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When you set up a destination that includes a Categories table, Finta can use Plaid’s AI to automatically assign spending categories to your transactions. This behavior is controlled by the Use AI Categorization toggle in your Categories table settings.

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Where to find it

  1. Open your Finta dashboard and click a destination in the sidebar.
  2. Click the Categories row in the Synced Tables section.
  3. The Use AI Categorization toggle appears near the top of the settings panel that slides in.
Categories table settings panel showing the Use AI Categorization toggle
This toggle only appears if your destination includes a Plaid bank connection. It is not shown for Mercury, GoCardless, or Stripe connections, which handle categories differently.

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What it does

When turned on: Plaid’s AI analyzes each transaction and assigns a category — such as Food and Drink, Travel, or Shopping. During each sync:
  • The categories Plaid assigned are written to your Categories table in the destination.
  • Each transaction in your Transactions table is linked to its Plaid category.
When turned off: Transactions sync without any AI-assigned category. During each sync:
  • No category data is passed to your Transactions table from Plaid.
  • No new rows are written to your Categories table.
Turning off AI Categorization does not delete existing category rows already written to your destination. Rows that were synced before you toggled the setting off will remain. Only future syncs are affected.

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Turning it off

If you prefer to categorize transactions yourself — using rules or manually — you can turn off AI Categorization to keep Plaid’s categories out of your destination entirely.
  1. Open the Categories table settings for your destination (see above).
  2. Toggle Use AI Categorization off.
  3. Click Save.
The next sync will run without Plaid categories. Transactions added after that point will not have a category assigned from Plaid.