Set Up Bank Rules

Same music subscription every month. Same alarm monitoring fee. Same payroll service charge. A bank rule tells DishBooks what to do with charges like these, so they show up in Bank activity already filled in with the right GL accountGL accountGeneral ledger account. One of the named buckets on your books, like Food Sales or Sales Tax Payable, that every dollar is sorted into. and vendor. You just check and approve.

When to use a rule (and when not to)

• Use one for recurring charges you never get a bill for: subscriptions, software, bank and processing fees, alarm monitoring.
• Skip it for vendors whose bills you upload or receive through an integration, like your food distributor. Their bill already records the expense. A rule on top of that would count the cost twice. Match those bank lines to the payment instead. See Review your bank activity.

Before you start

• Your bank is connected or importing. See Bank integrations.
• The vendors you want rules to assign are set up. See Set up vendors.
• You’ll need Bank rules set to Manage (Owners, Admins and Accountants by default).

Step 1 Open Bank Rules

Go to Banking → Bank Rules. You’ll see every rule with its priority, how many conditions it checks, and what it does under Action: Split lines shows how many GL account lines it fills in, and Assign Vendor or Assign Customer means it fills in the vendor or customer too. A green dot means the rule is on.

Use Search rules to find one fast.

Step 2 Create a rule

Click + Create new (top right). The Bank Rule panel opens.

Details

• Name: something you’ll recognize, like Spotify or Alarm monitoring.
• Priority: leave it at 0 for most rules. Higher-priority rules are checked first, so use a higher number when a specific rule should win over a general one. For example, a rule for “AMAZON WEB SERVICES” can beat a broader “AMAZON” rule.
• Enabled: on by default. Turn it off to pause a rule without deleting it.

Conditions

This is how the rule spots the right bank lines.

1. Pick a Field: Description (the text from your bank) or Amount.

2. Pick an Operator. For Description:

   • Contains: the description includes your value anywhere. Best for most rules, since banks often tack on store numbers or dates.
   • Starts with: the description begins with your value.
   • Equals: the whole description matches.

   For Amount:

   • Equals: great for a charge that’s the same every month, like a $29.99 subscription.
   • Greater than or Less than: catch anything above or below a figure.

3. Type the Value to look for, like SPOTIFY. Capital letters don’t matter, and amounts ignore the minus sign.

4. Need more than one? Click + Add condition. A line has to meet every condition to match.

Click Preview matches to see which of the last 90 days’ bank lines (up to 10) the rule would catch before you save. Too many? Make the value more specific. None? Check the exact wording in Bank activity.

Step 3 Tell it what to fill in

Assign GL account(s)

Pick the GL account the charge belongs to. Most rules send 100% to one account. Need to split it? Click + Add line and divide it by percentage (%) or a fixed dollar amount ($). For example, split an internet bill 50/50 between your two locations’ utility accounts.

Assign vendor

Turn it on and pick the vendor, so you can see spend by vendor later.

Assign customer

For deposits. Turn it on and pick the customer, like a catering client that pays you by ACH.

Ignore

For lines that should never reach your books, like a transfer you already record another way. Turn on Don’t create a journal entryJournal entryA record of money moving between GL accounts. Each one lists debits and credits that must be equal. and matching lines come in as Excluded instead. The rule shows an Ignore badge in the list.

Click Save. From now on, new matching bank lines show up in Bank activity already filled in. Just review and approve. Rules apply to every bank account, and not to lines already in Bank activity.

Need to make a change?

On the Bank Rules list, click the three dots at the end of the rule’s row:

• Edit: the rule panel opens. Make your change and click Save.
• Delete: removes the rule for good.

Only need to pause a rule for a while? Edit it and turn off Enabled instead of deleting it.

Tips and common questions

My rule isn’t catching anything.

Click Preview matches and compare the value to the exact description in Bank activity. Banks often add store numbers or extra words, so a shorter value like SPOTIFY usually works better than the full line.

Two rules match the same charge. Which one wins?

The higher priority rule’s GL account, vendor and customer settings are used first. A lower rule can still fill in something the higher one left blank.

Two different charges have the same description. How do I tell them apart?

Add a second condition. For example, Description contains ALARM and Amount equals 49.95.

Can I make a rule for my food distributor?

Not if you get their bills in DishBooks. The bill already records the cost, so a rule would double it. Use Mark as Payment in Bank activity instead.

Does a rule approve the line for me?

No. It fills the line in. You still give it a quick look and approve it, so nothing lands on your books without a human check.

What’s next

Your recurring charges now practically take care of themselves. Head back to Bank activity and watch them come in pre-filled.