How classification works

Every movementOne asset going into or out of one of your accounts. A transaction has one movement per account and asset. gets one categoryThe accounting label of a movement, such as Purchase or Fee. Cost basis reads it.. Cost basis reads the category to know if a movement is a purchase, a sale, a fee or a transfer between your own accounts. Conta Finance decides the category in a fixed order, and it stops at the first answer.

The order

1. A manual choice wins first. If you categorized the movement by hand on the Transactions page, that category stays. No rule can change it.
2. Then the rules run in the order of the Rules page: first the System rules, built into the app, then every other rule from the top of the list to the bottom.
3. The first rule whose conditions match assigns its category. Conta Finance evaluates nothing more for that movement.
4. No match leaves the movement Unclassified.

The Rules page lists the rules in this order. The number on each rule is its place in the order. A new rule runs last. To change where a rule runs, move it in the list. See The Rules page.

An example

You have two category rules:

A movement sends 5 USDC from Treasury to an employee. Both rules match it. Rule 1 is above rule 2, so it runs first. The movement becomes Payroll, and rule 2 is not evaluated for it.

A second movement sends 8 USDC from another account. Rule 1 does not match, because the movement does not come from Treasury. Rule 2 matches, so the movement becomes Supplier payment.

If rule 2 were above rule 1, it would take both movements. Rule 1 would then classify nothing. The Rules page marks such a rule Shadowed by the rule that takes its movements. To fix it, move it above that rule, or make the broader rule more specific.

Categories and subcategories are separate

A subcategoryA second, free label for your own analysis. It changes no figure. is a second label for your own analysis. It changes no figure. Subcategory rules run in their own order, with the same steps, and category rules take no part in it. So one movement can get its category from one rule and its subcategory from another. No subcategory rule matches most movements, and that is normal.

The System rules

Two category rules are built into the app. They show the System chip, and they run before every other rule:

1. Gas is a fee. Every gas movement gets the category Fee.
2. Internal transfers. A transfer of a coin or a token from one monitored wallet to another monitored wallet gets the category Internal transfer, so it stays out of cost basis. Transfers to an exchange or to another blockchain are not covered. Write your own rules for those. See Internal transfers.

You cannot edit, pause, delete or move a System rule, and no rule can go above it. You can duplicate one: the copy is one of your rules.

Gas is always Fee

A gas movement always has the category Fee. The System rule sets it, and nothing can change it:

• Conta Finance refuses a category rule that gives gas another category.
• You cannot categorize a gas movement by hand.

The reason is cost basis. A gas movement that is not Fee leaves the books.

A subcategory rule can label gas. For example, you can tell the gas of trades from the gas of payroll. The category stays Fee.

A rule applies to the past and the future

When you save a rule, Conta Finance runs it again over your whole history. It also applies to every new import. You do not need to run anything.

The same is true when you edit or delete a rule. The movements it classified go to the next rule that matches them, or to Unclassified.

A paused rule is as if deleted

A paused rule classifies nothing. It also stops taking movements from the rules under it. Its movements go to the next rule that matches them, or to Unclassified. The rule stays on the Rules page, and you can turn it on again.