Counterparties
Vendors and customers in Kick - how they work and how to manage them.
A counterparty is the vendor or customer on the other side of a transaction - who you paid, or who paid you. Kick identifies counterparties automatically from your transaction data and uses them to power categorization, reporting, and rules.
How counterparties work
When a transaction syncs, Kick reads the merchant name or description and matches it to a counterparty. Over time, Kick builds a list of everyone your business transacts with.
Counterparties help Kick categorize more accurately. When you've told Kick that a specific vendor always maps to a specific category, it applies that every time a new transaction from that vendor comes in.
Where to find them
Go to Accounting -> Counterparties to see a grouped directory of vendors and customers. Search, set a date range, and click Filter to narrow by entity, General ledger account, Amount, or 1099 status. Click any row to open a details panel. You can also rename a counterparty if the name that synced from your bank is messy or unclear - for example, turning "SQ *COFFEE ROASTERS 12849" into "Blue Bottle Coffee."
1099 tracking
Kick lets you flag counterparties as 1099 eligible so you and your accountant can review vendor payments at tax time. Built-in 1099 review views help surface vendors that may need a 1099 form.
Counterparties and the Expenses by Vendor report
The Expenses by Vendor report is built directly from your counterparty data. It shows you total spend per vendor over any time period - useful for understanding where your money is actually going and spotting vendors worth renegotiating.
Merging counterparties
The same vendor can sometimes appear under slightly different names depending on how they show up in your bank feed. Merging duplicates consolidates them into one clean record across your reports and transaction history.
Find the duplicate you want to get rid of in the counterparty directory
Click the ⋯ menu at the end of its row and select Merge
Select the counterparty you want to keep
Click Merge
The duplicate is removed, and its journal entries and history are reassigned to the counterparty you kept.
Merging cannot be undone. Check that you have the direction right: the counterparty whose row you opened is the one that gets removed.
Counterparties and Rules
Rules can be built around specific counterparties. For example: "Every transaction from this vendor goes to Software & Subscriptions." Once set, Kick applies it automatically - no manual categorization needed.
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