Learning centre · Every week · 5 min · screens from October 2026

Payees and payee rules

Your bank writes PTS*PETRO-CAN 0412 CALGARY when you mean Petro-Canada. A payee is your name for the place money goes. A payee rule tells Mintro that name once, so every matching transaction afterwards arrives with the right name and, if you ask, already filed in the right envelope.

What you'll do

Name one transaction and have every transaction like it named too
Write a rule by hand: what to match, which payee, and which envelope
Rename and merge payees without losing a single transaction
Let your agent suggest rules based on what it has filed

Step 1

Name a payee once

A transaction your bank sent that nobody has named shows the bank's words and a Name it button. It opens a rule already filled in from those words. Pick the payee (an existing one, or type a new name) and, if it always goes to the same envelope, that envelope. When you save, three things happen at once: this transaction is named, every waiting transaction the rule matches is named, and every matching one that arrives later will be named too. If you chose an envelope, they are all filed into it as well.

Settings, the Payees page: counts across the top, the household's payees as a table, and the bank names still waiting for a payee — Settings → Payees. The strip across the top counts your payees, your rules and the bank names still waiting for a payee. The table below sorts and filters every payee, and Rules beside Payees lists the rules in the order Mintro tries them.

Settings → Payees. The strip across the top counts your payees, your rules and the bank names still waiting for a payee. The table below sorts and filters every payee, and Rules beside Payees lists the rules in the order Mintro tries them.

name every PETRO-CAN row Petro-Canada and file them to Gas

Step 2

Write a rule by hand

A rule looks for text in the bank's description or merchant name, using contains, starts with, ends with, is exactly, or a pattern where * stands for anything. It can also be limited to money coming in or going out, to one account, or to a range of amounts: COSTCO over $100 is the grocery shop, and under $20 is the gas station. The rule always sets the payee. It files into an envelope only if you choose one and tick File it there automatically. If you leave the envelope as Leave it (I'll file it myself), the rule just names the transaction and does nothing else.

Mintro tries rules in order and uses the first one that matches, so put the specific rules above the general ones. The preview under the editor shows which waiting transactions the rule would change, before you save it.

make a rule: anything from COSTCO over $100 is Costco, filed to Groceries

Step 3

Rename and merge payees

You can change a payee's name at any time with the pencil beside it, and every transaction with that payee changes with it. Two payees that are really the same, like Tim Hortons #4412 and Tim Hortons, can be merged into the one you keep, along with their transactions and rules: tick both and press Merge them into one payee, or open one and choose the payee to keep. The Never used filter finds the payees no transaction carries any more, so you can tick them and delete them together. Typing a new payee on a single transaction in the register adds that name to the list, so the list grows as you file.

The Accounts register: named rows (Petro-Canada, Costco, Netflix) beside rows still in the bank's words, such as TIM HORTONS and HOME DEPOT #7021 — The register. Transactions a rule has named read the way you would say them; the rest still show the bank's words until you give them a payee.

The register. Transactions a rule has named read the way you would say them; the rest still show the bank's words until you give them a payee.

merge Tim Hortons #4412 and Tim Hortons into one payee

Step 4

Let your agent do the naming

Your agent sees the same transactions and can create the same rules. Ask it to suggest rules from a month of filing, and it shows you each one first (what it matches, what name it would set, and which transactions it would change) before it creates it. Rules are shared across a household: a rule Maya's chat made also names Jordan's transactions.

look at what you filed this month and suggest payee rules for anything that repeats