Categories

A category is just a name you file an entry under: Groceries, Rent, Fuel. Two screens depend on them — Where cannot report on what it cannot group, and Budget cannot plan for a category that does not exist.

An entry can also be split across several: a receipt that was part groceries and part household goods, a paycheque that is salary less tax.

Each category is either spending or income. That distinction is kept on the category itself rather than guessed from amounts, because a salary is still income in a month it does not arrive, and a refund on your groceries does not turn Groceries into an income line.

You do not have to leave what you are doing to make one. Every category list, on an entry, a split line, a recurring payment, a loan, a card or an imported statement line, has a + beside it: type the name, say whether it is spending or income, and it is chosen for you there and then.

Advice#

• Fewer, broader categories are more useful than many narrow ones. You will actually use them.
• Name them after what you would ask about later, not after the shop you bought from.
• A category you have never once looked at is worth deleting.