Payee Learning

Guide 44: Payee Learning

How OtterLedger learns your categorization preferences

Overview

OtterLedger learns from your categorization choices. Over time, it gets better at automatically categorizing transactions from the same payees.

How Learning Works

The Process

1. You categorize a transaction
2. OtterLedger notes the payee and category
3. Future transactions from same payee get suggested category
4. Confidence increases with each confirmation

Learning Levels

Payee Normalization

Raw Bank Names

Banks often show payees differently:

• AMZN MKTP US*AB1234
• AMAZON.COM*1A2B3C
• Amazon.com*AMZN

Normalized Names

OtterLedger recognizes these as "Amazon" and applies consistent categorization.

AI-Powered Friendly Name Extraction (February 2026)

OtterLedger now includes AI-powered friendly name extraction that automatically cleans messy bank descriptions during import. Raw descriptions like CHECKCARD 0115 STARBUCKS #12345 SEATTLE WA are reduced to a clean display name such as "Starbucks" before the transaction ever appears in your register. This means the payee learning system sees a consistent, human-readable name from the first import, improving suggestion accuracy from day one.

Managing Learned Payees

View Learned Payees

Settings → Payee Learning

Edit a Payee

1. Select payee from list
2. Change display name
3. Change default category
4. Save changes

Reset Learning

To start fresh with a payee:

1. Select payee
2. Click Reset
3. Confirm

Merging Duplicate Payees

If you find duplicate entries for the same merchant (for example, "Starbucks" and "STARBUCKS" appearing as separate payees), you can combine them using the Payee Merge feature. Merging consolidates transaction history and learned categories under a single payee record. See Guide 47: Payee Management & Merge for step-by-step instructions.

Priority System

OtterLedger checks in order:

1. User Rules - Your explicit rules first
2. Learned Payees - From your history
3. AI Categorization - When payee is new

Tips

• Review learned payees periodically
• Correct miscategorizations promptly
• Use consistent categories for better learning
• Merge duplicate payees when found

Multi-Category Payees

Some payees span categories:

• Walmart: Groceries, Household, Clothing
• Amazon: Everything

Handling

1. Create rules for specific patterns
2. Or manually categorize each time
3. Use splits for multi-category purchases

Finding and Merging Duplicates

The Payees view includes a Merge tab that scans your payee list for likely duplicates (based on name similarity) and lets you review and merge them in bulk. This is especially useful after an initial import where the same merchant may have arrived under several raw bank description variants. For detailed instructions, see Guide 47: Payee Management & Merge.

What's Next

• Guide 24: Creating Rules — set up automatic categorization rules
• Guide 47: Payee Management & Merge — manage, rename, and merge payees