Share Your Monarch Money Workflow Hacks and Automation Tips
Hi folks! I’ve been using Monarch Money for a while now and I’m trying to improve my setup with better workflows and automations. I’m curious what solutions other users have created.
What I’m hoping to find:
Custom workflows or automation tools you use with Monarch
Ways to handle receipt scanning and matching
Better methods for managing cash transactions and account transfers
Integration setups with other apps for business tracking
Issues I keep running into:
Monarch seems to struggle with some basic accounting scenarios that I deal with regularly:
Cash deposits show up without proper account balancing
Quick transfers between my accounts get categorized wrong as income or spending
Loan payment imports don’t separate the interest from principal portions
Categories get messy when I import CSV files from my bank
My current solution - CSV cleanup workflow:
I created a process to clean up bank exports before importing them into Monarch. Here’s what it does:
def prepare_monarch_import(bank_file, account_info):
# Get account details from user
account_name = account_info['name']
account_type = account_info['type'] # asset or liability
default_merchant = account_info['merchant']
# Process each transaction
for transaction in bank_file:
# Fix date format
transaction['date'] = format_date_yyyy_mm_dd(transaction['date'])
# Set correct amount signs
if account_type == 'liability':
# Payments reduce liability (negative)
# New charges increase liability (positive)
transaction['amount'] = adjust_liability_amount(transaction)
else:
# Standard asset account logic
transaction['amount'] = adjust_asset_amount(transaction)
# Add required fields
transaction['merchant'] = get_merchant_name(transaction, default_merchant)
transaction['category'] = determine_category(transaction)
transaction['tags'] = generate_tags(transaction)
transaction['notes'] = create_notes(transaction)
return format_for_monarch_upload(bank_file)
def handle_cash_deposits(transactions):
# Find cash deposits that need balancing entries
cash_deposits = find_unbalanced_cash(transactions)
balancing_entries = []
for deposit in cash_deposits:
# Create withdrawal from cash account
withdrawal = {
'date': deposit['date'],
'amount': -deposit['amount'], # Opposite sign
'account': 'CASH',
'category': 'Transfers',
'merchant': 'CASH WITHDRAWAL',
'notes': f"Balance for deposit to {deposit['account']}"
}
balancing_entries.append(withdrawal)
return balancing_entries
Anyone else dealing with similar import issues? What tools or processes have worked well for you?
The reconciliation headaches you’re describing are exactly why I switched to a weekly batch processing routine instead of trying to fix everything as it imports. I download all my bank files on Sunday mornings and run them through a standardized cleanup before anything touches Monarch.
What really helped was creating mirror transactions for problematic items. When Monarch imports a messy transfer, I leave the original alone and create two new transactions that properly represent both sides. Then I tag the original as “IGNORE” so it doesn’t affect my actual reporting but stays for audit purposes.
For business tracking integration, I export monthly summaries from Monarch and feed them into QuickBooks rather than trying to make everything work in real-time. The lag doesn’t matter for my needs and it eliminates most of the category mapping problems.
Your CSV preprocessing script handles the technical side well, but you might want to add some validation checks. I learned this the hard way when a bank changed their export format and corrupted three months of data before I noticed. Now I always verify row counts and total amounts match before importing.
Have you tried using Monarch’s rules feature more aggressively? I found that spending time upfront to create very specific rules for common transactions eliminates most manual work later.
honestly the receipt matching thing is what kills me most. i’ve been using a diffrent approach tho - i connect monarch to my credit card apps and they pull transaction details automaticaly. way less manual work than csv imports. for the cash stuff i just treat it like any expense category instead of trying to balance accounts. keeps things simple and i dont stress about perfect bookkeeping anymore.
I went through this exact nightmare about 2 years ago. The breaking point for me was when I spent an entire weekend fixing 3 months of messed up transfers that Monarch had categorized as income.
What finally worked was building a two-stage import process. Stage one handles the data cleanup (similar to your script), but stage two is where the magic happens - I created a reconciliation checker that flags anything suspicious before it goes into Monarch.
The key insight was realizing that most problems come from timing differences. Banks export pending transactions, cleared transactions, and sometimes both. My checker looks for duplicate amounts within a 3-day window and flags them for manual review.
For the loan payment issue specifically, I started importing those as split transactions from day one. Most banks will let you download detailed statements that already separate interest and principal if you dig into their advanced export options. Worth checking if yours does this.
One thing that saved me tons of time - I stopped trying to make Monarch handle business vs personal automatically. Instead I tag everything with either #BIZ or #PERS during import, then export filtered views monthly. Way cleaner than trying to integrate with other business software.
The cash tracking problem never really goes away, but I found that creating a monthly “cash reconciliation” ritual works better than trying to track every dollar. I count my actual cash, compare it to what Monarch thinks I have, and make one adjustment entry.
Your Python approach is solid but you might want to add a dry-run mode that shows you what changes it would make before actually modifying files. Saved my butt more than once when bank formats changed unexpectedly.
The transfer categorization problem you mentioned hits close to home. I solved this by establishing consistent naming conventions in my bank accounts before transactions even hit Monarch. Most banks let you add custom descriptions for transfers, so I prefix everything with “XFER” followed by a code.
For CSV imports, I found that pre-mapping merchant names makes a huge difference. I maintain a simple text file with find-and-replace pairs that standardize how vendors appear. This way “AMZN MKTP” always becomes “Amazon” and similar cleanup happens automatically.
Regarding loan payments, rather than splitting after import, I actually delete the original transaction and create two separate entries - one for interest expense and one for principal reduction. Takes an extra minute but keeps the books cleaner long-term.
One workflow that might help with your cash tracking is treating cash like any other account. I created a “Wallet” account and record cash withdrawals as transfers to it. Then cash purchases come out of the wallet account. The balance should roughly match what’s actually in my wallet.
Your Python approach is more sophisticated than what most people need, but if you’re comfortable with coding, have you considered using the bank APIs directly instead of CSV exports? Some institutions support it and the data comes through much cleaner.
I feel your pain with those import issues. Been wrestling with similar problems for months now.
One thing that saved me a lot of headaches was setting up a buffer account in Monarch for all those messy transfers. I call it “Transfer Clearing” and route everything questionable through there first. Then I can manually categorize and move things to the right spots without messing up my main account balances.
For the loan payment splitting, I ended up creating a simple spreadsheet that calculates the interest/principal breakdown based on my loan terms. Then I manually split those transactions in Monarch after import. Not elegant but it works.
The cash deposit balancing is tricky. I handle it by creating a “Cash on Hand” account in Monarch and always record both sides of cash movements. So cash deposit to bank gets matched with a withdrawal from the cash account.
For receipt matching, I take photos with my phone and just dump them all in a Google Drive folder named by month. When I review transactions weekly, I can quickly grab the right receipt if needed.
Your Python script looks solid. I do something similar but with a basic Excel macro since I’m more comfortable there.
This video covers some workflow tricks that might help with your setup. The creator shows a few methods I hadn’t thought of.
What’s your biggest time sink right now? The initial CSV cleanup or the ongoing categorization work?
