Better Categorization, Rules Management, and Exporting. Oh My!
We’ve been getting a lot of buzz lately on our upcoming private beta for investment accounts. (ask for a an invite) But, in the meanwhile, we’ve quietly been introducing some improvements to our existing personal finance software that we wanted you to be aware of … and use!
Two we want to highlight: a streamlined transaction categorization and rules interface and automated transaction exporting.
1. Improved Categorization Dialog
No longer will you need to scan through dozens of categories to find the one you want for that all important Coffee Shop, Music or Movie purchase. We’ve made the whole categorization process simpler. You now use a simple drop-down menu to select the category you want. It’s even faster to rename and categorize multiple transactions. Just select the transactions you want to edit and click “Name & Categorize” to apply categories or names to multiple transactions with just a couple of clicks.
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2. Naming & Categorization Rules Management!
You can now easily edit the rules you’ve set for merchant naming and for transaction categorization. Simply click on “Edit Rules,” to make changes to previous transactions or delete conflicting rules.
BTW, we’re constantly improving our categorization algorithm; we think we’re getting it right about 85% of the time now. You should feel free to send us any amusing (or not amusing) miscategorizations you’re finding. We’re trying to keep a sense of humor on the way to 90+%. We’re also learning that some users want to categorize gardening expenses as Home Improvement…while others call them Hobby. We’re all about freedom of choice.
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3. Exporting Your Transactions
Some of our users told us that they want offline access to their transaction data. Others said they want to share with others…like their accountants or tax prep pros. You can now export transactions into a CSV file right from the Transactions page. Simply click on “Export all Transactions” on the bottom of the page and your transaction file will be ready for download.
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As always, we’d love to hear any feedback on these changes. Did we get it right for the way you use Mint?
Thanks for using Mint.com,
- The Mint Team
I think the changes are great, but I’m still having a naming/categorization issue with transactions that contain “Ach Withdrawal Ppd” in the title. This basically means that the transaction directly withdrew from our checking account. Since a number of different things do this (insurance, our power bill, and others), it makes it impossible to set a rule based on each different transaction since Mint sees them as the same.
For example, the name of our power bill transaction is “ACH WITHDRAWAL–PPD / GUC / DRAFT” and of our insurance is “ACH WITHDRAWAL–PPD / STATE FARM RO 27 / SFPP.” Both of these are labelled by Mint as “Ach Withdrawal Ppd.” It’s impossible to set a rule for one of these that doesn’t affect the other. I’ve been asking since Mint went live for the option to make our naming rules based on the exact, original name of the transaction instead of the name Mint gives the transaction. This change would eliminate these errors. Are you aware of this problem?
1. Excellent improvement, provided some custom categories are possible…
2. I love Rules management, however having a switch to turn off the auto naming and categorizing may be nice at times, because I share the same strange auto-cat issues as others like merchant fees (Bankcard Des Mtot) coming in as Music and so many other weird ones… I’m sure you’re working on it. Keep up the great work!
3. QIF will be necessary for this to be the most useful. I hope this doesn’t involve license fees to Intuit. I realize it’s pretty much the same file with a few tags. So please consider making this an option in the future…
I noticed that when I am on the 2nd+ page of “All Transactions” and make a “Name and Category” change plus “Create a Rule” during that change, I return to the first page of “All Transactions”. I would prefer to stay on the same page where the original change occurred to elimiate the need to manually select the page to which I would like to return. Does this make sense?
Ricky:
I noticed this same thing with Mint giving transactions the same name, but it seems that when you set up rules based on this same name that Mint actually looks at the original name for distinction. I would recommend setting up some rules and see what happens.
Regards,
Dennis
I have the same problem. With more checks being truncated this way, this will just become more of a problem. Thanks.
Hi Ricky…apologies for any frustration this has caused.
We can fix the mis-categorization of your ACH transactions. Please email me the email address on your account and the financial institution from which these transactions originate. My email address is aforth@mint.com. We will have it fixed shortly.
I think these updates look great! If you’re open to requests: I’d like to see the functionality to create a rule based on name and dollar amount. Similar to what Ricky is experiencing I transfer the same amount each month to my boyfriend for our mortgage payment yet it just looks like a transfer and makes categorizing it as mortgage difficult since I transfer money to him for other things as well.
Exporting is great, but I have over two years worth of data stored in Quicken that I would like to upload to Mint.com. This website is great and I have been sharing it with friends and coworkers, and they say the same thing. I don’t know if the history is a restriction the bank imposes or not, but being able to import would be a great enhancement to the site.
Great enhancements! Here’s another suggestion. Related to personal checks, rather than just the “No” please include the check # also. Example “No 1234″. this makes it easy to scan the transactions and tie them to specific checks.
The ability to export a csv based on the current search query would really bring you guys closer to perfection. For example, I’d love to be able to export a csv of just the transactions that I’ve labeled as business expenses. Come tax time, this ability to zero-in will be really useful. Great Work!
How about being able to add/edit categories - for example I have a lot of work travel expenses that are reimbursed by my company but a “work expense” category is not yet available, as a result I have a lot of expenses that are read as no category. Also, I’d like to expand some of the subcategories….for instance under “bills & utilities” I’d like to add natural gas and water/sewer to the list.
Great Improvements provided custom categories and subcategories are available. It’s been more than six months and still custom categories are not yet available… It shouldn’t be rocket science to implement, even now a days rocket science is easier as third world countries started making rockets
I just started on Mint and I love it. I heard about it on the Web 2.0 podcast. As an owner of an interactive agency I have to say I’m extremely impressed with your user-interface design and CSS coding.
any chance of geocoding the transactions? is this even possible with the information you’re given? it would be interesting to see spending as relates to location / neighborhood…
just a curious dataminer!
Is there any chance to get a graph or two just showing income vs. expenses?? I really enjoy knowing where my money is going, but I need to make sure that more is coming it than going out!
~david
Couple ideas that I see above that are probably simpler to implement and will get a big bang:
1) Custom Categories/Sub : enable users to create their own and share with others
2) Portfolio Management Tools: International vs US assets, Asset type investment (Stocks, FI, Commodity, etc…); Performance, Relative Performance, Seasonality,
3) Analytics: Hist Net Monthly Balance;
Your UI is very easy and simple to use. Congratulations.
Would love to see a view that compares Total Monthly Income to Total Monthly Spending.
I echo David’s comment. It would be so helpful to see an income vs expense graph, and a graph which shows net worth over time. Thanks for the great features!
Just started using Mint today and love it, but I’d have to echo the request for an ability to upload CSV files with info. I can get data several months back from my bank, and I’d like to be able to put that data into Mint.
Thanks for all of your great work.
I would love to be able to add my student loans into my mint account. They are a big part of my overall assets/debt ratio and the sign on work similarly to banks and credit card websites. Is this possible?
I just found Mint and absolutely love it. I’ve always been terrible at budgeting, but Mint has definitely made keeping track of my finances more fun and interesting.
Thanks Mint!!!
CSV? how about xml export or xls(x)?
Love the site. Will you be adding capability to trend Assets, Liabilities and Net Assets? It would be great to see a graph or graphs that show how these trend over time.
Thanks, Bill
Mint’s autocategorizations are getting more and more ridiculous…
How does ‘Atame Tapas Bar’ get its name changed to an ‘Auction’ house and categorized based on that. What part of ‘Bar’ doesn’t give the right clue?
I’m at the point where I’d rather just have NO attempts to rename ANYTHING. I’m convinced it would be better. Please allow us this option.
It would be nice to have free range of categories. I am the anal retentive type that prefers some of my own categories to the default ones on mint.com’s.