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What are Matching Rules and How to Use Them

Noga Tubi
Noga Tubi
  • Updated
Torii SMP

This article describes Expense matching rules and how to create them.

 

In this article

Overview

Torii provides you with an advanced view to follow up on your company's SaaS expenses, track how much you're actually paying for each app, and even discover new apps you were not aware of.

There are three ways to get expenses into Torii:

  • Automatically import SaaS expenses into Torii by connecting your ERP/Expense system like Netsuite or Expensify into Torii (search for the desired app in our help center and follow the integration instructions)
  • Manually import the expenses by uploading the expense report
  • Via API

Torii has a sophisticated matching algorithm that automatically matches transactions to apps. As with any algorithm, you might want to tweak the matching to better suit your needs. Torii gives you three tools for that:

  • Match rule - Make sure no expense is missed.
  • Ignore rule - Keep unneeded expenses out of your expenses report.
  • Excluded terms - Stop words that aren't the vendor's name from deciding which app an expense matches to.

So, how does it work?

  • Match rule - Use this rule when an App's name contains a very general word like Box that can appear in a few apps like Dropbox, Box, AOBox, and more. In this case, you want to ensure Torii identifies and shows you only Box expenses.
  • Ignore rule - You might find expenses that should not be parts of the report, such as a vendor (for example, Microsoft) from which you see expenses for software but also books and courses.
    In this case, you want to exclude the books and course expenses from Torii.
  • Excluded terms - Use these when a word in your expense descriptions keeps pulling transactions to the wrong app. 
    • For example, your company acquired a company called Atlas, and Atlas now appears in many expense descriptions. Torii matches those expenses to an app named Atlas instead of the vendor you actually paid. Add Atlas as an excluded term, and Torii ignores the word when matching.

 

Add a "Match to" custom rule

  1. Go to Expenses
  2. Select the Matching rules tab
  3. Click on Add rule
  4. Select the first parameter
  5. Select the app you want to match:
    Once you enter the search parameter, you will get a preview if it was already matched; in case it was not matched, it will display as Unmatched

  6. If a previous match were made, you would see the "Matched to" indication and to which app it was matched

  7. Once selecting the app to which you want to match, you will get a preview of all transactions relevant to this match (click here to see some "Preview" exceptions)
  8. Click on Apply Rule

    Note, In case the rule might affect/change a previously matched expense; a warning message will prompt.

  9. The match to rule is added

     

Add an "Ignore transaction" custom rule

  1. Go to Expenses >> select the Matching rules tab and click Add rule

  2. Enter the rule parameters and select Ignore transaction

  3. Click Apply Rule

  4. The Ignore transaction rule is added

 

Exclude terms from automatic matching

Expense descriptions can include words that aren't the vendor's name: the name of a company you acquired, a cost-center tag, or the payment processor that handled the charge. When one of these words is also the name of an app, Torii's automatic matching may sometimes match the expense to that app instead of the real vendor.

Excluded terms are words that Torii ignores when it automatically matches transactions to apps. Torii keeps matching on the rest of the description, so the expense still matches to the right vendor.

When to use excluded terms

Use an excluded term when the same misleading word shows up across many transactions from different vendors. Common examples:

  • Acquired company names - Expenses from a company you acquired carry its name, which also matches an app.
  • Cost-center or department tags - Your ERP adds an internal tag to every line, and the tag matches an app name.
  • Payment processors and resellers - The processor or reseller name appears next to the vendor's name, and Torii matches the expense to the processor.

Which tool should I use?

You want to... Use
Make sure transactions that contain a specific word match to a specific app Match to rule
Keep certain transactions out of Torii's expenses entirely Ignore transaction rule
Stop a word that isn't the vendor's name from affecting automatic matching across all transactions Excluded terms

Add or remove excluded terms

  1. Go to Expenses and select the Matching rules tab.
  2. Click Excluded terms. When terms are already set, the button shows how many, for example Excluded terms (3).
  3. Type a term and press Enter, or click Add "[term]". To remove a term, click the x next to it.
  4. Before you save, check how many matched transactions the change affects. Torii shows the count under the terms.
  5. Click Apply changes.

Torii re-matches the affected transactions automatically. Allow a few minutes for the updates to show in Expenses.

Good to know

  • Terms match whole words only. The term Box affects "Box" but not "Dropbox" or "Boxed", so short terms don't affect unrelated text.
  • Spelling and punctuation must match exactly. Add each spelling you see in your expense descriptions as its own term.
  • Manually mapped transactions don't change. If you matched a transaction to an app yourself, an excluded term never overrides it.
  • Your custom rules still see the full description. Excluded terms affect only Torii's automatic matching. A Match to or Ignore transaction rule that contains an excluded word still works.
  • Nothing is deleted. The term stays in the transaction description in your expense records.
  • You can add up to 50 terms, each up to 100 characters.

 

Custom matching - logic & order

The order in which you organize the rules is essential.

Exception: Excluded terms aren't part of the rule order. They apply only to Torii's automatic matching, so you don't need to reorder your rules when you add one.

Torii follows the order of the rules from first to last.

Any new Ignore rule will be placed first, and the Match rule last by default.

When you have two rules containing the same word, arrange them thoughtfully.
For instance, here are 2 rules for Linkedin:
1. When transaction contains >> Linkedin Sales >> match to >> Linkedin Sales Navigator
2. When transaction contains >> Linkedin >> match to >> Linkedin Ads.
Place the "LinkedIn ads" rule after the "Sales Navigator" rule, otherwise, it will override the Sales navigator matching

  1. Drag and drop the rule and change the order of the rules
  2. Make sure to Apply changesmceclip0.png

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