Using reports to track information by categories

The purpose of creating categories and assigning transactions to them is to allow you to view and analyze activity reports, a profit and loss statement, a balance sheet and General Ledgers for each category. These reports, as well a list of all the categories you've created, are available through the Accounts view of the Index to Reports window.

The Category reports are:

Category Activity [Summary] report
Category Activity [Detail] report
Category Transactions report
Category Profit & Loss Statement report
Category Balance Sheet report
Category Trial Balance [Summary] report
Category Trial Balance [Detail] report
Category History report
Categories List report

You can also add a Category field to numerous other sales, purchases, payroll and inventory reports using the Report Fields feature. [Using the Report Fields tab (Report Customization window)]

Making the most of Category reports

A great deal of information is available to you if you have systematically created your categories and consistently assigned your transactions to them. Here are a few reminders that will help ensure the accuracy and relevancy of your Category reports:

Create categories with reports in mind. What can you learn by breaking out the information about a separate part of your company or a specific service?

The information in the reports reflects only those transactions that you assigned to a category. If you want every transaction assigned to a category, select the Required option when you mark the Category preference. If you want your reports to include only sales information, for example, do not select the Required option. Then you'll be able to skip the Category field in all your non-sales transactions. You must, however, remember to assign all your sales transactions to a category.

You may want to use categories for a limited period of time. Perhaps you would like to analyze your information for a single month. You may have a peak selling season and want to track just that time of the year. To do this, you could simply mark or unmark the Turn Category Tracking On preference to display or remove the Category field in the transaction windows.

When you create a new category, the Turn Category Tracking On preference is automatically marked, even if it had not previously been marked. If you are creating a category for future use but do not currently want the Category field to appear in all transaction windows, you should unmark the preference.