Solo can suggest a category for your uncategorised transactions, so you can claim expenses and track income with a single click instead of picking a category every time.
Suggestions come from two places:
Your past activity: when you've already categorised transactions with the same description, Solo suggests the category you used before.
AI: when there's nothing in your history to go on, Solo's categorisation model suggests a category based on the description, the amount and how people in your line of work usually categorise it.
Suggestions are only ever a starting point. Nothing is categorised until you save it.
Note: When first connecting your bank account it can take up to 10 minutes for the category suggestions to appear.
In this article:
Where you'll see suggestions
Go to the Uncategorised tab in either the Income of Expenses pages. Where Solo has a suggestion, it's already filled into the 'Select a category' dropdown for you, and the tick button next to it is ready to save.
Transactions you've already categorised, and archived transactions, don't get a suggestion.
Note: Category suggestions only apply to bank feed transactions. Categories will not be suggested for transactions that have been manually added or uploaded from a transaction file.
What the coloured dot means
To the left of the category dropdown is a marker showing where the suggestion came from and how confident Solo is in it:
Tick icon: based on your past activity. Solo has seen you categorise this description at least twice before.
Green dot: high confidence (80–100%).
Orange dot: medium confidence (50–80%).
Red dot: low confidence (below 50%).
Grey dot: no suggestion for this transaction.
Grey half dot: the suggestion is still being processed.
Hover over the marker to see the full legend.
The lower the confidence, the more worth a second look the suggestion is. A red dot isn't necessarily wrong — it just means Solo had less to go on.
Accepting a suggestion
Check the suggested category is the one you want.
Click the tick button to the right of the dropdown.
That's it — the transaction is categorised and your tax calculations update straight away.
To use a different category, open the Select a category dropdown, choose the one you want, and click the tick button as usual. Your choice replaces the suggestion, and Solo learns from it for next time.
To skip a suggestion, just leave the transaction alone. Uncategorised transactions aren't included in Solo's calculations.
Accepting several at once
You don't have to work through suggestions one at a time:
Tick the checkboxes next to the transactions you want to categorise.
Click the round tick button at the top of the list.
Every selected transaction with a suggestion is saved with its suggested category. If you'd rather put the whole selection into one category, use the Categorise all dropdown instead.
Suggestions and GST
When a suggestion comes from your past activity, it brings the GST setting you used with it. If you've always claimed GST on a description, Solo suggests claiming it again — and if you've turned GST off for it (an overseas subscription, for example), Solo leaves it off.
You can still change the GST setting before or after you save.
Turning suggestions off for an account
Suggestions are on by default for every connected bank account. To turn them off for a particular account:
Go to Bank feeds.
Click Edit accounts on the bank you want to change.
Switch Auto categories off for that account.
Click Connect accounts to save.
Transactions from that account will no longer get a suggested category. On the bank feeds list, a sparkle icon next to an account means suggestions are on for it.
Turn the setting back on at any time and Solo will suggest categories for that account's transactions again, including the ones already sitting in your Uncategorised tab.
Note: Turning suggestions off doesn't change anything you've already categorised.
Is my data safe?
Yes. Category suggestions are worked out inside Solo's own systems, on the same secure infrastructure that runs the rest of the app. Your transactions aren't sent to an outside AI service such as ChatGPT.
What Solo uses to make a suggestion
The transaction itself — its description, amount, date and the account it came from.
How you've categorised transactions in the past, including whether you claimed GST.
General settings from your tax profile — whether you're GST registered, whether you claim home office or vehicle expenses, and your income types. These help Solo tell, for example, a genuine home office cost from a personal one.
What it doesn't use
Your name, email address and IRD number aren't part of it. Neither are your bank login details — Solo never has those, and its access to your bank is read-only. You can read more in How the bank feeds work.
Your transactions stay yours
When a suggestion is "based on your past activity", it's based on your account and nothing else. Solo never shows you another customer's transactions, and never shows yours to anyone else.
The AI model behind the other suggestions is trained on categorisation patterns across Solo as a whole — how often a description like 'Mitre 10' ends up under a particular category, for example. It learns the patterns, not the people, and no customer's transactions are ever exposed to another customer through a suggestion.
Nothing happens without you
A suggestion is only ever a suggestion. It doesn't categorise anything, change your tax calculations or touch your return until you click the tick to save it.
Good to know
Suggestions can take a little while to appear on freshly synced transactions. If a new transaction has a grey dot, check back later in the day.
Solo won't suggest a category from your past activity until you've used it for the same description at least twice, so a one-off doesn't turn into a habit.
Where you've used more than one category for the same description — a cafe that's $12 coffees some days and a $400 catering bill on others — Solo suggests the category that best matches the amount.
Category suggestions are currently available in the Solo web app.
Suggestions are in beta, so we're still improving them. If you're seeing suggestions that look off, let us know in the chat — it helps us make them better.
If you have any further questions, please reach out via the in-app chat and we will be happy to help.