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&Michael.Carpino; &Michael.Carpino.mail;
&Jack.H.Ostroff; &Jack.H.Ostroff.mail;
2024-12-01
5.2.0

# Categories

Internally, Categories are treated by &kmymoney; as a special type of account, so many of the features of Categories are very similar to those of other Accounts.

## Categories View

categories view
categories view

The Categories View provides a summary of all the existing categories in your current data file. Similar to the Accounts View, categories are grouped into Income and Expense. As with the Institutions View and Accounts View, the list of categories can be expanded or collapsed by clicking the arrow to the left of the type or name. As with Asset and Liability Accounts, Categories can be considered subcategories, with a parent of another category instead of the top-level Income or Expense.

Similar to the Accounts View, the Categories View displays several columns with descriptive and summary information about each category. As with the Accounts View, you can select which columns are shown by right-clicking any column heading and selecting or unselecting the checkbox next to the name of the column.

The columns available for Categories are identical to those for Accounts for Name, Type, Tax, VAT, Balance, and Total Value. Online, Account Number, and IBAN are not applicable to Categories. There is one additional column available.

CC

  An indication that a cost center assignment is necessary under certain conditions when entering a transaction for this category. This is a recently added feature, which is not yet implemented, so this column is not currently used. In addition, it may not show up at all, depending on the value of a build time configuration setting.

## Creating a category

There are 3 ways to create a new category: select the Category New category menu item, right-click a parent in the tree in the Categories View and select the New Category option, or directly type the name of the new category when adding or editing a transaction in the Ledger. Doing any of these steps will direct you to the Create a new Category dialog. This dialog contains three tabs: General, Hierarchy, and Tax. The General tab includes editable fields for the new category name, type, and currency (with the default currency preselected,) as well as options for Last check number, Notes, and a checkbox for Cost Center assignment required. In the Hierarchy tab, you are able to select the appropriate parent for the category. Finally, in the Tax tab, there are fields to enable and configure VAT support, and a checkbox to include this category in tax related reports.

create new category
create new category

## Editing a Category

To edit a category, right-click a category name in the Category View, and choose Edit category.... A window appears with the same three tabs as the Create a new Category dialog: General, Hierarchy, and Tax. Each tab allows you to edit certain details of the category.

The General tab allows you to edit the name of the category, any notes you entered when you created the category, and the Last check number. The Type and Currency cannot be changed from their initial values.

The Hierarchy tab allows you to change the parent of the selected category by clicking another category which then becomes the parent. In addition, you can drag a category and drop it under its new parent.

The Tax tab allows you to assign or change VAT details, or to alter the automatic VAT assignment. It also allows you to toggle whether or not the category is included in tax related reports.

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## VAT Support

You can turn an expense/income category into a VAT category, which means that it receives all the splits that actually make up the VAT payment towards the government. You can also enter a specific percentage rate.

Categories can be assigned a VAT category, which allows &kmymoney; to split a transaction for a category into two parts, one for the category and one for the VAT. Depending on the setting of the gross/net amount switch, the amount you enter for the transaction is the gross or net amount.

Example: In Germany, there are three VAT percentages (0%, 7%, and 19%). So I have a main category "VAT paid" and three subcategories, one for each percentage rate. I create these on both the income and the expense sides so that I have six categories in total. For the goods I buy, I select one of the above mentioned categories as the "VAT category assignment".

When I buy goods, I enter them into a transaction. Let's assume I have selected the gross amount entry method, once I enter the category and amount, &kmymoney; will recognize that there's a VAT assignment and calculate the VAT part, create a second split with the VAT account and VAT amount and reduce the category amount.

The same applies to income categories but the other way around. Hope that makes sense.

## Deleting a category

Deleting a Category is similar to deleting an Account. To delete a category, right-click its name in the Categories View, and select Delete Category.... If the category has no transactions, schedules, or budgets associated with it, and it is not set as the default category for new transactions with any payee, it will be deleted.

If the category has any of those items, a popup will be displayed allowing you to choose another category to which all those items can be reassigned before the category is deleted.

If you delete a category which is the parent of any other categories, a dialog will be displayed for you to choose whether to delete that category and all its sub-categories or just the parent category. If you choose to just delete the parent category, then all its sub-categories will be moved to its parent category.

Note that deleting some categories may prompt both for where to reassign its data and also whether or not to delete any sub-categories.

## Open ledger for a category

The menu options for categories includes a choice to open a ledger for that category. When this option is selected &kmymoney; will display that category in a tab in the Ledgers View, showing all the transactions for the selected category. This allows you to quickly review all the transactions in detail for the selected category. You can then right-click any transaction to obtain additional details about the specific transaction, and can even edit the transaction.