Category

A category is a kind of expense, project cost or service charge: Travel, Fuel, Labour, Spare parts. Its tabs say where it may be used and which accounts, tax groups and prices come with it when it is picked.

Where

Organizational Structure › Category; Project Accounting › Category; Expense Management › Category (OSCT)

Who uses it

The finance team with the consultant

When

Once, while the company is being set up, and whenever a new one is needed

Needs first

Category Group, the chart of accounts and tax groups in General ledger

What it is for

One category can serve several areas. Each Use In tick makes it appear in that area’s lists:

• Expense Management: offered on expense claims and expense screens. Its Debit Account, Cost Price and Purchase Tax Group come with it onto the expense line.
• Project Accounting: offered on projects. Its Debit Account is the account used when a purchase order is raised against a project estimate line.
• Service Management: offered on service screens; its Debit Account and Credit Account are the expense and revenue accounts of service order lines.
• Plant Maintenance: nothing reads this tab today.

Once a project uses the category, Project Accounting stays on: Save refuses to switch it off.

Every field in plain words

General

Field	What it means	What to put
Category	The code that identifies the category. You type it on New, before Create.	Required. A short code; it cannot be changed once the record exists.
Name	The category’s name.	Required. Locked after the first save.
Category Group	The group it belongs to.	Required. Locked after the first save.
Billable	The category can be charged on to a customer.	Ticking it shows Billable On and makes it and the Expense Management Credit Account required.
Billable On	How a billable category is priced.	Required when Billable is ticked. Nothing reads it today.
Required Time Sheet	A switch shown on the screen.	Nothing reads it today.
Reimburse in Payroll	Meant to pay the expense back through payroll.	Ticking it shows Reimbursement Wage. Nothing in Businessflo reads it.
Reimbursement Wage	The wage type the reimbursement would be paid on.	Required when Reimburse in Payroll is ticked.
Block	Stops the category from being used.	Tick to block. A blocked record drops out of the pick lists other screens use.
Guideline	Guidance for users picking the category.	Free text. Nothing shows it elsewhere.

Tax Group

Field	What it means	What to put
Purchase Tax Group	The tax group for purchases of this category.	Comes onto expense lines.
Sales Tax Group	The tax group for sales of this category.	Pick a tax group.

Paramters

Field	What it means	What to put
Unit	The unit the category is counted in.	Optional. Pick from the Unit list.
Cost Price	The usual cost of one unit.	Not negative. Fills the price on expense lines.
Sale Price	The usual sale price of one unit.	Not negative.

Expense Management

Field	What it means	What to put
Use In	Offer the category on expense screens.	Tick or leave clear.
Debit Account	The account an expense line of this category is charged to.	Optional. Pick from the list.
Credit Account	The other side, for billable categories.	Required when Billable is ticked. Nothing reads it today.

Project Accounting

Field	What it means	What to put
Use In	Offer the category on projects.	Tick or leave clear.
Debit Account	The account used for project purchases of this category.	Optional. Pick from the list.
Credit Account	The other side.	Nothing reads it today.

Service Management

Field	What it means	What to put
Use In	Offer the category on service screens.	Tick or leave clear.
Debit Account	The expense account of service lines.	Optional. Pick from the list.
Credit Account	The revenue account of service lines.	Optional. Pick from the list.

Plant Maintenance

Field	What it means	What to put
Use In	Offer the category in plant maintenance.	Nothing reads it today.
Debit Account	Plant maintenance debit account.	Nothing reads it today.
Credit Account	Plant maintenance credit account.	Nothing reads it today.

How to configure it

The screen allows import, so a long list can be loaded from a file instead of typed. Which fields are required, greyed, hidden or pre-filled for a company is set on Organizational Structure Setting, in its Default Parameters grid, and one user can differ through User Parameter Value.

Scenarios

• Staff claim fuel and travel. Create Fuel and Travel under an expense category group, tick Use In on Expense Management, give each a Debit Account and a Purchase Tax Group.
• A service company bills labour hours. Create Labour, tick Use In on Service Management, set the expense and revenue accounts.

What it is connected to

• Expense claims are in CRM and expenses; projects in Assets and projects; service orders in Service and maintenance.
• Picked on Project Quotation, Time Sheet in Assets and projects.
• Picked on these company setup screens: Category Pricing.
• Picked on Process Post Key in General ledger.
• Picked on Billing Unit, Maintenance Billing Proposal, Maintenance Pricing Agreement in Real estate and rental.
• Picked on Sales Quotation in Sales.
• Picked on Maintenance Order, Maintenance Order Confirmation, Operation, Service Agreement, Service Management Setting, Service Object Movement, Service Order, Service Quotation, Storage Order, Towing & Recovery Setting in Service and maintenance.
• Service Order and Service Order Confirmation - they read the category's service debit and service credit accounts; see What posts in service and maintenance.

If something looks wrong

• “Category Cannot be Duplicate” The code is already used in this company.
• “Cost Price cannot be negative.” / “Sales Price cannot be negative.” A price is below zero.
• “Catogery - Category used in Project Management” A project uses the category, so Project Accounting cannot be switched off.
• A category is missing from an expense claim. Use In is not ticked on its Expense Management tab, or it is blocked.