Counterparties

Counterparties are the merchant or payer names on bank lines. This page audits them over the last 30 days, 90 days, or 12 months so you can link each to the registry, tidy the names, set a default category, or add a bank rule for consistent categorization.

Key capabilities

• Counterparty audit with transaction counts, number of categories, current default, matching rules, and last-seen date per row
• Per-row Linked / Unlinked status against the global counterparty registry
• Smart registry search that finds the right canonical company even when the bank name is messy
• Link / unlink scoped to your business, never touching the shared canonical entry
• Per-counterparty default category that fires before auto-learned rules and AI, with a memo and a "personal" flag
• Summary cards: total counterparties, with default category, booked inconsistently, and unlinked to registry
• Rename or merge names (for example "AMZN Mktp" and "Amazon") and Reset to detected to recompute a name from the bank text
• Inconsistent names tab that groups likely duplicates for one-click merging
• Naming rules tab: "when the name matches, call it" rules for new and existing transactions
• Saved renames tab: see, edit, or remove the names DayZero remembers, with the transactions each one affects
• Bulk Merge, Set default, and Link as vendors on selected rows
• Counterparty defaults require the AI Pro add-on

How it works

When you link an unlinked counterparty, DayZero matches it against the global registry to find the right canonical company. If nothing matches with high confidence, it creates a new registry entry for you.

flowchart LR
  start["Link to registry"] --> match["Match against the registry"]
  match --> confident{"High-confidence match?"}
  confident -->|"Yes"| link["Link to canonical entity"]
  confident -->|"No"| create["Create new entry"]

How to use it

1. Open Counterparties, pick the window (30 days, 90 days, 12 months), and review each counterparty's transactions, default category, rules, and issues.
2. Search by counterparty or default-category name, or click a summary card to filter to rows that are unlinked or booked inconsistently.
3. Click Link on an unlinked row, search the registry and pick an existing entry, or choose Create & link if there is no match.
4. Click Set default to pin a default category. The dialog lists any bank rule or default that competes, and you can add a memo or mark matches as personal.
5. Click a row to open its details: category breakdown, recent transactions, and actions such as Rename, Reset to detected, Unlink, Edit default, and All transactions. Add rule appears when the counterparty is booked inconsistently and opens the bank rules editor pre-filled with that name.
6. Select several rows to Merge them under one name, Set default for all, or Link as vendors.
7. Open Inconsistent names to see names that look like the same payee, edit the name to keep, and choose Merge (or dismiss the group).
8. Open Naming rules to add a rule (contains, starts with, exact, or matches regex), use Preview matches, and optionally rename existing matching transactions. Apply runs a saved rule on history later.
9. Open Saved renames to see every remembered name. Use the pencil to change the shown name, or Remove to put the original names back.
10. If a saved rename shows Check this, it is showing a payment processor's transactions (a payroll provider, for example) as one person. When the page offers a fix, Rename transactions files each one under the payee named in its bank description and removes that rename.

Pro tips

• The registry is the global, cross-business catalogue, with one row per real-world company shared by every business. Linking only changes your transactions; unlinking only removes the link for your business.
• Your own bank rules and account-type rules run before a counterparty default; auto-learned rules, merchant patterns, Plaid categories, and AI come after.
• Prefer linking to the registry first, then setting a default by registry entry. Defaults tied to a registry entry survive a merchant rename; defaults tied to a name do not.
• "Booked inconsistently" counts counterparties whose transactions hit more than one category in the window without a default. Fix these first to clean up historical categorization.
• Renaming on a single transaction changes only that row unless you tick Also rename other transactions (saved rename), which saves the rename for every transaction under that name, including future ones. A name you type on a row is never overruled by a saved rename.
• The processor fix never guesses: anything it is unsure about is listed under Check these yourself and left unchanged.

In-depth guide

Registry vs. default vs. bank rule

The registry entry

Each canonical entry carries a name, alternate spellings, tax ID, merchant ID, website, category, logo, and a verified flag, plus customer, vendor, and transaction counts kept up to date automatically. The type is Customer, Vendor, or Both. Entries can have a parent (brand family, subsidiary, or payment-processor alias) so variants roll up to one company. Entries are deactivated rather than deleted, and merges are recorded so they stay auditable.

Unlink a vendor or customer from the registry

Vendors and customers are matched to a registry entry when you create them, and occasionally the match is wrong (a person linked to a company, say). Open the record from Vendors or Customers, click edit, and the Registry row shows the entry it is linked to. Unlink removes the link. Your transactions on that entry that carry the record's name (or were named from it by your invoices, bills or AR/AP ledgers) are unlinked too, unless you renamed them yourself. No names change and the shared entry is untouched. Regent can do this for you in chat, and can look for a fresh, correct match right away.

Cleaning up names in bulk

Regent can also find likely duplicate names, merge them, reset names back to the detected text, give a payment processor's lines back to the payees they name, and remove saved renames. Each change is previewed first and waits for your approval. Developers can use the same tools over the API; see the Counterparties guide.