With rules you automate recurring steps when mapping bank transactions.
A rule always consists of:
Conditions (When should the rule apply?)
Actions (What should then happen automatically?)
Rules are especially helpful for recurring transactions such as salaries, rent, tools/subscriptions, fees, provider invoices or payment providers.
You create rules:
Directly under “Unmapped”
Using the search field at the top right, you can filter specifically by name or payment reference. Clicking the rule icon next to it automatically shows a matching rule suggestion.
Directly in the “Rules” section
Here, “Add New Rule” lets you create a new rule with individual conditions and the corresponding category.
A rule consists of the following areas, which can be defined in the side panel:
Name of the rule
Condition(s) - when the rule is applied
Action - what the rule should do
Application - which records the rule should be applied to
Name of the rule
Assign a unique name, so you can quickly find the rule again later (e.g. “Stripe inflows”, “Amazon expenses”, “Bank fees”).
Define conditions
Under “If a transaction … of these conditions:” you define when the rule should be applied.
All or any of these conditions
The dropdown controls the logic:
all = the rule only applies if all set conditions are met
(if available) at least one = the rule applies as soon as one condition is met
Depending on the field, the following operators can typically be used:
contains
contains exact
equals
does not contain
Bank account
Tag
Partner IBAN/ID
Amount equals
Amount less than
Amount greater than
With “+ Add condition” you can combine several criteria to make the rule more precise (e.g. text + amount + bank account).
Define the action
Directly map
Add to predicted
Exclude from cashflow
Add tags
In the “Then” section, you determine what COMMITLY should do automatically. Depending on the selection in the dropdown, the following actions are available:
1. Directly map
The transaction is automatically assigned to a category (without manual follow-up).
Use case: Automatically map recurring bookings such as “Rent”, “Salary”, “Spotify”, “Google Workspace”.
2. Add to predicted
The transaction is not mapped automatically and permanently, but prepared as a suggestion for the right category (e.g. for later review/confirmation in the transaction list).
Use case: You want to pre-sort similar transactions but confirm them manually in the end (e.g. for varying amounts or sensitive payments).
3. Exclude from cashflow
The transaction is ignored for the cash flow view/liquidity planning (i.e. it does not affect the planning), but remains visible as a transaction.
Use case: Remove internal or irrelevant movements (e.g. technical bookings, pure pass-through items, test bookings) from the cash flow planning.
ATTENTION: Use THIS ACTION ONLY IN EXCEPTIONAL CASES OF ERRORS in the transaction list. If a regular transaction that also appears on the bank's transaction list is excluded from the cash flow, this leads to an incorrect calculation of past opening balances.
4. Add tags
Optionally, under “+ Add tags” transactions can be tagged automatically (useful for analyses).
Example: All ads transactions → Tag “Marketing”
Apply to: Transactions and/or open items
Since you are in the Transactions section, rules for transactions are created here by default.
Below, under “Apply to” you can additionally specify whether the rule should apply to transactions only or also to open items:
Transactions (default)
Open Items (activated by default if the rule is also applicable to open items)
Preview of the captured transactions
Under “Transactions preview” you can see which transactions the rule captures. This helps to check rules before saving and to avoid incorrect mappings.
Best practices: Creating a rule for several transactions at once
Combine several conditions to make matches more precise (e.g. “contains Stripe” and amount greater than 0).
Start with a simple rule and refine it step by step via “+ Add condition”.
Use “contains” instead of “contains exact” if the texts in bank transactions may vary.
Always use the preview, especially for more complex conditions, to check how accurately the rule matches.
Set rule priority for transactions
The rule priority determines the order in which the existing rules are applied.
Rules that are higher up in the list have a higher priority and are checked first.
To adjust the order, click TRANSACTIONS → Rules and then SET PRIORITY.
Then move the desired rule to the desired position using the drag & drop symbol (six dots).
The new order is saved automatically after every change.
Note: New rules are always added at the end of the list with the lowest priority.
The changed order is applied immediately to transactions that have not been assigned yet.
Transactions that have already been assigned are not reassigned automatically.
If the new rule order should also be applied to these transactions, the existing assignment must first be removed.
This triggers the automatic assignment again.