Auto-categorization & the 22 categories
How Sortlumo sorts every transaction and cleans up merchant names.
Every transaction Sortlumo reads is assigned exactly one of 22 categories, and the raw merchant string is normalized into a name you'll actually recognize.
Merchant normalization
Bank statements are full of noise — payment-processor prefixes, store numbers, phone numbers, and city codes. Sortlumo strips that away so the merchant reads cleanly:
| On your statement | In Sortlumo |
|---|---|
| SQ *TARTINE BAKERY | Tartine Bakery |
| NETFLIX.COM 866-579-7172 | Netflix |
| AMZN MKTP US*2K4XY9 | Amazon |
| TST* THE COFFEE BAR | The Coffee Bar |
Consistent categories
The same merchant gets the same category across all your statements and accounts. Once coffee shops land in Dining, they stay there — so month-over-month comparisons are apples to apples.
The 22 categories
The category set is designed to cover about 99% of real-world personal spending without becoming a taxonomy you have to study. It spans everyday spending (Groceries, Dining, Transport, Fuel, Shopping), bills (Housing, Utilities, Subscriptions, Insurance), life (Health, Travel, Entertainment, Personal Care, Education), money movement (Income, Transfers, Fees, Taxes), and a catch-all for the genuinely uncategorizable.
Disagree with a category? Change it. Your override sticks for that merchant going forward. See Re-categorize a transaction.
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