Configuration

Configuration is where you set app-wide preferences and categorization rules. Open it from the sidebar (gear icon or “Configuration”).

General tab

• Language — App interface language (e.g. English, French, German, Italian). Changing it updates menus, labels, and doc links.
• Theme — Light or dark appearance.
• Default financing parameters — Used when you create a new pre-purchase analysis or when the app needs defaults:
  • Down payment % — e.g. 20 → mortgage 80%.
  • Interest rate % — e.g. 1.5.
  • Notary fees % — e.g. 5% of purchase price.
  • Occupancy rate % — e.g. 85 for long-term, 65 for short-term.
  • Marginal tax rate % — e.g. 40 for income tax estimate.

These defaults don’t change existing properties or saved pre-purchase scenarios; they only pre-fill new ones.

Categories and rules tab

• Categories — You see built-in categories (Rental Income, Cleaning, Bank & Mortgage, etc.) and can add custom categories (name, icon, color, and whether they count as income or expense). Custom categories then appear in the Categorization tab and in exports.
• Rules — For each category you can add keywords. When a transaction’s description contains a keyword, Hostfolio assigns that category (unless a manual override exists for that description or that transaction).
  • You can remove default keywords (e.g. if a built-in rule is wrong for you) and add your own.
  • Rules are global — they apply to all properties and all future imports.

Free tier: There may be a limit on the number of custom categories (e.g. 5). Pro allows more.

Why rules matter

• After your first import, you assign categories manually in the Categorization tab. For recurring descriptions (e.g. “Airbnb payout”), add a rule in Configuration so the next import auto-categorizes them.
• Rules save time and keep categorization consistent across multiple CSVs and properties.

Opening Configuration from the app

• Sidebar — Click Configuration (or the gear icon).
• From categorization — When choosing a category for a transaction, some UIs offer a link like “Manage categories” or “Add rule” that opens Configuration with the Categories and rules tab (e.g. ?tab=categories).

For step-by-step categorization and rules, see Categorization.