It’s been a little while since the last update, so here’s a good one.

I’ve been working on Transaction Categorisation in CLARIFYProperty — helping you automatically assign categories to your transactions based on rules.

🧠 The first step

The initial version is intentionally simple:

  • We look for the first matching rule
  • Suggest it to you
  • You decide whether to apply it or not

Nice and predictable 👍

🤔 But here’s the real-world problem…

Transactions aren’t always that clean.

You might have multiple rules that match the same transaction:

  • “Screwfix” → Repairs & Maintenance
  • “Builder / Trade Supplier” → General Property Costs
  • Or a broader fallback like “Any debit from this account” → Misc Expenses

So… which one wins?

✨ The improvement

Now, when multiple rules match:

  • You’ll still see the primary suggestion (as before)
  • But you’ll also get a dropdown of alternative matches

Meaning:

  • 👉 You stay in control
  • 👉 You can pick the best category
  • 👉 No more “rule conflicts” behind the scenes

💡 A small tip

If you find yourself often picking an alternative rule over the primary one…

You can already reorder your rules with drag & drop to make sure the right one is suggested first 👍

🧠 Where this is heading

Right now, rules do the heavy lifting.

But over time, CLARIFYProperty will start to learn from your choices:

If you consistently pick a different category for similar transactions, the system can adapt and suggest it first next time.

So instead of just asking: “Which rule matches best?”

We also start asking: “Which choice does this user actually make?”

This is the first step towards a more adaptive system — and eventually, more intelligent categorisation that goes beyond explicit rules.

And yes… maybe one day: “Where we’re going, we don’t need rules.” 😄

As always, this is being built with real-world property data in mind — messy, overlapping, and occasionally surprising 😅

Would love to hear how you’d expect categorisation to behave 👀