Before you start

This guide assumes you have already connected some of your clients to QuickBooks Online in the Rules Engine.

Overview

Global Rules are firm-wide categorization rules. One rule works across all of your connected clients.

Each rule assigns a Global Category. You map that Global Category once to the matching account in each client's own chart of accounts, and LedgerSync then uses that client's own account whenever the rule categorizes one of its transactions.

This article covers the three parts of Global Rules: Global Categories, Global Vendors and the Global Rules themselves.

Where to find Global Rules

1. In the top navigation bar, open Rules Engine and choose your accounting platform, for example QuickBooks.
2. In the menu on the left, under Rules, click Global Rules.

The Global Rules page has two tabs. Global Rules is the list of your rules. Apply Status lists each time a rule was applied in the background, with the request date, the processed date, the rule name, the status (Pending, Processing or Finished) and how many transactions were categorized.

Global Categories and Global Vendors are in the same left menu, under Settings, then Global Settings.

Global Categories

Global Categories are your firm's master chart of accounts. Each one links a single firm-level category name to the matching account in each client's own QuickBooks file.

Example: Your Global Category is "Bank Fees." In Client A's QuickBooks file the account is called "Bank Fee," in Client B's it is "Bank and ATM Fee," and in Client C's it is "Bank Expenses." You map each client once, and every rule that uses "Bank Fees" files to the right account for all three.

The Global Categories list shows each category's name and description, Clients Mapped and Clients Not Mapped.

Important: A rule cannot categorize a client's transactions until that client's account is mapped to the rule's Global Category. Always map your clients' accounts before relying on a rule.

When a rule matches a transaction but its category is not mapped for that client, the transaction stays in For review and shows the rule's name in a red badge. Hover over the badge to see which category is not mapped, or click it to open that Global Category and map it.

When you map a client's account to a Global Category, LedgerSync runs the rules that use that category again, so matching transactions still in For review are categorized.

To create a Global Category:

1. Click Add Global Category.
2. Under Primary Information, enter a name and a description, then click Save.
3. The window stays open and a Connect Client Categories section appears. Pick the matching account for each client.
4. Click Save again.

To change a category's mappings later, click its row in the list.

Global Vendors

Global Vendors is your firm's master vendor list. A Global Rule can set a Global Vendor as the payee, and LedgerSync matches it to the same vendor in each client's own vendor list.

To add a vendor, click Add Vendor and type the name. Click a vendor to rename it or to add aliases, which are other spellings of the vendor's name.

The Global Rules list

A Global Rule says which transactions it matches, which Global Category to assign and which Global Vendor to set as the payee. The list shows:

• Priority: rules are listed in priority order, and a rule with a lower number takes precedence over a rule with a higher number.
• Rule Name
• Apply To: Money in, Money out, or Money in or out
• Condition Scope and Conditions, for example Bank Text contains "AMAZON"
• Set Category To (the Global Category) and Payee
• Enabled: tick or untick it to turn a rule on or off

Recommended naming convention: [YourInitials].[Chart of Account].[Payee Name], for example MB.MealsEnt.Starbucks

Creating a Global Rule

You need the Manage Global Rules permission to add, edit, turn on or off, or delete Global Rules. Without it, the Global Rules list is read only.

Option A: from the Global Rules tab

1. Click Add Global Rule.
2. Enter a rule name. Rule Type is set to Inclusion by default.
3. Under Apply this to transactions that are, choose Money in, Money out, or Money in or out.
4. Set a condition, for example Bank Text Contains a keyword. Click Add a Condition to add more, and choose whether a transaction must match all or any of them.
5. Under Then assign, choose the Global Payee and the Global Category.
6. Click Save. A Rule Impact Preview shows how many transactions the rule will categorize and which clients are affected. Click Save to confirm.

A new rule is active straight away and is added at the bottom of the priority order. It is applied in the background, and you can follow its progress on the Apply Status tab.

Option B: from a transaction

1. On the Transactions page, click the transaction to open it.
2. Click create global rule and choose Manually.
3. Choose a payee and a Global Category, and connect the client's matching account to that Global Category.
4. Click proceed. The Create Global Rule form opens, filled in from the transaction: the direction, a Bank Text Contains condition with the transaction's description, the payee and the category.
5. Enter a rule name, review the other fields, and click Save, then confirm in the Rule Impact Preview.

AI rule generation

For transactions that no rule matches yet, LedgerSync can suggest Global Rules for you.

• Single transaction: Open the transaction, click create global rule and choose Using Ai. LedgerSync suggests a rule and opens the Create Global Rule form with the suggestion filled in. Review it and click Save.
• All unmatched transactions: In the left menu, under Rules, click Global Rules + AI (marked beta), then click Start. LedgerSync scans every unassigned transaction across your clients on that accounting platform and creates Global Rules, and Global Categories and vendors where needed. The page shows the progress and how many rules were created. You can Cancel a run in progress, Restart it, or Undo it to remove the rules it created.

Rules created by Global Rules + AI start with "AI" so you can find, review and refine them. Mapping each client's accounts to the Global Categories is still a manual step.

Global Rules + AI appears only for users who have the Bulk AI Rule Update permission. Your firm's main account always has it. By default, your other user roles have it too. Your firm's main account can change which roles have it, and which roles have Manage Global Rules, on the Permissions page in the user menu.

Editing a Global Rule

Click any rule in the list to open it for editing.

When you save a change, LedgerSync clears the categorization from transactions the rule no longer matches and applies the rule again. The Rule Impact Preview shows how many transactions will be categorized and how many will be cleared before you confirm. Rules are only applied to unreviewed transactions.

Rule History

Every change to a Global Rule is recorded. While editing a rule, click the history button at the top of the window (its tooltip says Rule History) to see each change, who made it and when. This helps when you need to understand unexpected categorization.

Resetting transactions to re-run rules

If overlapping or incorrect rules categorized transactions wrongly, you can reset them and let the corrected rules run again:

• Clear & Reset: On the For review tab, select the transactions and click Clear & Reset. Once you confirm, their payee and category are cleared and the rules are applied to them again.
• Reset Transactions: This button at the bottom of the left menu resets the selected client. It moves every transaction not yet synced back to For review, clears its categorization, and also removes the client's Global Category mappings. Global Rules then stop applying to that client until you map its accounts to your Global Categories again. When you map them, the rules that use those categories run again.

Audit log

The Rules Engine keeps an audit log of actions taken by users in your firm. Open it from the left menu under Settings, then Rules Engine Audit. It records:

• Global rule creation, edits and deletions
• Client rule creation, edits and deletions
• Category mapping changes
• Transaction actions: Accept, Undo Accept, Exclude and Undo Exclude

Each entry shows the date and time, the user, the client, the event and a description of what changed. For batch actions, such as accepting many transactions at once, click the row to expand it and see each transaction affected. You can filter the log by client, entity type, action and date range, and search by user.

Filtering and navigation tips

• On the Global Rules list, use the Rule State filter (Active or Inactive) to see only rules that are turned on or off.
• Use the Applied To filter to show rules by direction: Money in, Money out, or Money in or out.
• Use the search box to find rules.
• In the transaction list, you can sort by a column by clicking its header.
• When you open the Categorized tab, it shows only transactions not yet synced to QuickBooks by default, so you see what still needs your attention.

Related articles

• Rule Direction: Money In, Money Out, or Both
• Default Rules & Categories
• How to Use the Sync Status Tab

Need help?

Email LedgerSync support at support@ledgersync.com.