Financial control > Tracking financial information > Categories
Categories enable you to track the profitability of departments, offices, properties and other business segments.
For example, the sales department of a car dealership could use categories to help them track the profitability of the car models they sell: say, model A, model B and model C.
When entering a transaction, you need to allocate the appropriate category to it. You can then prepare a profit and loss statement for each category.
There are certain transactions to which you cannot allocate a category. These are: Pay Suppliers, Receive Payments, Prepare Bank Deposit, Settle Returns and Credits/Debits and Pay/Receive Refunds. When entering these transactions, the categories assigned to the original transactions will be used. For example, the categories assigned to purchases appearing in the Pay Suppliers window will also be assigned to the payment.
To enable allocation of categories
1
Go to the Setup menu and choose Preferences.
2
Click the System tab.
3
Select the Turn on Category Tracking option. If you want to make the selection of a category mandatory for all transactions, choose Required from the list.
If you choose to turn off category tracking, any categories you have created and their transaction history will be deleted from your company file. You should make a backup of your company file before you take this step so that you can access this information if required.
To create a category
1
Go to the Lists menu and choose Categories. The Categories List window appears.
2
Click New. The Edit Category window appears.
3
In the Category ID field, type a code that will be used to identify the category and press Tab.
4
In the Category Name field, type the name of the category.
5

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