Categories & tags

Categories say what a transaction was for: groceries, rent, salary. Folders group related categories together. Tags are optional labels that cut across categories, such as “Vacation” or “Work”.

Default categories

Lode starts you off with a ready-made set of folders and categories.

Expenses:

• Food: Groceries, Restaurants, Other Food
• Transport: Public Transport, Taxi, Fuel, Other Transport
• Home: Rent, Utilities, Other Home
• Shopping: Clothes, Electronics, Other Shopping
• Other: Entertainment, Health, Transfers to People, Misc

Income:

• Salary: Main Salary, Bonus
• Other Income: Freelance, Refund, Transfers from People, Misc Income

The default names follow the app’s language. If you switch languages, the defaults are renamed to match. Any category you’ve renamed keeps your name.

A default you delete stays deleted. To bring deleted defaults back, tap + on the Categories screen and choose Restore Default Categories. Your own categories aren’t changed.

Where to find them

On iPhone, tap the gear on the Dashboard and open Categories. On iPad, open Settings in the sidebar, then Categories. Switch between Income and Expense at the top.

Each folder appears as its own group. Categories that aren’t in any folder are listed under Uncategorized.

Adding a category or folder

Tap + and choose Add Category or Add Folder.

For a category, set:

• the Type: Income or Expense;
• the Name and the Color, or start from one of the suggestion chips;
• the icon: tap the pencil on the icon at the top;
• the Folder it goes in, or Uncategorized.

A new expense category can get a monthly budget right away: turn on Set monthly budget and enter the Amount. See Budgets.

A folder only needs a name. An empty folder shows Add first category. Transactions go into the categories inside a folder, not into the folder itself.

You can also create a category without leaving a transaction: in the category picker, tap +.

The free plan includes 8 categories of your own, and folders count toward that. The default categories don’t. Premium removes the limit.

Editing

Tap a category to change its name, color, icon or folder. To rename a folder, tap Edit next to its name.

If you have shared accounts, the Shared Accounts section in the editor chooses which of them can use the category.

Reordering

Tap the sort button and choose Manual, Name (A → Z) or Name (Z → A). In Manual, tap Edit and drag categories within their group. In Manual you’ll also see Reorder Folders once you have two or more folders. Use it to change the order of the folders themselves.

The order you set here is also used when you pick a category for a transaction.

Deleting and merging

Swipe left on a category and tap Delete, or open it and tap Delete Category. If no transactions use it, confirm with Delete. If some do, you choose:

• Reassign to Another Category moves its transactions and bills to a category you pick.
• Remove Category deletes the category and leaves its transactions without a category.

Either way, the category’s budget is deleted along with it.

To merge two categories, delete the one you no longer want and reassign its transactions to the other.

A folder can only be deleted once it’s empty. Delete its categories or move them to another folder first.

Tags

Use tags to label transactions across categories: a trip, a work project, tax-deductible items.

• Add tags to a transaction: in the editor, open Tags, or tap one of the recent tags shown under it. A transaction can have up to 3 tags. Transfers don’t have tags.
• Manage tags: go to Settings → Tags. Tap + to add one, or tap a tag to rename it. Tag names can’t contain commas or semicolons.
• Delete a tag: swipe left and tap Delete. If transactions use it, Remove Tag deletes the tag and removes it from those transactions.
• Filter by tag: on the Transactions screen, tap the filter button. Filtering Statistics by tag requires Premium.

The free plan includes 3 tags. Premium removes the limit.

Remembered merchants

Lode learns where your payments belong. When you move a saved transaction to a different category, Lode remembers that merchant and its new category. Lode recognizes the merchant by the transaction’s note, which for an automatically logged payment is the merchant’s name. The next payment from that merchant is filed there automatically, both by the bank-notification and Apple Pay automations and in AI chat. What Lode learns syncs to all your devices.

To review what Lode has learned, go to Settings → Automation and open Remembered Merchants. Swipe a merchant away and tap Forget to let Lode choose fresh next time, or tap Forget All. The same screen lists your answers about cash payments under Cash.

Questions? Reach out at lodeapp@proton.me.