When you discover that Luma can categorise transactions automatically based on rules you create yourself, it is easy to fall into a trap. You create one rule for KIWI, one for REMA, one for MENY, one for COOP, one for coffee, one for petrol.
After one evening you have twenty rules. After one month half of them no longer match, and cleaning them up is tedious.
There is a simpler way.
What a category rule does
A category rule in Luma looks at the text in the transaction description and links it to a category you have chosen in advance. When "KIWI" appears in a new transaction, the rule knows it belongs under "Food and drink", and the categorisation happens automatically.
Rules run against transactions that have not yet been categorised. Transactions you have categorised yourself are never overridden.
One search term covers all the variants
Here is the insight most people miss at the start: you do not need one rule per branch.
If you create a rule that searches for "KIWI", it will match every KIWI transaction regardless of which branch it was. The search term just has to appear somewhere in the transaction name.
The table below is a reference list. Pick the rows that fit your daily routine and ignore the rest:
| Rule keyword | Suggested category | Typical matches |
|---|---|---|
| KIWI | Food and drink | All KIWI stores |
| REMA | Food and drink | All Rema 1000 stores |
| COOP | Food and drink | Coop Extra, Prix, Mega, Obs |
| CIRCLE K | Transport | Petrol and fuel |
| RUTER (Oslo public transit authority) | Transport | Metro, bus and tram in Oslo |
| VY (Norwegian state rail operator) | Transport | Train |
You create one rule per search term, all under the same category. Six rules are enough to catch most food and transport spending for many Norwegian consumers.
Start with what you buy most often
The smartest starting point is not to ask "what rules should I have" but "what keeps appearing uncategorised for me?"
For most people the answer is groceries. Then transport or fuel.
Set up one or two rules for the supermarkets you use, and one for the mode of transport you use most. Run them against your transactions and see whether the result looks right. If it does, you are done for now.
Add more only when you see a pattern
The best reason to create a new rule is that you have manually categorised the same transaction type two or three times and would rather not do it a fourth time.
That is a clear signal: you shop here regularly, and the text in the transaction description is stable enough for a rule to match reliably.
Resist the urge to anticipate every possible future transaction. Rules require maintenance, and maintenance takes time. Five rules that always work are better than twenty-five rules that sometimes fail.
A simple checklist
These three questions will help you decide whether a new rule is worth creating:
- Has the same transaction type appeared uncategorised at least twice in the past month?
- Is the transaction description stable and clear enough to match on text?
- Does the transaction clearly fit into one specific category?
If you answer yes to all three, a rule is probably the right call. If you answer no to any of them, manual categorisation is simpler and more accurate.
Start with two rules today
Open the rules overview in Luma and add one rule for the supermarket you use most and one for the mode of transport you use most. Run them against existing transactions.
Wait one month. See what keeps appearing uncategorised. Then decide whether it is worth adding one more.
You can always extend your rule list. It is harder to clean up one that has grown too large.