The same high-street shop can sell you a weekly food shop, lunch in its café and a replacement kettle. A rule that calls all three “Groceries” produces a tidy chart and a bad answer to “What did we spend on food?”
Start with one distinguishable transaction. If your statement actually identifies the café, you can route that debit separately. If all three purchases have the same merchant text, the bank row cannot tell you what was in the basket. Keep those purchases open for review against the receipt.
Four rows to test before applying a rule
| Posted bank description | Amount | Expected result |
|---|---|---|
| ORCHARD MARKET CAFE | −£6.80 | Eating out |
| ORCHARD MARKET FOOD HALL | −£42.60 | Groceries |
| ORCHARD MARKET | −£24.00 | Review against receipt |
| ORCHARD MARKET FOOD HALL | +£8.00 | Review as a possible refund |
These are invented GBP transactions for testing. The account shows £73.40 of debits and £8.00 of credits, a net cash outflow of £65.40. Category rules change how you explain those rows. The underlying four amounts must still add up. In particular, the £8 credit should not acquire the expense category just because its description matches the grocery purchase.
Get a clean sample from your UK current account
If the account is already in Securo, go straight to its transactions. Otherwise, connect an eligible UK account in BankSync and have a workspace owner or admin create a SimpleFIN access. In Settings → Developers → SimpleFIN, restrict that access to the account you plan to review. Leave the one-use setup token private. Claim it through the Securo account connection flow with SimpleFIN enabled on your instance. BankSync’s Securo connection guide
Compare a recent posted debit with the bank. Read the text that actually reached Securo and choose a few positive and negative examples. Some banks send a store number or a different merchant description between the authorisation and the posted entry. Use posted entries for this test. UK bank connection and pending records
Give the specific transaction the first chance to match
In Securo, go to Rules → + Add. Combine a description condition and an expense-type condition with AND. The numbers below are example priorities you choose. Securo evaluates lower numbers first. Once a matching rule sets the category, later matches cannot replace it. Other matching actions, including payee updates, can still run. Securo rule conditions and priority
A small ruleset you can explain
| Priority | Conditions | Action |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Description contains ORCHARD MARKET CAFE AND Type is expense | Set category to Eating out |
| 20 | Description contains ORCHARD MARKET FOOD HALL AND Type is expense | Set category to Groceries |
| No category rule | Description contains only ORCHARD MARKET, or the row is a credit | Inspect the receipt or refund confirmation |
Test the rule before using it on history
Look for both hits and misses
Open Preview in the rule editor. For the grocery rule, the £42.60 expense should match. The café, the general shop purchase and the £8 credit should stay outside that rule.
Check a second merchant description
Search the actual ledger for variations, such as a location or terminal suffix. Add a narrower condition only when the bank text reliably distinguishes the purchase.
Save with a small scope
When Securo asks about existing transactions, keep your hand-categorised history intact on the first pass. Inspect the next matching posted purchase before applying the rule more broadly.
Keep one exception visible
For the £24 purchase, consult the receipt. If the merchant description has no distinguishing feature, categorise this row manually rather than making the rule broader.
Handle the refund and check your totals
A merchant credit can be a return, a partial refund or an unrelated adjustment. Find the original purchase and compare the refund confirmation to the credited amount. For example, if the £8 credit really reverses part of the £42.60 food purchase, its net effect on that shopping trip is £34.60. Keep the original purchase and credit visible as two entries. A refund that cannot yet be paired stays in review.
Also set aside transfers between your own accounts. If both legs were imported separately, Securo lets you select and link the matching legs as a transfer. That keeps a payment to yourself out of spending and income. Securo transaction and transfer guide
Keep the narrow rules that save repeat work and leave genuinely mixed merchants for the next receipt review. For connection troubleshooting, use the UK Securo account review. For a second household app, the account-scoping guide covers how to give each app its own access.
Product behaviour reviewed 2 November 2026. Merchant names and amounts are illustrative.