Why this move matters
Category and payee lists drift over time: duplicates, typos, ones you never use. The fear that stops people from cleaning up is that deleting will erase the past. In Vondo it cannot. When you delete a category or a payee that has transactions, Vondo makes you pick where those transactions go first, so merging a duplicate is really "reassign, then delete," and nothing is lost. A tidy list keeps Notice quick to scan and Reports honest.
Do it in Vondo
1. Rename to fix a typo or sharpen a name. On the Categories screen (open it from Budget) or the Payees screen (from Transactions), choose Rename and type the new name. Every past transaction carries the new name automatically.
2. Merge a duplicate by reassigning. Delete the one you do not want; Vondo asks Reassign entries to, and you choose the keeper. Its transactions move across, then the duplicate is gone.
3. Payees work the same way, with one extra choice. Deleting a payee lets you reassign its entries to another payee, or Clear the payee to leave those entries with none. Either way the transactions themselves stay.
4. Give a name a visual marker. A leading emoji, like the one on Groceries, is not a separate setting, it is just part of the name, and it shows up wherever the name does: the budget, the ledger, and Reports. Type one into any category or payee you want to spot at a glance.
5. Reorder and hide categories. Drag a category by its handle to move it, or Hide one you are not using this season without deleting it, Unhide brings it back. Payees stay alphabetical and do not hide.
What you should see now
A clean, ordered set of categories and a duplicate-free payee list, with every past transaction intact and re-pointed exactly where you meant it to go.
Payees that learn
A payee remembers the account and category you last used it with, so next time you type it, Vondo fills in the rest. Keeping payees tidy makes that memory sharper, not weaker.
Next
Back to the loop, on a tidier board.