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[GH-ISSUE #7001] [Feature] Support "Suggestions" for Categories and Other Fields #52062

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opened 2026-04-30 20:13:43 -05:00 by GiteaMirror · 1 comment
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-30 20:13:43 -05:00
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Originally created by @mtulla on GitHub (Feb 17, 2026).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues/7001

Verified feature request does not already exist?

  • I have searched and found no existing issue

💻

  • Would you like to implement this feature?

Pitch: what problem are you trying to solve?

With "Suggestions", I want to solve 3 problems in one.

  1. A lot of my transactions have highly correlated fields (e.g., Payee X usually means the transaction falls in Category Y); however, they do not always follow the rule. I want a way to leverage these correlations, but not universally apply rules since they would not always be correct.
  2. I like manually going over my budget and transactions. I think it helps me stay in touch with my finances. Because of this, I am a bit averse to Rules. I want to manually categorize each of my transaction, but I still want to make that process as quick and efficient as possible.
  3. I want to use the Actual API to build AI features that will help me write notes or categorize transactions. However, there is no way for an AI to "suggest" transaction fields in Actual because there is no concept of suggestions. Unless I verify an AI's changes to my budget somewhere else before applying them, I would have to blindly trust them.

Below are some more details for each of these problems.

Problem 1: Leveraging Highly Correlated Fields

When I budget, there are many kinds of transactions which I can almost automatically categorize.

For example,

  • When I buy something from Amazon, it almost always falls under my "Shopping" category. However, now and then, I will buy some sort of food or toiletry item from Amazon, and I want to categorize the transaction under "Groceries".
  • When I get an Uber, I almost always want to put this under my "Transportation" category. However, if I am on vacation, I usually want to categorize it under a specific vacation category I have already budgeted for.

Clearly, Rules fall short for these sorts of scenarios, but I still want a way to leverage the fact that fields in my transactions are highly correlated when I categorize them.

Problem 2: Wanting to Manually Go Through Transactions, but Efficiently

Categorizing my transactions in Actual is how I keep on top of my finances. Because of this, I want to stay in the loop by manually categorizing, even if I could write a simple rule to automate the process. For example, for the longest time, I did not have an automation that would mark transactions with my local subway authority as "Public Transportation". Eventually, I folded and added the Rule, but I would honestly still want to have some interaction with these transactions. There's just something psychological about actually going through every transaction that makes the money feel real, and Rules get rid of that interaction.

However, I want to leverage the fact that many transactions can be programmatically categorized to speed up my budgeting. I don't want to go through multiple clicks to acknowledge that my subway ride falls under "Public Transportation"; I should just be able to do that in one click.

Problem 3: Using AI with Actual Without Blindly Accepting Changes

I wanted to hook up AI to Actual so that it would go through my Amazon and add notes/categories to my transactions. However, there is no way to build such a feature in a way that I could accept or decline the AI's changes via Actual's own UI. With AI integrations becoming more of a thing, I think a mechanism that would allow this would be very helpful.

Describe your ideal solution to this problem

Ideally, transaction fields could be pre-populated with suggestions, which can then be accepted with a single click. Below is a very rough mock of what I'm talking about.

Image

Where there would usually be the "Categorize" text to prompt a user to categorize their transaction, there is now a suggestion. A user can click "Accept Suggestion" to accept the suggestion, or click on the category itself to change as usual.

I don't think this is the "correct" UI for this, but hopefully it helps to make the idea clearer. I could make a higher fidelity design before implementing.

When creating Rules, users would have the option to "suggest" fields. Below is how this could look like.

Image

As for the actual implementation details, I was thinking of creating a new type

type TransactionSuggestions = {
  [field: string]: {
    value: string | number;
    source: 'rule' | 'api';
    confidence?: number;
    dismissed?: boolean;
  };
};

which describes the suggestions for the different fields of a given transaction. I would then add a new JSON field to the transactions table with

ALTER TABLE transactions ADD COLUMN suggestions TEXT;  -- JSON

that would store the transactions.

Teaching and learning

I think this feature would mostly be used through Rules. Therefore, we could add some new documentation to the Rules section, describing Suggestions. The experimental feature would also have an option to make all automatically created categorization rules suggest instead of actually applying the categorization.

Originally created by @mtulla on GitHub (Feb 17, 2026). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues/7001 ### Verified feature request does not already exist? - [x] I have searched and found no existing issue ### 💻 - [x] Would you like to implement this feature? ### Pitch: what problem are you trying to solve? With "Suggestions", I want to solve 3 problems in one. 1. A lot of my transactions have highly correlated fields (e.g., Payee X usually means the transaction falls in Category Y); however, they do not always follow the rule. I want a way to leverage these correlations, but not universally apply rules since they would not always be correct. 1. I like manually going over my budget and transactions. I think it helps me stay in touch with my finances. Because of this, I am a bit averse to Rules. I want to manually categorize each of my transaction, but I still want to make that process as quick and efficient as possible. 1. I want to use the Actual API to build AI features that will help me write notes or categorize transactions. However, there is no way for an AI to "suggest" transaction fields in Actual because there is no concept of suggestions. Unless I verify an AI's changes to my budget somewhere else before applying them, I would have to blindly trust them. Below are some more details for each of these problems. # Problem 1: Leveraging Highly Correlated Fields When I budget, there are many kinds of transactions which I can _almost_ automatically categorize. For example, - When I buy something from Amazon, it almost always falls under my "Shopping" category. However, now and then, I will buy some sort of food or toiletry item from Amazon, and I want to categorize the transaction under "Groceries". - When I get an Uber, I almost always want to put this under my "Transportation" category. However, if I am on vacation, I usually want to categorize it under a specific vacation category I have already budgeted for. Clearly, Rules fall short for these sorts of scenarios, but I still want a way to leverage the fact that fields in my transactions are highly correlated when I categorize them. # Problem 2: Wanting to Manually Go Through Transactions, but Efficiently Categorizing my transactions in Actual *is* how I keep on top of my finances. Because of this, I want to stay in the loop by manually categorizing, even if I could write a simple rule to automate the process. For example, for the longest time, I did not have an automation that would mark transactions with my local subway authority as "Public Transportation". Eventually, I folded and added the Rule, but I would honestly still want to have some interaction with these transactions. There's just something psychological about actually going through every transaction that makes the money feel real, and Rules get rid of that interaction. However, I want to leverage the fact that many transactions can be programmatically categorized to speed up my budgeting. I don't want to go through multiple clicks to acknowledge that my subway ride falls under "Public Transportation"; I should just be able to do that in one click. # Problem 3: Using AI with Actual Without Blindly Accepting Changes I wanted to hook up AI to Actual so that it would go through my Amazon and add notes/categories to my transactions. However, there is no way to build such a feature in a way that I could accept or decline the AI's changes via Actual's own UI. With AI integrations becoming more of a thing, I think a mechanism that would allow this would be very helpful. ### Describe your ideal solution to this problem Ideally, transaction fields could be pre-populated with suggestions, which can then be accepted with a single click. Below is a very rough mock of what I'm talking about. <img width="1512" height="828" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/591642e7-c3ac-4ed7-bedc-af94b65210b8" /> Where there would usually be the "Categorize" text to prompt a user to categorize their transaction, there is now a suggestion. A user can click "Accept Suggestion" to accept the suggestion, or click on the category itself to change as usual. I don't think this is the "correct" UI for this, but hopefully it helps to make the idea clearer. I could make a higher fidelity design before implementing. When creating Rules, users would have the option to "suggest" fields. Below is how this could look like. <img width="918" height="666" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/af38d01e-f9d2-4702-8269-83c92e11e395" /> As for the actual implementation details, I was thinking of creating a new type ``` type TransactionSuggestions = { [field: string]: { value: string | number; source: 'rule' | 'api'; confidence?: number; dismissed?: boolean; }; }; ``` which describes the suggestions for the different fields of a given transaction. I would then add a new JSON field to the transactions table with ``` ALTER TABLE transactions ADD COLUMN suggestions TEXT; -- JSON ``` that would store the transactions. ### Teaching and learning I think this feature would mostly be used through Rules. Therefore, we could add some new documentation to the [Rules](https://actualbudget.org/docs/budgeting/rules/) section, describing Suggestions. The experimental feature would also have an option to make all [automatically created categorization rules](https://actualbudget.org/docs/budgeting/rules/) suggest instead of actually applying the categorization.
GiteaMirror added the needs votesfeature labels 2026-04-30 20:13:44 -05:00
GiteaMirror commented 2026-04-30 20:13:47 -05:00
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@github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Feb 17, 2026):

✨ Thanks for sharing your idea! ✨

This repository uses a voting-based system for feature requests. While enhancement issues are automatically closed, we still welcome feature requests! The voting system helps us gauge community interest in potential features. We also encourage community contributions for any feature requests marked as needing votes (just post a comment first so we can help guide you toward a successful contribution).

The enhancement backlog can be found here: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues?q=label%3A%22needs+votes%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc+

Don't forget to upvote the top comment with 👍!

<!-- gh-comment-id:3912599787 --> @github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Feb 17, 2026): :sparkles: Thanks for sharing your idea! :sparkles: This repository uses a voting-based system for feature requests. While enhancement issues are automatically closed, we still welcome feature requests! The voting system helps us gauge community interest in potential features. We also encourage community contributions for any feature requests marked as needing votes (just post a comment first so we can help guide you toward a successful contribution). The enhancement backlog can be found here: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues?q=label%3A%22needs+votes%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc+ Don't forget to upvote the top comment with 👍! <!-- feature-auto-close-comment -->
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Reference: github-starred/actual#52062