🔗 Linking Transactions

When you connect your bank, Ledgend imports transactions with payee names exactly as your bank sends them. The same merchant can appear under different names — for example, “TESCO STORE 1234”, “TESCO EXPRESS”, or “TESCO PLC” — which creates separate payee records. Linking merges these into one payee so your spending is tracked correctly and categories apply consistently.

Why link payees?

• Accurate spending totals — All transactions for the same merchant count together in reports and payee views
• Consistent categorisation — Once you assign a category, it applies to all linked transactions (including future imports)
• Cleaner payee list — Fewer duplicate payees to manage

📍 Where to link

You can link payees from two places:

1. When categorising a transaction — After assigning a category, Ledgend can suggest similar payees to link
2. From the payee detail page — Open any payee and use the “Link similar” action

Linking when you categorise a transaction

When you assign a category to a transaction, Ledgend can apply that category to all existing transactions for that payee and optionally link similar payees.

Step 1: Assign a category

1. Go to Transactions in the sidebar
2. Find an uncategorised transaction and click the category dropdown
3. Select a category (e.g. “Groceries”)

4. If this is the first time you’ve categorised this payee, a dialog appears asking whether to apply the category to existing transactions

5. Choose Apply to existing or This transaction only as needed

Step 2: Link similar payees

If Ledgend finds other payees with similar names (e.g. “TESCO STORE 5678”), a second step appears asking if you want to link them.

6. Select the payees you want to link and confirm
7. All linked payees will now use the same category for current and future transactions

Linking from the payee detail page

You can also link payees directly from a payee’s detail page. This is useful when you notice duplicates or want to tidy up your payee list.

Step 1: Open the payee

1. Go to Transactions
2. Click a payee name to open their detail page
   — Or use search/filter to find transactions, then click the payee

Step 2: Open the link dialog

1. On the payee detail page, click the Link similar button (link icon) in the header

2. The Link similar payees dialog opens, showing payees with similar names that aren’t yet linked

Step 3: Link or unlink

1. Review the suggested payees — Ledgend matches by name similarity (e.g. “TESCO” in different formats)
2. Click Link next to each payee you want to merge
3. Linked payees become aliases of the main payee and share its category rules
4. To unlink an alias, click Unlink — it will become a separate payee again

How linking works

• Canonical payee — The payee you’re viewing or categorising is the “main” payee. Linked payees are aliases of this one.
• Category inheritance — When you link a payee, its uncategorised transactions inherit the canonical payee’s category (from rules or recent transactions).
• Future imports — New transactions from your bank that match an alias will appear under the canonical payee.

💡 Tips

• Link payees as you categorise — it’s the fastest way to keep things tidy
• Check the payee detail page periodically for “Link similar” suggestions
• You can unlink at any time if you linked by mistake