Categories

Expense Categories help you to categorise your expenses and explain the nature of your expenses. Based on why and how you’ve incurred an expense, you can associate an expense category with it.

For example, if you incur an expense for a client during the business lunch, you can create an expense under the Meals and Entertainment category. Also, categories help give a clear picture of your business expenditures when you run analytic reports.

Statuses of Categories

Categories in Zoho Spend can be in one of the following statuses:

• All Categories: All the categories will be listed in this filter.
• Active Categories: All the active categories in your Zoho Spend organization will be listed in this filter.
• Inactive Categories: All the inactive categories in your Zoho Spend organization will be listed in this filter.

Add New Category

Here’s how you can add a new category:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Categories.
• Click + New Category.
• Enter the Category Name.
• Mark the Make this a sub-category checkbox, if it’s a sub-category.
  • Select the Parent Category from the dropdown for this sub-category.
• Enter the Account Code. An account code is a unique reference code for this category that is limited to 50 characters and can comprise of letters, digits, hyphen, and underscore.
• Select the Expense Type with which you would like to associate this category from the dropdown.
• Provide a Description for your category, if required.
• Select the Policies that you want to associate with this category from the dropdown.
• Click Save.

Import Categories

Here’s how you can import categories:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Categories.
• Click the More icon at the top right corner.
• Click Import Categories.
• Click Choose File and select the file you want to import. Or, drag and drop the file that you want to import.

• Select the Character Encoding and File Delimiter.
• Click Next.
• Check the mapping of the fields and click Next.
• Click Import.

Category Preferences

You can choose how you want to display the category names while creating a record. Here’s how:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Categories.
• Click the Gear icon at the top right corner.
• Mark the Display Category Account Code checkbox to display the category account code along with the category name.
• Mark the Display Category Description checkbox to display the category description as a hint along with the category name.
• Click Save.

Edit Categories

Here’s how you can edit a category:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Categories.
• Hover over the category you want to edit and click the More icon.
• Click Edit.
• Make the necessary changes and click Save.

Disable Categories

If you no longer want to use a category but may need it in the future, you can disable it instead of deleting it. Here’s how:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Categories.
• Hover over the category you want to disable and click the More icon.
• Click Disable.

Enable a Disabled Category

Here’s how you can enable a disabled category:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Categories.
• Click the Inactive Categories filter from the dropdown at the top pane.
• Hover over the category you want to enable and click the More icon.
• Click Enable.

Export Categories

Here’s how you can export categories:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Categories.
• Click the More icon at the top right corner.
• Click Export Categories.
• Choose the Export File Format. You can choose from CSV, XLS, and XLSV.
• Enter the File Protection Password if you want to protect the export file.
• Click Export.

Delete Categories

Here’s how you can delete a category:

• Go to Settings on the left sidebar.
• Click Categories.
• Hover over the category you want to delete and click the More icon.
• Click Delete.
• Confirm your action by clicking Delete again in the pop-up.