Categories in Monarch help you organize your financial transactions by grouping similar expenses, income, and transfers together. They function like folders or envelopes, making it easier to track cash flow, analyze spending, and budget effectively. Monarch provides a comprehensive set of default categories, but you can also create custom categories and groups to tailor your financial tracking to your needs.
Transactions related to default categories will automatically be recognized and sorted, but transactions related to custom categories will not be automatically placed. Instead, you can create rules to specify the criteria for when a transaction should be put in a custom category, or you can manually categorize them as they come in.
Tip: We recommend using the built-in system categories whenever possible, since it's less work when Monarch is able to detect the correct category for new transactions. But if they aren't a perfect match for your needs, you can change the default category names or emojis to better suit your style! Or you can set up a transaction review system if you want to ensure everything is being sorted in the right category.
Table of Contents
Default categories
Income
- 💵 Paychecks
- 💸 Interest
- 💰 Business Income
- 💰 Other Income
Expenses
- Gifts & Donations
- 🎗️ Charity
- 🎁 Gifts
- Auto & Transport
- 🚗 Auto Payment
- 🚃 Public Transit
- ⛽️ Gas
- 🔧 Auto Maintenance
- 🏢 Parking & Tolls
- 🚕 Taxi & Ride Shares
- Housing
- 🏠 Mortgage
- 🏠 Rent
- 🔨 Home Improvement
- Bills & Utilities
- 🗑️ Garbage
- 💧 Water
- ⚡️ Gas & Electric
- 🌐 Internet & Cable
- 📱 Phone
- Food & Dining
- 🍏 Groceries
- 🍽️ Restaurants & Bars
- ☕️ Coffee Shops
- Travel & Lifestyle
- 🏝️ Travel & Vacation
- 🎥 Entertainment & Recreation
- 👑 Personal
- 🐶 Pets
- 😜 Fun Money
- Shopping
- 🛍️ Shopping
- 👕 Clothing
- 🪑 Furniture & Housewares
- 🖥️ Electronics
- Children
- 👶 Child Care
- ⚽️ Child Activities
- Education
- 🎓 Student Loans
- 🏫 Education
- Health & Wellness
- 💊 Medical
- 🦷 Dentist
- 💪 Fitness
-
Financial
- 💰 Loan Repayment
- 🗄️ Financial & Legal Services
- 🏦 Financial Fees
- 🏧 Cash & ATM
- ☂️ Insurance
- 🏛️ Taxes
- Other
- ❓ Uncategorized
- 💸 Check
- 💲 Miscellaneous
- Business
- 📣 Advertising & Promotion
- 📞 Business Utilities & Communication
- 💵 Employee Wages & Contract Labor
- 🍴 Business Travel & Meals
- 🚖 Business Auto Expenses
- 📁 Business Insurance
- 📎 Office Supplies & Expenses
- 🏢 Office Rent
- 📦 Postage & Shipping
Transfers
- 🔁 Transfer
- 💳 Credit Card Payment
- ⚖️ Balance Adjustments
Investment transactions (beta) categories
The first time an institution syncs an investment transaction to your account, two new categories are added:
- Buy ➡️
- Sell ⬅️
These categories allow you to categorize your investment buys and sells as transfers instead of income or expense.
Please Note: These new categories only show up once you sync investment transactions.
Deactivate default categories
Default categories can be deactivated but not deleted. Deactivating a default category will remove it from everywhere in Monarch except the settings screen in case you want to re-enable them in the future.
To deactivate a category:
- On desktop, navigate to Settings > Categories.
- Locate and select the category you would like to deactivate.
- Select the Deactivate button.
- Confirm you want to deactivate this category by selecting Disable Category.