The Transaction Workbench: Process a Month in Minutes
Transaction-by-transaction categorization is slow and painful. The Workbench groups everything by merchant so you can categorize in batches — and create permanent rules as you go.
The old way is broken
If you imported 150 transactions this month and 60 are uncategorized, opening each one individually is miserable. You'll give up before you're halfway through — and next month the pile is even bigger.
The Workbench solves this by grouping transactions by merchant. You don't have 60 uncategorized transactions — you have 12 merchant groups. Work through the groups and you're done in minutes.
What the Workbench does
Smart merchant grouping
Uncategorized transactions are grouped by merchant automatically so you work on all Costcos at once, not one at a time.
Bulk assign in one click
Select a merchant group, pick a category, and every transaction in that group is categorized simultaneously.
Create rules as you go
When you categorize a group, optionally save it as a vendor rule. Future imports will never need manual review for that merchant again.
MCP batch mode
Connect Claude Code to your account and ask it to categorize everything at once. The MCP server handles bulk operations natively.
How vendor rules make it permanent
The Workbench isn't just about clearing today's backlog — it's about shrinking tomorrow's. Every time you categorize a merchant group and save a vendor rule, that merchant will never appear in the Workbench again.
After a few months of regular use, most imports arrive already categorized. Your Workbench session might take two minutes instead of twenty.
The compounding effect:
- Month 1: 60 uncategorized transactions, 12 merchant groups → 20 minutes
- Month 2: 15 uncategorized (mostly new merchants) → 5 minutes
- Month 3+: Import arrives 90% pre-categorized → 2 minutes
How to use it
- 1
Open the Transaction Workbench
Go to Transactions in the sidebar and click the Workbench button at the top of the page. You'll see all uncategorized transactions grouped by merchant.
- 2
Work through groups top to bottom
Each group shows the merchant name and how many transactions it contains. Click a group to expand it and see the individual amounts and dates.
- 3
Assign a category and optionally a vendor rule
Select the category from the dropdown. Check "Save as vendor rule" to lock it in permanently — future transactions from this merchant will auto-categorize on import.
- 4
Or hand it to Claude
If you have the MCP server configured, open Claude Code and ask it to "categorize all uncategorized transactions using my existing categories." It will work through every group in one shot.
When to use MCP instead
If you're starting fresh with a large backlog — months of uncategorized transactions, hundreds of merchants — the MCP route is faster. Connect Claude Code to your Uncommon Cash account and say:
Claude will work through the entire backlog in a single session, creating rules as it goes. The Workbench handles the ongoing maintenance; MCP handles the one-time blitz. For more on how rules and MCP work together, see Smart Categorization: Rules, Not Robots.
Clear your backlog in one session
Sign up, import your transactions, and run through the Workbench once. You'll be surprised how fast it goes.