Software to input all monthly expenses from my bank (csv) and automatic categorizing expenses

Question

I don't know how I'm spending my money and my bank doesn't help because it doesn't categorize the expenses. I'd like to have my expenses somehow grouped in some software that can classify automatically the expenses based on some rules set by me (example: if expense name is X then categorize it as Y).

I usually export all the expenses at the end of the month in CSV format so I'm okay with normalizing the data a bit before inserting it into the software.

What's important for me is:

• To have all the expenses as a list
• To automatically categorize expenses when they are added based on some rules
• To have some pie charts or something that you see at a glance where did the money go
• To be able to automatically import from csv or other formats
• Preferrably free (but I can check paid ones if they are really worth it)
• Linux or Windows

Nice to have:

• Automatic import from bank (although I assume that since I'm not in the US there won't be any apps that do this so...)
• Windows would be nice but if it's Linux only I can adapt if it's worth

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Even though you opted for Google Sheets, you should also look at FireFly III

• "Firefly III features a double-entry bookkeeping system. You can quickly enter and organize your transactions in multiple currencies."

• It has a "special Data Importer" that supports various sources.

• It also has a Rule Engine to "to quickly convert shorthands to detailed transactions or clean up your bank's abysmal CSV"

You can try a demo here.

Answer 2

Google Sheets can also be used as an option. I made some custom formulas to assign categories based on some regular expressions.

This is the simplest if you don't need anything else, and if someday you want to move away from Google you can always do the exact same procedure on opensource excel-like software.

Importing the csv is pretty straightforward in a new tab and then you can copy that on the tab that has the formulas so they can get automatic tags. At the end of the formulas tab there are some percentage calculations to see where the expenses went that month.

In case anyone is interested the custom formula looks something like this (semicolons are used because in my locale commas are for numbers)

=IFNA(FILTER(<categories_names_range>;REGEXMATCH(<the cell with the concept of the expense>;<categories regexes range>);NOT(ISBLANK(<categories_names_range>)));"NoCategory")

Answer 3

If web based is okay, then Mint from Intuit does it very well, I think it ticks all your boxes, and you don't even need to import anything, it picks them all up automagically from the online financial logins.

If you do want a PC application, and in general something even more robust, Quicken might be a very good option. But it is not free.