Alto walkthrough · Transactions
Categorize a transaction
Give a purchase a place in your budget. Follow one grocery trip from an uncategorized transaction to an updated spending category.
Find the purchase in Transactions
Click Transactions in the sidebar. Find the purchase you want to categorize. Check its description, account, and amount so you know you’re changing the right transaction.
Choose where the spending belongs
Click Uncategorized on the purchase. Choose Groceries from the category list. You can use Search categories to find a category in a longer list.
Choose the purpose of the purchase. Groceries describes what the money was for. Everyday Checking tells you which account it came from. If a shop sells several kinds of things, choose the category that matches this purchase.
Check that the category saved
The menu closes and the purchase now shows Groceries. Selecting a category saves it automatically; there’s no separate Save button for this shortcut.
See the purchase in your budget
Click Budget and find Groceries in the period that contains this purchase. Its spent amount now includes the $48.20 purchase, and available shows what remains from the money you assigned.
The plan stays the same. The spending catches up.
- Assigned
- $150.00
- Spent
- $80.20
- Available
- $69.80
The earlier $32 plus this $48.20 purchase equals $80.20 spent. Subtract that from the $150 assigned and you have $69.80 available for groceries.
Assign first, categorize as you spend, then check what’s left. Categorizing this purchase doesn’t assign more money or move money between bank accounts. It connects spending that already happened to your plan.
If a category goes negative, review the purchase and adjust your budget to cover it. The transaction date decides which category window receives the spending; older purchases may appear in an earlier period.