Do coupon restrictions only work on master categories?

I have tried the coupon codes to work for years on and off and have never had success.

I am trying to create a coupon where customers would get 20% off everything except sale items.

I've tried everything but it seems it's very dependent on the master category.

Category Tree:

by color

green
by manufacturer
Moda

I'm testing with one product to try and figure this out.
I have a product which is in both categories "Green" and "Moda".
The master category is "Moda".
If I deny all categories and allow "Green", the coupon does not work.
If I deny all categories and allow "Moda", the coupon works.
How do make it work for both "Green" and "Moda"?

Any help will be appreciated.
URL: https://www.twiddletails.com/store

Sometimes, you have to do Products specifically ... as they are Linked Products or you have sales, specials, etc.

Setting Category Top to DENY then set the Categories that have Products that only use that Category ...

Then, where you have specific Products that are allowed/denied set those ...

NOTE: you will see you have a way by Categories for the **All Products **that can be set to ALLOW or DENY then you can switch the Products you need changes to one or the other ...

Sometimes building the restrictions can be a bit time consuming until you have the patterns that work best for you ...

Make sure that you really look at your Products, especially if you Import Products as many importers are NOT setting the master_categories_id correctly ...