# 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" #### Transaction N Netflix - $15.99 Visa Desjardins (4821) Apr 1, 2026 ##### Category 🎬 Entertainment ##### Tags - Subscriptions - Entertainment - Monthly Search or create a tag… - Streaming - Recurring - Personal - Digital Filter by tag Use tags to group and filter transactions your way — across any category. Other transactions tagged Subscriptions - 🎵 Spotify Apr 1 - $11.99 - ☁️ iCloud+ Apr 1 - $4.99 - 🎨 Adobe CC Mar 28 - $54.99 --- ### Accounts Your complete financial picture An account represents any place money lives or flows. Connected accounts are imported via Plaid. You can also add manual accounts for cash, IOUs, or banks Lums doesn't support yet. #### Connected accounts (via Plaid) Checking, savings, credit cards, mortgages, student loans, investment accounts: all imported automatically when you connect your bank. #### Manual accounts Track cash, informal loans, or accounts from unsupported banks. Add transactions manually. They appear in your net worth and balance calculations just like connected accounts. 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" # Accounts Net Worth Apr 2026 $15,966 ↑ $1,847 (4.1%) | Assets | Liabilities | |------------|--------------| | $17,450 | -$1,484 | TD Bank - TD Chequing••4821 $2,450.18 CAD - TD Savings••0194 $12,000.00 CAD RBC Royal Bank - Visa Infinite••7732 -$834.55 CAD Wealthsimple - TFSA Growth••2291 $3,000.00 CAD Personal RRSP - Manual Personal RRSP $0.00 CAD Add Account --- ### 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. #### Auto-detected transfer pairs Lums matches a debit on one account with a corresponding credit on another. You can also trigger this manually. 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" #### Transactions | Day | Week | Month | Year | All | |-----------|----------|----------|----------|--------| | Expenses | Income | Transfers | Transfers | Excluded from your income & expense totals — so your budget always stays accurate. | **Apr 8, 2026** - ↔️ Transfer to Savings -$500.00 Chequing (1234) · Apr 8, 2026 ##### Category Internal Transfer Linked Transfer Tracked From Chequing (1234) $500.00 To Savings (5678) ✓ Not counted as income or expense — just a move between your accounts. Other transfers this month - 💳 VISA Payment Transfer Apr 5 -$220.00 - ↔️ Savings Deposit Transfer Apr 8 $500.00 - 💳 TD Visa Payment Transfer Mar 31 -$220.00 --- ### 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 (all Starbucks → Coffee) or auto-tag them (all Amazon → tag "online-shopping"). Rules fire on every future import. #### Matching logic Match by merchant name using contains or equals. Case-insensitive: "uber" matches "UBER", "Uber Eats", and "UBER*TRIP". 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" #### Categorization Rules New transactions matching these rules are categorized automatically 3 active rules - 🚗 Transport if: Merchant name includes ‘Uber’ - 🍽️ Food & Drink if: Merchant name includes ‘McDonald’ - 📱 Subscriptions if: Transaction name includes ‘Netflix’ - 🛍️ Shopping if: Merchant name is ‘Amazon’ Rules run automatically on every new import — no action needed. --- ## 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: today, this week, last week, this month, last month, last 30 days, last 90 days, Q1 2025, January 2024, this year, last year. 02 ### Name the merchant directly "How much at Whole Foods?" works better than "how much on food?", though both work. Specific is just faster. 03 ### Ask for the answer, not the data Lums is an analyst, not a search engine. Ask "where am I overspending?" instead of "show me my transactions." 04 ### Break up multi-step requests "Show me dining, compare to last month, then build a $300 budget for it": better as three separate messages. --- ## FAQ ### Questions first-time users ask The answers, in plain language. - 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? We're here to help.