The Spend tab provides a detailed view of an applicant's spending across categories, helping you assess spending behaviour, identify potential risks, and understand how their expenditure aligns with their income. This tab combines automated affordability rules with visual analysis tools to support comprehensive spending assessments.
Spend affordability rules
The Spend tab displays any spending-focused affordability rules that have been triggered based on the Open Banking data. These rules appear at the top of the tab and help identify potential risks related to gambling, Buy Now Pay Later usage, and other spending behaviours.
Rule outcomes and indicators
The Spend tab itself displays an icon reflecting the overall outcome of spending-related rules:
Green tick (✓) - Accept: No spend affordability rules have been triggered
Amber exclamation mark (!) - Refer: At least one REF rule has been triggered
Red X (✗) - Decline: At least one DEC rule has been triggered
When rules are triggered, they are listed with full context to help you understand the issue and investigate further.
Rules displayed in the Spend tab
The following affordability rules relate to spending and appear in this tab when triggered:
DEC16 - Gambling frequency: Monitors high numbers of gambling transactions within a configurable period
REF27 - Gambling frequency: Identifies a lower threshold of gambling transactions that may warrant further investigation
DEC17 - Gambling value: Flags when gambling spending exceeds a significant percentage of average monthly income
REF28 - Gambling value: Highlights when gambling spending exceeds a lower threshold percentage of income
DEC18 - Buy Now Pay Later: Monitors high numbers of BNPL transactions within a configurable period
REF29 - Buy Now Pay Later: Identifies a lower threshold of BNPL transactions that may warrant further investigation
Each triggered rule shows two key pieces of information:
Rule configuration (left-aligned): The specific threshold set for your organisation, e.g., "900 or more gambling transactions in the last 3 month(s) (DEC16)"
Actual result (right-aligned): The number of transactions or percentage that triggered the rule
Example rule configurations
The standard configurations are:
DEC16: 900 or more gambling transactions in the last 3 months
REF27: 30 or more gambling transactions in the last 3 months
DEC17: More than 15% of average monthly income spent on gambling in the last 3 months
REF28: More than 5% of average monthly income spent on gambling in the last 3 months
DEC18: 90 or more BNPL payments in the last 3 months
REF29: 36 or more BNPL payments in the last 3 months
All thresholds (number of transactions, percentages, and time periods) are fully configurable to meet your organisation's lending policies.
For more information about how these rules work and their configuration, see Affordability Rules and Affordability Rules in the Dashboard.
Spend Breakdown chart
The Spend Breakdown chart shows the applicant's expenditure by category over the connection period, making it easy to see spending composition, identify patterns, and assess whether spending aligns with their income and circumstances.
Spending categories
The chart displays all spending categories represented in the data, including:
Needs (essentials): Bills, Housekeeping, Insurance, Travel, Health
Wants (discretionary): Eating out, Entertainment, Holidays, Electronics & hobbies, Gifts & donations
Commitments: Loan repayments, High cost credit, Buy Now Pay Later, Bank charges
Other categories: Gambling, Cash withdrawals, Business services
Unclassified spending: Transactions that haven't yet been categorised or don't clearly fit existing categories
If you identify transactions that need recategorisation, you can manually adjust them. For details, see Understanding Open Banking: Self Categorisation.
Chart controls
The Spend Breakdown chart includes two sets of filter controls:
Type filter (All / Needs / Wants / Commitments)
All (default): Shows all spending categories
Needs: Shows only essential spending (bills, housekeeping, insurance, travel, health)
Wants: Shows only discretionary spending (eating out, entertainment, holidays)
Commitments: Shows only debt and credit-related spending (loan repayments, credit commitments, BNPL)
These categories align with the 50/30/20 budgeting rule. For more information about this framework and how it's used in affordability assessment, see The 50/30/20 Rule.
Sentiment filter (All / Negative / Neutral / Positive)
All (default): Shows all spending categories
Positive: Spending that indicates financial responsibility and stability
Neutral: Spending that is neither concerning nor particularly positive
Negative: Spending indicating potential affordability or behavioural issues (gambling, high cost credit, bank charges, excessive BNPL usage)
These controls let you quickly filter to specific types of spending without manually toggling individual legend items.
Legend and trends
The Spend Breakdown legend shows:
Average spending for each category over the connection period
Percentage change: How the current month compares to the average
Red: Increase from average
Green: Decrease from average
Interactive features
The Spend Breakdown chart supports the same interactions as other affordability charts:
Hover over bars: See detailed monthly breakdowns by category
Click legend items: Hide or show specific spending categories
Use Type and Sentiment controls: Quickly filter to collections of categories
These tools allow you to conduct detailed spending assessments, focusing on essential expenditure or investigating potential concerns like gambling or high cost credit usage.
Transactions table
The Transactions table at the bottom of the page provides a complete, searchable record of all spending transactions over the connection period.
Table controls
The table includes several controls to help you find and analyse specific transactions:
Date filter
Select a preset time range or create a custom date range:
Last 90 days
Last 180 days
Maximum (full connection period)
Custom range
Category and Merchant filters
Filter transactions by spending category or merchant name.
Search box
Search across all columns: date, category, merchant, description, or amount. This makes it easy to locate specific transactions or patterns.
Rows per page
Change the number of rows displayed:
10 (default)
20
50
100
Use the pagination controls to move through the pages.
Sorting and hiding columns
Sort columns: Click any column header to sort in ascending or descending order
Hide columns: Hover over a column header, click the three dots on the right, and select "Hide column". This can be useful if you're working on a smaller screen or want to focus on specific information
Using the Spend tab effectively
The Spend tab is designed to provide both high-level insights and detailed investigation capabilities:
Start with the rules: Check whether any spend affordability rules have been triggered and understand the context
Review the Spend Breakdown chart: Assess overall spending patterns and composition
Use the Type filter: Understand how spending is distributed across Needs, Wants, and Commitments
Apply the Sentiment filter: Quickly identify any negative spending patterns (gambling, high cost credit, excessive BNPL)
Investigate in the Transactions table: Drill down into specific transactions, date ranges, or categories as needed
Together, these tools enable thorough, evidence-based spending assessment to support fair and informed lending decisions.