What this screen is for
Categories are how spending is organised and reported. Each one can sit under a parent category and is linked to a ledger account, which is what decides where the expense lands in your books. The list can be searched by name, code or description and filtered by status, parent category and linked account, with the active filters shown as removable chips.
When to use it
Add a category when spending is appearing in a group too broad to be useful, or when a new kind of cost needs reporting separately. Creating a category also creates its sub-ledger, so the category and the accounting stay aligned.
What you see on this screen
- Name — the category name, with its description beneath where one has been entered
- Code — the short code for the category, or a dash
- Account — the ledger account this category posts to
- Expenses — how many expenses have been recorded against the category; this is also what prevents deletion, since a category in use cannot be removed
- Status — Active or Inactive
- Created — when the category was added
- Actions — edit, and delete where no expenses use the category
Name, Code, Expenses, Status and Created can each be sorted on.
Filters and actions
Filters carries a count of what is set and opens four controls: Search over name, code and description; Status; Parent Category; and Linked Account. Search applies them and Reset clears them. Whatever is set then appears as a row of removable chips beneath, so you can drop one filter without touching the rest, and Clear All removes them together.
Add Category creates one and View Expenses returns to the expenses list.
Status values
- Active — offered when recording a new expense
- Inactive — kept for its history but no longer offered
Related
- All Expenses — spending recorded against these categories
- Chart of Accounts — the ledger accounts categories are linked to