An attribute engine matches incoming data against one or more matching attributes to set one or more target attributes of one or more rules. Each rule is characterized by a rule shape and a matchset. A template is defined for each rule shape and target attribute. Templates associated with a target attribute are sorted according to their matchsets and may be suppressed by one or more rule suppression principles. A rules editor is provided that allows support personnel to edit rules in tabular form instead of directly editing pseudo-code segments.