How to Change the category designation on multiple transactions at once?

richterry2

My grocery store (Payee) has somehow been categorized as an education expense. There are hundreds of transactions. Is there a way to select and change them all at once?

splasher

Sort the register by Payee (click on the Payee header), select the transactions (use same concept as selecting any range in Windows), right click on the selection, select Edit from the dropdown menu.

Frankx

Hi @richterry2,

Yes you can do that.  Here are the steps:

1) Select "Tools" > "Recategorize..." ;
2) At the top of the pop-up window - "Find" should say "Transactions" and the in "with category" field you should type "education expense" (or whatever is the "exact title" of the category that is currently incorrect) > next click the "Find" button;
3) The found section now should display all transactions in your datafile that are posted to the "education expense" category;
4) Click on the word "Payee" at the top of that column. This will sort that column alphabetically;
5) Page down until you get to the first instance of the "grocery store (Payee)" name and click on the box in the "Select" column;
6) Page down again until you reach the last instance of the "grocery store (Payee)" name and - while holding down on the "Shift" key - click on the box in the "Select" column;
7) Then enter the correct Category in the "Recategorize as" field > and click the "Replace selected" button.

That should do it.  While this is pretty simple stuff - If you want to take the "wear a belt and suspenders" approach, you can backup your datafile BEFORE you do the above, just in case you mess up or don't like the results.

Let me know how this goes.

Frankx

richterry2

Frankx THANK YOU so much. I never would have figured that out and my “7 minute” hold for support yesterday was 35 min. I’m very grateful

splasher

Sort the register by Payee (click on the Payee header), select the transactions (use same concept as selecting any range in Windows), right click on the selection, select Edit from the dropdown menu.

Frankx

Hi @richterry2,

Yes you can do that.  Here are the steps:

1) Select "Tools" > "Recategorize..." ;
2) At the top of the pop-up window - "Find" should say "Transactions" and the in "with category" field you should type "education expense" (or whatever is the "exact title" of the category that is currently incorrect) > next click the "Find" button;
3) The found section now should display all transactions in your datafile that are posted to the "education expense" category;
4) Click on the word "Payee" at the top of that column. This will sort that column alphabetically;
5) Page down until you get to the first instance of the "grocery store (Payee)" name and click on the box in the "Select" column;
6) Page down again until you reach the last instance of the "grocery store (Payee)" name and - while holding down on the "Shift" key - click on the box in the "Select" column;
7) Then enter the correct Category in the "Recategorize as" field > and click the "Replace selected" button.

That should do it.  While this is pretty simple stuff - If you want to take the "wear a belt and suspenders" approach, you can backup your datafile BEFORE you do the above, just in case you mess up or don't like the results.

Let me know how this goes.

Frankx

richterry2

Frankx THANK YOU so much. I never would have figured that out and my “7 minute” hold for support yesterday was 35 min. I’m very grateful