What a sweep rule actually does
A sweep rule automates one specific move: "if this account holds more than X, transfer everything above a reserve amount into that other account of mine." Both accounts have to be bank accounts you already own in AccountDesq - a sweep can never send money to a customer, a vendor, or anywhere outside your own set of accounts. Set a trigger (the balance that sets it off) and a keep-minimum (the floor it will never sweep below), and the rule handles the rest.
Creating a rule
Four fields, then activate
- 1
1. Name the rule and pick a source account
The source is the account the rule watches and sweeps FROM - typically an operating account that regularly collects more cash than it needs to hold.
- 2
2. Pick a destination account
Where the excess goes - a savings account, a reserve account, or wherever you want idle cash to land. It must be a different account from the source; AccountDesq rejects a rule that points an account at itself.
- 3
3. Set the trigger-above amount
The balance the source account has to exceed before anything sweeps. Below this, the rule does nothing.
- 4
4. Set the keep-minimum
The floor left behind after a sweep. It has to be lower than the trigger amount - set it equal or higher and AccountDesq blocks the rule, since nothing would ever have room to sweep.
Sweeps only run when you click "Run" - never on a schedule
Creating and activating a rule does not move any money by itself. Nothing sweeps until you open Cash Sweep Rules and click "Run" - the same on-demand pattern Matching Rules uses for "Run rules." A deactivated rule is skipped entirely, and can be reactivated later without losing its settings.
A swept transfer still needs a second approver
Running a rule does not post money directly - it creates an ordinary Fund Transfer for the excess amount, through the exact same path a manually created transfer goes through. That means it inherits the exact same maker-checker rule: if the swept amount is at or above your configured fund-transfer approval threshold, the transfer is held as pending until a different person approves it, instead of posting immediately. Nothing about running it through a sweep rule bypasses that control - and the threshold that applies is whichever is tighter, the source account’s own override if you’ve set one, or the workspace-wide default.
Worked example: a sweep that needs approval
Your operating account’s sweep rule triggers above ₹5,00,000 with a ₹1,00,000 minimum kept back. The balance reaches ₹8,20,000, so clicking "Run" creates a ₹7,20,000 transfer to your reserve account. If your fund-transfer approval threshold is ₹5,00,000, that transfer posts as pending - the person who ran the sweep can see it waiting, but cannot be the one who approves it themselves.
The pitfall: two active rules on the same source account
AccountDesq will let you create this - it will not warn you
Nothing stops you from creating two active rules that both sweep FROM the same source account - say, one sweeping above ₹5,00,000 to a Savings account and another sweeping above ₹5,00,000 to a Payroll Reserve account. Each rule runs against whatever balance is actually left at the moment it is evaluated, in order, so the second rule sees the balance AFTER the first one already swept - not the original balance. Depending on your trigger and minimum amounts, that can mean the second rule finds nothing left to sweep and skips (probably not what you intended), or - if the amounts are not chosen carefully - the two rules end up moving more of the account’s cash than you meant to move across the two destinations combined.
Before activating a second rule on the same source
- Check Cash Sweep Rules for any other active rule already using this account as its source
- Choose trigger and keep-minimum amounts for each rule with the OTHER rule in mind, not in isolation
- Run once and check the Fund Transfers list to see what actually happened before relying on it going forward
- If you only meant to pause a rule temporarily, deactivate it rather than deleting it - deactivating keeps its settings for later
Can a sweep rule send money to a vendor or customer account?
No - both the source and destination have to be bank accounts you already own in AccountDesq. A sweep is purely a transfer between your own accounts, never an outbound payment.
What happens if the source account balance is below the trigger when I click Run?
The rule is skipped for that run, with a reason recorded (for example, "balance is at or below the trigger"). It is not an error - it just means there is nothing to sweep yet, and the rule stays active for the next time you run it.
Does deleting a sweep rule undo transfers it already created?
No - a transfer a sweep rule already created is a normal Fund Transfer and stays exactly as it posted. Deleting the rule only stops future runs; to undo an individual transfer, void it from Fund Transfers, the same as any other transfer.
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