Automatic expense tracking

The app is accurate to ~95% as SMSes have truncated information. To achieve 99% accuracy you can define 4-6 custom rules which run automatically the moment an expense is captured (from SMS or a receipt), so you don't have to keep fixing the same things again and again. A single rule can do any of three things for a given merchant: rename it to something readable, force a category, and/or file it into a group.

• Go to Controls → Expense Automation to view or add rules. You can also create a rule straight from an expense via its Expense Automation shortcut.

98% of the time, Tab.it can fix these automatically. However there can be UPI ids or some names which Tab.it isn't able to rename. For these you can create an automation rule that renames the merchant. When Tab.it sees the messy name, it displays your clean one instead.

• Example: rename `PAYTM*ZOMATO123` → Zomato, or `UPI/BLINKIT/...` → Blinkit.

1. Go to Expenses → Open the expense → Create an automation for this business and add a rule.
2. Match the messy name and set Rename to.

Add an automation rule with a target category. Whenever that merchant appears, your category is applied and always wins over the AI's guess.

• Example: always categorise Blinkit as Grocery (not Shopping); always put Cult.fit under Personal Care.

1. Go to Controls → Expense Automation and add a rule.
2. Match the business and choose the category.

Yes — a category rule says "whenever an expense is category X, file it into group Y" (no need to name each merchant). This is how you route a type of spending to a shared or separate group automatically.

• Example: every Grocery expense → your "Flat 402" group; every Fuel expense → your "Business" group.
• Go to Controls → Expense Automation and add a category → group rule.

• Exact match: the rule fires only when the merchant name is exactly your text (case doesn't matter). Precise, but misses variations.
• Contains match: the rule fires when your text appears anywhere in the name — great for merchants whose raw SMS name changes around a stable keyword. Must be at least 3 characters; if several contains-rules match, the most specific (longest) one wins.

No — rules apply to newly captured expenses going forward (SMS / receipt at the moment they arrive). To clean up expenses you already have, use bulk edit in the Expenses screen.

When the built-in categories don't fit, add your own.

1. Go to Controls → Manage Categories → create.
2. Name it, write a short description, and save.

• Name rules: 3–12 characters, letters and numbers only (no spaces, emoji or symbols), and it can't duplicate a built-in category. Good examples: Pets, Fitness, Chai, Parking, Salon, Books, Gym, Rent2.
• The description matters: write at least 8 words describing what belongs here (e.g. "Vet visits, pet food, grooming and toys for pets"). The AI uses that description to decide when to auto-pick this category.
• You can have up to 12 custom categories; each gets its own colour automatically (and an optional icon).

Paste the message in and Tab.it processes it exactly as if it had arrived normally.

1. Go to Controls → Add Expenses → Paste an SMS Text.
2. Paste the full bank SMS and tap Submit. It runs through the same checks and, if it's an expense, appears on your dashboard.

Cash spends don't generate an SMS, so capture them from an image instead.

1. Go to Controls → Add Expenses → Take a photo.
2. Take or upload a photo of the receipt or bill. Tab.it reads the amount, merchant and date; review and save.

For anything with no SMS and no receipt (cash, splitting a friend's bill, an adjustment):

1. Go to Controls → Add Expenses → Manual Entry.
2. Enter the amount, merchant, category and date yourself, and save.

The Expenses screen has a selection mode for fixing lots of entries together.

1. Open the Expenses tab and enter selection mode.
2. Tap expenses to select (or Select All).
3. Apply one action to all of them: change Category, assign to a Group, set the Payment Channel, or Delete.

Use the filters in the Expenses screen; they combine.

• Filter by: Date Range (this week / month / year, or a custom start–end for something long ago), Category, Payment Channel, and Group.
• Search by merchant / keyword to jump straight to it.
• Example: custom range Jan–Mar 2024 + Category = Travel + search "IRCTC" to find last year's train tickets.

Open the expense from the Expenses tab to edit its amount, merchant, category, date, group or payment channel — or delete it. From the same place you can create an automation rule so similar expenses are handled automatically next time.

A payment channel is one of your bank accounts or card accounts — e.g. "HDFC Credit ••1234" or "ICICI Bank ••567". When a message or receipt mentions those last digits, Tab.it tags the expense to that channel, so you can see, filter and analyze spending per card / account.

1. Go to Controls → Payment Channels → Add.
2. Pick the type (Bank Account, Credit Card, Debit Card).
3. Enter the last digits (bank = last 3, cards = last 4).
4. Give it a display name and save. Optionally assign it to a group.

Add that account as a payment channel and assign it to a separate group (e.g. a "Work" or "Corporate" group). From then on, any expense Tab.it matches to that card is automatically filed into that group instead of your personal spending — you don't have to touch it each time.

1. Create the group first (Groups tab).
2. Go to Controls → Payment Channels, add or edit the corporate card, and set its Group to that group.

This group assignment has the highest priority — it wins even over your automation rules — so a corporate-card expense will never quietly land in personal.

Both keep it out of personal totals, but they do different things:

• Negative keyword: the message is never processed — the expense is never created. Use it when you don't want to track that account at all.
• Payment channel with a group: the expense is still recorded, just filed under a separate group. Use it when you want visibility into that account, kept apart from personal.