Bank rules and auto-posting

LedgerHQ has two automation paths in bank feeds: rules and AI suggestions. They both help reduce repetitive coding work, but they are not the same thing. A rule is a user-defined instruction that says matching bank rows should always be coded a certain way. An AI suggestion is LedgerHQ's researched best guess for rows that do not already have a matching rule.

The safest way to understand the workflow is this: bank feed rows start as bank evidence, then they can be coded by a rule, suggested by AI, manually coded by a user, or matched as transfers. Only posting turns the row into accounting activity that affects reports and reconciliation.

Create Rules For Repeating Patterns

Open Rules from the company workspace when you want LedgerHQ to recognize a repeat pattern. A rule has a name, a priority, a match field, a match type, a match value, and an accounting account. The match field can be description, reference, or merchant/payee. The match type can be contains, equals, starts with, or ends with.

Use rules for stable, high-confidence patterns: payroll providers, loan payments, recurring software subscriptions, merchant processors, bank fees, known insurance drafts, and other descriptions that keep arriving with the same recognizable text. Avoid rules for vague words that could match unrelated transactions.

Higher-priority rules are checked first. This matters when two rules could match the same bank row. Put the more specific rule above the more general rule so a precise match wins.

What Rule Coding Does

When an active rule matches an uncoded, unposted, non-excluded bank feed row, LedgerHQ applies the rule's account and related coding fields to the row. The row can then show as Rule coded in Bank Feeds. That label means the row was pre-coded by an active rule and is ready for the normal posting checks.

Rule coding does not overwrite a human choice. If a user manually recodes a row away from the rule's account, the manual decision wins. Rules are meant to handle repetitive untouched rows, not fight user review.

Rules also apply to rows that arrived before the rule was created. If you add or edit a rule after feed activity has already synced, LedgerHQ can still code matching uncoded rows that remain unposted and eligible.

How Rule Auto-Posting Works

Active rules can post matching bank feed rows automatically when the row is coded to the same account as the matching rule and has no posting warnings. This is separate from the AI auto-post switch. Rules are treated as a firm instruction: if the active rule confidently matches a clean row, LedgerHQ can post it through the same posting path a user would use.

Rule auto-posting still respects safety gates. LedgerHQ does not auto-post rows that are pending at the bank, excluded, already posted, missing an account, zero-dollar, suspected duplicates, suspected transfers, removed by the provider, or otherwise carrying warnings that require human confirmation.

How AI Suggestions Work

Rows without matching rules can still get help from LedgerHQ's suggestion system. Bank Feeds can show Suggest categories for the currently visible uncoded rows. LedgerHQ reviews transaction details, available history, and the company chart of accounts, then returns only suggestions it considers confident enough to show.

When a suggestion is applied, the row can show as Suggested. That means the account was filled from a suggestion, not from a bank rule. Users can change the account before posting. Suggested rows are still reviewable; they are not automatically correct just because they are convenient.

If no confident suggestion is found, LedgerHQ leaves the row uncoded. That is intentional. It is better to leave a row for human review than to create a misleading category.

How AI Auto-Post Is Different

The AI auto-post switch controls high-confidence AI researched rows. When it is on, eligible researched suggestions can post automatically. When it is off, AI can still help suggest or pre-code rows, but users post them manually with Post all coded or row-level posting actions.

AI auto-post does not control active bank rules. Active rules can post clean matching rows independently because they come from the firm's saved rule instructions. Think of the switch as applying to AI-researched rows, not to rules.

Use AI auto-post only when the firm is comfortable letting high-confidence research handle routine rows. Keep it off if the company is new, the chart of accounts is still being cleaned up, or the team wants to review suggested categories before they become posted ledger entries.

What Users Should Review

Review the first few runs of any new rule. Check whether the match text is too broad, whether the account is correct, and whether any transactions should be handled as transfers, credit card payments, loan movements, owner activity, or matches to existing register entries instead of simple expense or income coding.

For AI suggestions, review the payee, description, amount, suggested account, and any warning evidence. Use Post all coded only when the visible coded rows are routine and warning-free. If a row looks unusual, leave it unposted and ask Tally or create a support ticket with the company name, transaction date, amount, description, and what looks wrong.