Easier category triaging

I have two requests to make manually assigning spending categories easier:

1. Remember scroll position when returning to the transaction list after editing transaction details.

Today I was reviewing expenses from trip that happened 3 weeks ago, and assigning categories / notes for each transaction. Every time I returned to the transaction list after updating the transaction details, I was taken back to the top of the transaction list and had to scroll all the way back down to find the transactions for my trip.

2. Indicate the spending category for all transactions in the transaction list, not just those that don’t have an icon.

It’s currently very time consuming to ensure transactions have been categorized correctly, as I have to click on each transaction to confirm the category (unless the merchant doesn’t have an icon). Most recently I wanted to make sure that all my business expenses were categorized as such (it’s impossible for the auto-categorizer to get this right), and this took quite a bit of time. I’m sure some sort of highlight or non-intrusive indicator could be added to each transaction to show the category.

I realize that most users won’t categorize their transactions as thoroughly as me, but both of these requests seem like they would support power users without adding friction for the average user.

3 Likes

I see what you mean… a workaround that could help you is to categorise your transactions from the Spending section of the app (instead of the Home screen).

That way you can see all the things that are under a certain category and easily move them to expenses one after another. Does that makes sense?

2 Likes

Yes, I would like an easy way to be able to change categories. It’s easy to pick out spends that are in the wrong category, but only when the vendor hasn’t got a logo.
I suggested a while back perhaps putting a coloured dot under each spend, but with the impending expansion of categories, it might make it hard to remember which colour refers to what!

When something is categorised as ‘expenses’, then this category is displayed under the amount, even if the merchant has an icon:

Maybe something similar can be done with other categories? Though this might get a bit cluttered.

1 Like

So it does. I forgot that as I rarely use Monzo for expenses.

That makes sense. There’s usually only a couple of categories of things that I have to change to expenses (Uber under Transport, and meals out under Eating out) so this workaround is probably okay for this specific use case.

However it’d still be good to have clearer category indicators across the board so I can just see the category as I scroll the transaction list day to day, rather than needing to do a specific check.

I don’t see this. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m on Android, or because my expenses were all in USD, so the other currency is shown here instead.

Good point. I’d love to have an icon or label below the merchant logo to make the categorization more prominent.

I’m much more likely to trust the spending reports at the end of the month if I know everything is accurately categorized, but I’m also (like most users) too lazy to manually review the categorization of all transactions each month. If the categories are more prominent in the transaction list, then I’ll catch errors as I go.

2 Likes

Presumably it’s because you’re on Android. With a foreign currency, the ‘expenses’ label just shifts left:

One can assume this will eventually make it to Android (assuming @hugo doesn’t decide to get rid of it from the overall design!).

Having thought about it a bit more, I would like all the categories to display as ‘expenses’ does on iOS, and in their respective colours. I don’t think it would be too cluttered, and as you say, it will help to correct mistakes as we go. That will be especially important if the categories are expanded and custom sub-categories made available.

1 Like

Drawing inspiration from email apps that I’ve used, perhaps a coloured bar down the side of the transaction with the colour corresponding to the category could be an option?

A very crude illustration shown below, obviously the bar could be made thinner etc…

I don’t feel this would clutter up the feed too much, although obviously would rely on remembering which colour was which category, but could give a quick indication within the transaction feed, and would maybe be more prominent than a icon or label below the merchant logo?

3 Likes

Something like that would look good. I can see why expenses are visually distinct from other categories, and I think it would be good to keep that distinction, even if other categories are shown in the transaction list. So with your coloured bars, the “expenses” text could still be shown below the amount on the right.

1 Like