How to add expense categories

Open Expenses, then go to the Categories tab.

What comes built in

A set of categories comes ready made, matching the standard categories you would see in accounting software such as QuickBooks. Repairs and maintenance, cost of goods sold, employee wages and payroll, equipment and tools, hosting and software, and several others are already there, so you are not starting from nothing.

Adding a category

Click Add Category, top right.

Enter a category name, which is the only field on the form, then save. The category is immediately available to choose the next time you or anyone on your team logs an expense.

Editing and deleting a category

Each category in the list has edit and delete icons next to it, so you can rename one or remove it if it turns out you do not need it.

Take care deleting a category that already has expenses filed under it. Confirm with your team what happens to those existing expenses before removing a category that is actually in use, rather than assuming.

When to add your own

The built in list covers most general business costs, so start there rather than rebuilding it from scratch.

Add your own when you have a genuine cost type the defaults do not capture, particularly anything specific to how your business actually operates rather than a generic business cost. The more your categories reflect how you actually think about your spending, the more useful your profit and loss reporting becomes later.

Avoid creating a near duplicate of a category that already exists. Two categories covering almost the same thing just splits your reporting in half for no real benefit, and makes it easy for your team to log the same kind of cost two different ways without meaning to.