Key Features & Settings

Key Features & Settings

QuickCatch is equipped with advanced parsing, matching, and system configuration tools. This page details how to configure payee mapping, manage battery optimizations, and customize category intelligence behavior.

🏷️ Customizing Payee & Category Matching

To prevent bank abbreviations and random transaction codes from cluttering your YNAB budget, QuickCatch utilizes a hybrid matching system.

Hybrid Payee Matching Engine

When a notification is intercepted, the text undergoes cleaning before it is sent to YNAB:

1. Sanitization: Cleans common merchant prefixes and suffixes such as SQ *, DNH*, SP *, or order tracking codes like #1234.
2. Acronym & Boundary Matching: Gracefully handles shortened merchant names like QuikTrip (QT) or spaces in names like Jersey Mikes to match your existing YNAB payee names.
3. Generic Blacklist Check: A built-in security checklist prevents common verbs (like Pending, Withdrawal, Direct Deposit) from causing false positives or matching to actual payees.
4. Fallback to Server-Side Rules: If no local match exists in the Room Database, the cleaned name is sent to YNAB’s payee_name field, where your custom YNAB Web App Renaming Rules will automatically categorize it on the server.

Category Intelligence (3-Month Lookback)

QuickCatch remembers how you’ve categorized transactions.

• Auto-Categorization: When a transaction is parsed, the app queries the local database for matching transactions from the last 3 months. If it finds that you categorized QT under the Gas budget category, it will pre-select Gas automatically.
• Auto-Correction Sync: If you manually change a category in the QuickCatch transaction review drawer, the app updates its mapping algorithm so subsequent alerts inherit the updated category instantly.

💸 Venmo & Zelle Settings

Peer-to-peer payment apps often bundle the payee name as the person you sent money to, making budget categorization difficult. QuickCatch provides specific rules for these tools:

1. Service-as-Payee Mapping:
   • Enabled (Recommended): Sets the YNAB payee to “Venmo” or “Zelle” and moves the recipient’s name and payment description to the YNAB Memo field (e.g. Memo: Sent $25 to John Doe for Dinner).
   • Disabled: Sets the payee directly to the recipient’s name (e.g. Payee: John Doe).
2. Account Mapping Rules: In Settings > Account Rules, you can route all Venmo or Zelle payments to land in your default Checking Account or a specific Venmo/Zelle Cash account inside YNAB automatically.
3. Venmo Deposit Classification: The specialized VenmoEmailParser parses email alert keywords to correctly distinguish bank transfers and deposits as credit events (inflow deposits) rather than charge/expense events.

⚡ Workflow Efficiency & Inbox Hygiene

QuickCatch includes several features to speed up your verification workflow and keep your email inbox clean:

• Customizable Swipe Gestures: You can configure Left/Right swipe actions in the main transaction list to perform quick tasks:
  • Archive: Instantly removes the transaction from the pending list and moves the source email out of your Gmail inbox.
  • Delete: Trashes the source email and dismisses the transaction locally.
  • Dismiss: Clears the transaction from the local list without affecting your emails.

Swipe Gestures Settings

Swipe Left (Dismiss)

Swipe Right (Archive)

🛡️ Data Security & Portability

As a “Local-First” application, QuickCatch incorporates robust local protection and backup utilities:

• SQLCipher Local Encryption: Your transaction history, rules, and cache tables are stored in a local Room database encrypted with industrial-grade AES-256 encryption via SQLCipher. No plaintext financial logs are stored on the device.
• Duplicate Protection: A robust history-matching engine tracks processed message IDs and notification signatures, ensuring the same alert is never imported twice, even during force-synchronizations.
• Demo Mode Mock Environment: Test the app and all matching engines safely using a pre-configured simulation mode that uses mock financial data before connecting your real Gmail or YNAB credentials.

📤 Settings & Rules Backup (Export & Import)

To ensure your custom category mappings, whitelists, and preferences are not lost, QuickCatch includes a local backup and restore system:

1. Export Configuration:
   • Navigate to Settings > Maintenance Tools.
   • Tap Export Configuration to compile all local whitelists, custom payee renaming rules, and settings preferences into a human-readable JSON backup file.
2. Import Configuration:
   • Tap Import Configuration from the Maintenance Tools panel and select your previously saved JSON file.
   • Smart Rule Re-linking: When importing a backup JSON, QuickCatch uses Name-Based Resolution to match your custom rules to YNAB account IDs in your current target budget, avoiding broken UUID references.

Demo Connectivity

Demo YNAB Settings

Demo Account Maps

Demo Transactions

🔋 Managing Sync & Android Settings

Because QuickCatch relies on persistent background listening, Android’s system battery savers can sometimes interfere with performance. Follow these guidelines to secure reliable sync:

1. Battery Optimization Bypass

Android is aggressive about putting background processes to sleep. To keep QuickCatch active:

1. Navigate to Settings > System Settings > Battery Optimization.
2. Change the dropdown filter from “Not optimized” to All apps.
3. Locate QuickCatch in the list.
4. Select it, choose Don’t Optimize (or Unrestricted on Android 12+), and tap Done.

[!IMPORTANT] Failure to disable battery optimization will result in delayed syncs, where notifications are only processed when the screen is turned on.

2. Adjusting Gmail Sync Settings

Under Settings > Sync Frequencies, you can configure how Gmail background polling and synchronization are handled:

• Gmail Polling Frequency: Customize how often the background service checks your Gmail inbox for new transaction alerts (respecting Android’s WorkManager limitations, with a 15-minute minimum).
• Instant Gmail Trigger: If enabled, uses high-priority notification triggers to immediately launch the email parser the moment a push alert is received, bypassing default polling delays. Note: Enabling the Instant Gmail Trigger makes the standard polling frequency option unavailable (grayed out) as it transitions the sync to pure push-events.

3. Maintenance Tools

For troubleshooting, diagnostic, or security resets:

• Clear Processed History: Deletes all cached transaction signatures and notification log IDs from the database, allowing previously parsed notifications to be processed again.
• Full App Reset: A diagnostic tool in the maintenance panel that wipes all local configurations, database tables, and YNAB access tokens for a clean start.
• Blocking Maintenance UI: Initiating critical operations (such as importing configuration backups or triggering a full app reset) displays a non-dismissible progress dialog. This blocks user interaction and system interrupts to ensure safe file and database executions, followed by a clean app reboot.

⚙️ App Settings Reference

QuickCatch features an extensive settings dashboard allowing detailed customization of account mappings, synchronization intervals, interface behaviors, and data utilities.

UI Preferences

YNAB Preferences

Gmail Quick Actions

Maintenance Tools