payable" (outlined in red above) because these transactions are unpaid bills recorded in Flare.
   
   
6. Once you've selected categories for imported transactions, click the "Add" button if they do not already exist in your Flare bank account.
   
   
     Flare may not always be able to match transactions that exist in your Flare bank accounts. This means that before clicking "Add", ensure that you haven't already recorded the transaction.

You can override the categories you've selected after you've added the transactions to your Flare bank account. Just close the reconciliation window and categorize manually.