1. Overview

This guide explains how transaction categorization helps organize financial activity across reporting, margin analysis, cash flow, and operational workflows.

You’ll learn how Finz categorizes transactions, how to review and update categories, how categorization impacts reporting accuracy, and how operators use transaction review workflows to maintain clean financial visibility throughout the month.

Accurate categorization helps reduce manual finance work, improve reporting quality, and strengthen AI CFO analysis across the platform.

2. Why transaction categorization matters

Transaction categorization helps Finz organize financial activity into the correct operational and accounting buckets.

Accurate categorization improves:

• margin visibility

• reporting accuracy

• operational forecasting

• AI CFO analysis

• weekly financial workflows

Categorized transactions also reduce manual cleanup during month-end close.

3. How Finz categorizes transactions

Finz automatically attempts to categorize transactions using:

• vendor history

• transaction descriptions

• connected account mappings

• historical activity

• QuickBooks data

• prior operator decisions

When confidence is low, transactions are marked as Needs Review so operators can verify them manually.

4. Reviewing transactions

Transactions requiring review appear inside the transaction review workflow.

Operators can review:

• vendor name

• transaction description

• amount

• proposed category

• connected account

• historical mappings

• transaction direction

This allows teams to quickly confirm whether the categorization is accurate.

5. Updating a category

When reviewing a transaction, operators can:

• approve the suggested category

• update the financial category

• assign the correct account mapping

• review supporting transaction metadata

Examples of common categories include:

• Labor

• Operating Expenses

• Fixed Expenses

• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

• Other Expenses

Once updated, the transaction immediately improves downstream reporting across Finz.

6. How categorization impacts reporting

Categorized transactions directly affect:

• Margin calculations

• Operating expenses

• Profitability reporting

• Cash flow analysis

• Signals

• AI CFO recommendations

Incorrect or missing categorization may distort financial visibility across the platform.

7. Improving categorization accuracy over time

As transactions are reviewed, Finz continuously improves categorization quality using historical operator decisions and transaction patterns.

Over time, this reduces:

• manual review work

• uncategorized activity

• reporting inconsistencies

8. Recommended weekly workflow

Most operators review transaction categorization weekly to:

• Keep margin reporting accurate

• Reduce uncategorized activity

• Improve operational visibility

• Prevent month-end cleanup

• Improve forecasting and AI analysis