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A rule watches for transactions that look the same and sorts them the way you would. Written once, it saves the same decision every month for as long as the payment recurs.
Steps
Open Bank rules and click Make a rule, or click Make a rule on a transaction, which prefills it from what is in front of you.
Give it a name you will recognise later.
Under Which way is the money going?, choose Received, Spent, or Either. Either is the default and matches both directions, so narrow it down unless you genuinely want both.
Under What should we look for?, build the condition: a field, a test, and a value.
Use Add another condition to narrow the rule further.
Set on to a single bank account or leave it on all bank accounts.
Under What should it do?, choose Assign a category for a straightforward payment, or Split & gross-up where one deposit needs breaking into parts.
Under What should we do with it?, set Sort as to the category and pick a Property if the payment belongs to one.
Leave the Active toggle on so the rule runs on new transactions, then click Make rule.
Writing A Condition That Holds
Match on the part of the description your bank never changes the payer’s name, not the reference number that increments.
Add an amount test only where the amount is genuinely fixed. Rent that changes annually is better matched on name alone.
Two simple rules beat one clever one.
Scope a rule to one account when the same words mean different things in different accounts.
Use the In plain English panel as your check. It is the fastest way to catch a rule that reads sensibly in the form but does the wrong thing.
Priority
Rules run top to bottom and the first match wins. Drag to reorder. Put the specific ones above the general ones: a rule for one property’s rent should sit above a rule that catches all rent.
Splits In A Rule
A rule can post more than one part, which is the pattern behind letting agent deposits. Switch What should it do? to Split & gross-up, or click Split across several categories, which does the same thing.
Gross-up matters here. An agent who collects £1,250.00 and keeps £125.00 pays you £1,125.00, and that is all your bank sees. The rule grosses the deposit back up to £1,250.00 of rent received and £125.00 of letting fee paid. Recording only the £1,125.00 understates both your income and your allowable costs.
Turning A Rule Off
Use the Active toggle rather than deleting the rule. Switching it off stops the rule matching new transactions and leaves everything it has already done untouched. You can switch it back on later.
What A Rule Is, In Plain Terms
A saved decision. You are telling RentalBux: when a transaction looks like this, treat it like that. It does not guess and it does not learn behind your back. It does exactly what you wrote, every time, until you change it. That is what the plain English panel is showing you.
Worked Example
A rule named “Rent — 24 Lyndhurst” watches money received where the description contains LYNDHURST, on the business account only, and sorts it as rental income against 24 Lyndhurst Gardens, matching the open rent invoice. Every month it takes a transaction out of the queue and puts it in front of you already answered.
Why Simple Rules Win
A rule with five conditions is a rule you will not understand in six months, and it fails the first time the bank changes a reference. Two conditions that describe the payment plainly will survive longer and be easier to fix.
Priority In Practice
Rules run top to bottom and the first match wins. A specific rule under a general one never fires. If a payment is being sorted the wrong way, the fix is usually order, not conditions.
Turning Off Versus Deleting
Turning a rule off stops it matching anything new and leaves its history intact, which is the safe move when you are not sure. Deleting removes the rule itself, though transactions it has already sorted stay as they are. Delete only rules that were a mistake from the start.