Stop an overbroad bank rule

Tally May Have Flagged It Already

Stop the rule first, investigate second, correct third. Every minute it stays active it can match more rows.

The rulebook scan grades rules by whether their postings survived contact with a person. An overbroad rule — one matching far more, or more varied, activity than intended — is reported to you in Needs you, because narrowing it is a judgment call. A miscoding rule is retired automatically. See How your bank rules get made and maintained.

Either way, the cleanup below is yours.

1. Disable It

Open Rules, find the rule, and choose Disable. LedgerHQ confirms Rule disabled and the rule shows Inactive.

Disable rather than delete. A disabled rule stops matching immediately and you keep its settings, which you need to work out what it caught.

2. Find What It Affected

Open Fast Coding > Activity and the company's Posted bucket. Identify the rows this rule coded or posted, and record the company, register, date range, count, and amounts. See Review what posted and who posted it.

Do not assume every row on those dates came from this rule.

3. Correct The Postings

For a few incorrect rows, use Undo a posted bank transaction on each and recode it. For a wide or uncertain set, use Reverse an accidental posting batch.

Never add offsetting journal entries to cancel rule postings — that hides the mistake instead of returning the rows to review.

Rows the rule coded but did not post need no reversal. Just recode them.

4. Narrow The Rule

Edit it so it cannot repeat the mistake:

• lengthen the match value to something more distinctive;
• change contains to starts with or equals;
• restrict the direction to Money in or Money out;
• add an amount ceiling;
• raise the priority of the specific rule that should have won.

Enable it again only when you can state exactly what it will and will not match. See Understand what a bank rule will post.

If It Reached A Reconciled Period

Stop and create a support ticket with the rule name, company, and date range before making further changes.