How to use Lums

Everything you need to know, from core concepts to real-life examples.

Ask your money anything, in plain language.

Core Concepts

Five ideas that make Lums click

Master these and you'll know exactly how to ask for what you need.

01

Categories

The "What" of your spending

Every transaction belongs to a category, a standardized label that describes what the money was spent on. Categories are fixed (you can't create new ones), which is what makes trend analysis reliable.

Two-level hierarchy

Parent categories like Food & Drink contain subcategories like Groceries, Restaurants, Coffee, and Fast Food. ~120 subcategories cover virtually every type of spending.

Why fixed categories?

Consistency makes comparisons meaningful. If you named your own categories, Lums couldn't reliably tell you "your grocery spending rose 18% this month."

What you could ask to Lums
  • "Recategorize my Amazon purchase from Tuesday as Electronics"
  • "All Walmart transactions should be Groceries"
  • "Show me which transactions have low-confidence categories"

Spending

March 2025
$1,847 total spent

  • Food & Dining: $524
  • Shopping: $342
  • Transport: $218
  • Entertainment: $186
  • Health: $154
  • Other: $423

By Category

  • 🍽️ Food & Dining
    $524 (28.4%)
  • 🛍️ Shopping
    $342 (18.5%)
  • 🚗 Transport
    $218 (11.8%)
  • 🎬 Entertainment
    $186 (10.1%)
  • 💊 Health
    $154 (8.3%)
  • 📦 Other
    $423 (22.9%)

Tags

The "Why" of your spending

Tags are custom labels you create. While categories describe what something is, tags describe why it matters to you. A transaction can have one category but unlimited tags.

Fully flexible

You make them up, name them anything, and apply as many as you want. Tags are your tool for personal financial context.

Perfect for tracking reimbursables

Tag work expenses, gifts, or travel-specific purchases so you can filter and total them any time.

What you could ask to Lums
  • "Tag all my Netflix charges as streaming"
  • "Add a work-expense tag to my last 3 Uber rides"
  • "Show me all transactions tagged review this month"

Account Overview

Net Worth (Apr 2026)
$15,966
Assets: $17,450
Liabilities: -$1,484

Connected Accounts

Tracks accounts imported automatically:

  • TD Chequing
  • TD Savings
  • RBC Visa Infinite
  • Wealthsimple TFSA Growth
  • Personal RRSP
What you could ask to Lums
  • "What's my checking account balance?"
  • "What's my net worth?"
  • "Create a cash account for my wallet with $200 starting balance"

Transfers

Moving money without inflating your spending

A transfer is when money moves between two of your own accounts, like paying your credit card from checking or moving funds to savings. Without proper handling, this would appear as spending.

Excluded from expense totals

Lums automatically identifies transfers and removes them from your spending calculations so your reports reflect reality.

What you could ask to Lums
  • "Mark that $850 payment as an internal transfer"
  • "Find my credit card payments this month and mark them as transfers"
  • "Find my unlinked transfers and pair them up"

Rules

Set it and forget it

A rule tells Lums: whenever a transaction matches this pattern, automatically do this. Rules run on every new transaction that arrives, so you never manually categorize the same merchant again.

What rules can do

Auto-categorize transactions or auto-tag them. Rules fire on every future import.

What you could ask to Lums
  • "Create a rule: all Starbucks transactions → Coffee category"
  • "Any charge from Netflix should be tagged streaming"
  • "All Uber charges should go to the Rideshare category"

Chat Guide

How to talk to Lums

Lums responds in whatever language you write, English or French. Here's what gets you the best answers.

01

Be specific about time

Lums understands various time frames clearly.

02

Name the merchant directly

Specificity yields better results.

03

Ask for the answer, not the data

Lums is an analyst, not a search engine.

04

Break up multi-step requests

Keep requests clear and distinct for better processing.

FAQ

Questions first-time users ask

  • Do I need to set anything up before I can use Lums?
  • Why can't I create my own categories?
  • Will Lums see my passwords or banking credentials?
  • What if a transaction is categorized wrong?
  • How is a transfer different from a regular transaction?
  • What's the difference between a tag and a category?
  • Can Lums predict my future balance?
  • Does Lums support multiple currencies?
  • What languages does Lums support?
  • How far back does Lums's memory go?