actualbudget/actual

[Bug]: Rule to change CLEARED to false is getting run regardless of conditions

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#5922 opened on Oct 14, 2025

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 (7 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)JavaScript (7,129 stars) (603 forks)batch import
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Description

Verified issue does not already exist?

  • I have searched and found no existing issue

What happened?

I created a rule to set the CLEARED flag to false on all imported transactions. The IF is amount < $10,000 (this is just a way to catch all rows), and the THEN is set cleared to false.

It works! The imported rows now import as uncleared.

However, everytime the rule runs, it marks all other previously imported transactions as uncleared. So now all my transactions on my chequing account are uncleared.

I also added another THEN to the rule just to see what rows it's actually meaning to update. I added THEN prepend to notes = TEST.

Imported, and the newly imported rows is uncleared, and it has TEST in the notes line.

However, all other rows in that account are now also uncleared, but there is no TEST in those rows.

So whenever you use cleared equals false in a rule it seems to clear all transactions in the account instead of just the imported transactions

How can we reproduce the issue?

  1. Marked all rows in checking as cleared
  2. Create a rule to catch all imported transactions (ex: amount < 10000, then cleared = false
  3. Import, and notice the newly imported rows are marked as uncleared, but now ALL other rows in the account are also uncleared.

Where are you hosting Actual?

Pikapods

What browsers are you seeing the problem on?

Chrome

Operating System

Windows 11

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascript
Domain
backend
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
None
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
50
Research direction
Investigate the rule engine logic that applies the 'cleared' flag modification. Look at the code that processes rules on import, specifically how conditions are checked and how the update query is constructed. Pay attention to whether the update query includes a condition to only affect newly imported transactions. Check the database schema for the 'cleared' field. Also review the comments in the issue for any additional hints from maintainers.