Using Subcategories to Organize Expenses

Subcategories give you a finer level of detail within a broader category. They are especially useful for breaking down large expense areas into meaningful subgroups.

When to Use Subcategories

Use subcategories when a single top-level category covers multiple distinct expense types. For example:

How Subcategories Appear

In the Transaction Form

When selecting a category on a transaction, subcategories are shown with their parent name for clarity:

• Feed > Hay
• Feed > Grain
• Veterinary > Vaccines

This makes it easy to pick the right category even when multiple subcategories have similar names.

In the Profit & Loss Report

The P&L report groups transactions by the category hierarchy:

1. Income section
   • Parent categories with their totals
   • Subcategories nested inside, each with their own totals
2. Expense section
   • Same hierarchical structure

You can expand a parent category to see the breakdown across its subcategories and individual transactions.

On the Category Management Page

Subcategories are indented under their parent in the tree view. Click the expand/collapse arrow to show or hide children.

Tips

• Keep it practical. You don't need to subcategorize everything. Start with broad categories and add subcategories where you want more detail.
• Plan ahead. Think about what breakdown you'll want to see in reports before creating categories.
• Subcategories can be reassigned. You can edit a subcategory to move it under a different parent, or promote it to a top-level category by selecting “— None (top-level) —” as the parent.