Categories & AI Rules

Customize expense categories and create AI rules to automate invoice classification.

Beel gives you complete control over how invoices are organized. Start with 10 default categories, add your own, and create AI rules in plain English to automate classification.

Default Categories

Every workspace starts with a curated set of expense categories designed for modern businesses:

CategoryUse Case
Software & SaaSSubscriptions, licenses, APIs
Cloud InfrastructureAWS, GCP, Azure, hosting
UtilitiesInternet, phone, electricity
TravelFlights, hotels, transportation
Food & DiningTeam meals, client dinners
HardwareLaptops, monitors, equipment
Professional ServicesLegal, accounting, consulting
MarketingAds, tools, agencies
Office SuppliesFurniture, stationery, misc
OtherUncategorized expenses

Custom Categories

Create unlimited categories tailored to your business. Each category includes:

  • Label — Display name (e.g., "Legal Fees")
  • Color — HSL color for charts and badges
  • Icon — Lucide icon for quick visual recognition
  • Sort order — Control display sequence in lists and filters

Creating a Category

  1. Go to Settings > Categories
  2. Click Add Category
  3. Enter a label, pick a color and icon
  4. Save

Managing Categories

  • Default categories cannot be deleted (prevents data loss)
  • Custom categories can be edited or removed anytime
  • Deleting a category reassigns its invoices to "Other"
  • Categories are color-coded across all views — lists, charts, and dashboards

Category Ideas by Industry

  • Tech companies — "Dev Tools", "API Services", "Domain & Hosting"
  • Agencies — "Client Projects", "Stock Assets", "Freelancers"
  • E-commerce — "Shipping", "Packaging", "Inventory"
  • Accounting firms — "Client A", "Client B", "Internal"

AI Rules

Fine-tune AI behavior with plain English rules — no code required. Rules help the AI understand your specific business context and classification preferences.

How Rules Work

  1. Write rules in natural language (max 500 characters each)
  2. Rules apply automatically to all future invoice processing
  3. Enable or disable rules without deleting them
  4. Set priority with sort order — rules are processed top to bottom

Example Rules

  • "Always categorize invoices from Stripe as Professional Services"
  • "Mark any invoice from AWS over $10,000 as needing manual review"
  • "Classify anything with 'hosting' in the description as Cloud Infrastructure"
  • "Invoices from Google Workspace should be categorized as Software & SaaS"
  • "Ignore emails from noreply@newsletter.com"

Managing Rules

  1. Go to Settings > AI Rules
  2. Click Add Rule to create a new rule
  3. Write your rule in plain English
  4. Toggle active/inactive status with one click
  5. Drag to reorder priority

Best Practices

  • Start specific — Rules for known vendors work best
  • Test incrementally — Add one rule at a time and verify results
  • Use disable, not delete — Toggle rules off to test their impact before removing
  • Keep it simple — Clear, concise rules outperform complex ones