In this article, you'll learn how to manage the list of categories your transactions and receipts get filed under. You'll also see why each category's kind matters. Pick the wrong kind and money that never belonged in your profit and loss ends up in your In and Out totals.
Categories are part of Bookkeeping. Bookkeeping has to be switched on in Features first. If you haven't done that yet, start with Turning on Bookkeeping and connecting your bank.
To open your categories:
- In the menu, click Bookkeeping.
- Click the Rules & settings tab.
- Scroll down to the Categories card at the bottom of the page.
How categories are grouped
The card sorts your categories by kind, under these headings:
- Expenses: what you spend money on to run the business
- Income: what customers pay you
- Transfers — never profit or loss: your own money moving between your own accounts
- Owner money — never profit or loss: money you put into the business or take out of it
- Loans & liabilities — never profit or loss: loan principal, or money like sales tax that you're holding for someone else
Why the kind matters
At the top of the Transactions tab you'll see In, Out and Net. Only Income categories count toward In, and only Expenses count toward Out.
Anything filed under the other three kinds stays out of both. It's listed below the totals as money moved between accounts, outside profit and loss. Say you move $5,000 from checking to savings and file it under an Expense category. Your month looks $5,000 worse than it really was. File it under a Transfer category and your profit stays right.
Add a category
- In the box at the bottom of the card (it says "Add a category, e.g. Dump Fees"), type the name.
- In the picker next to it, choose the kind.
- Click Add.
The new category goes under its kind's heading. You can pick it in your rules, on transactions and on receipts straight away.
Rename a category
- Click ✎ next to the category.
- Change the name in the box.
- Click save. To back out without changing anything, click the ✕ next to it instead.
The new name carries through everywhere the old one was used: every transaction, split, receipt and rule, plus your always-approve entries. You don't have to re-file anything.
Hide a category, or show it again
Click − next to a category to hide it from the pickers. Nothing already filed under it changes. It stays in the card with a dashed outline and the word hidden, so you can find it later.
To bring it back, click ↺ next to it.
Hiding works for every category, including the ones the list started with.
Delete a category
Click ✕ next to a category to delete it. Two limits apply:
- You can only delete categories you added yourself. The ones the list came with have no ✕. Hide those instead.
- The category can't be in use. If any transaction, split, receipt or rule still uses it, you'll get a message saying how many records use it and telling you to hide it instead.
Receipts use the same list
Receipts and Bookkeeping share one category list. So a receipt you snap and the bank charge that paid for it file under the same name. Add, rename or hide a category here and Receipts sees the same change.
On your phone
The phone app's Bookkeeping has a Rules & settings tab with its own Categories card. So does the CRM in a phone's browser. It does less than the desktop card:
- To add a category, type a name in New category, pick expense, income or transfer, then tap Add category. Owner money and loans & liabilities can only be added on a computer.
- To hide a category you added, tap Archive next to it. It drops off the phone list. To show it again, use ↺ on a computer.
- Renaming, deleting and showing hidden categories again only work on a computer.