Counterparties

A "counterparty" is the other side of a transaction — the merchant or payer name on a bank line (for example AMAZON WEB SVCS or STRIPE PAYOUT). This page audits every distinct counterparty from your last 90 days of activity and surfaces three independent things you can do about each one: link it to the global registry, set a default category, or create a bank rule. It's the fastest way to clean up merchant names and lock in consistent categorization.

Key capabilities

• 90-day counterparty audit with transaction counts, distinct ledgers, current default, and matching rules 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 touches the shared canonical entry
• Per-counterparty default category that fires before bank rules and AI
• Defaults can also stamp a memo and mark matching transactions as personal
• One-click jump from an inconsistently-booked counterparty into a pre-filled bank rule
• Summary cards: total counterparties, with default category, booked inconsistently, and unlinked to registry
• Toolbar search and a "needs attention" toggle for fast triage
• Counterparty defaults ("Counterparty Rules") are gated behind 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 and links it. 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 to see every distinct counterparty from the last 90 days, with transaction counts, current default category, matching rules, and any issues.
2. Use the toolbar search to filter by counterparty or default-category name; toggle Show only counterparties that need attention to focus on rows that are unlinked or booked inconsistently.
3. Click Link on an unlinked row to attach this business's transactions to a canonical entity — search the registry and pick an existing entry, or create a new one if there's no match.
4. Click Set default to pin a default category — the categorization engine assigns new transactions there even when no bank rule fires.
5. Click Add rule (shown when a counterparty is "Booked inconsistently") to open the bank rules editor pre-filled with a contains-match on that name.
6. Click Unlink to remove the registry link from this business's transactions (the canonical entry is untouched), or View to see every transaction for the counterparty.

Pro tips

• The registry is the global, cross-business catalogue — one row per real-world company, shared by every business. It holds the canonical name, alternate spellings, tax ID, merchant ID, website domain, category, logo, and verified flag.
• Linking only changes your transactions — it never edits the registry row. Unlinking only removes the link for your business; the entry stays intact for everyone else.
• A default category is a per-business override on a counterparty. Unlike a bank rule, defaults always fire; rules support multi-condition logic and priorities.
• Prefer linking to the registry first, then setting a default by registry entry — registry-keyed defaults survive a merchant rename, name-keyed defaults don't.
• The "Booked inconsistently" card counts counterparties whose transactions hit more than one ledger in the last 90 days without a default category — fix these first to clean up historical categorization.
• A default can also stamp a memo and flag matches as personal, which is handy for owner-draw or reimbursable spend at a known merchant.

In-depth guide

The audit row

Each row summarizes one distinct counterparty over the trailing 90 days.

Registry vs. default vs. bank rule

These three tools are independent and complementary:

The registry entry

Each canonical entry carries identity, enrichment, and usage data shared across all businesses.

• Counterparty type — one of customer, vendor, or both.
• Hierarchy — entries support a parent/child hierarchy (brand family, legal subsidiary, product/service, processor alias, or other), so brand variants and payment-processor aliases can roll up to a parent company.

How matching behaves

When you link an unlinked counterparty, DayZero matches it against the global registry (including fuzzy name matching) and links the best fit when confident:

• Confident match — the counterparty links to the existing canonical entry.
• No confident match — a new canonical entry is created for you.
• Deletion — entries are deactivated rather than permanently removed.
• Merge history — merges are recorded so they stay auditable and can be undone.