What are categories?

The Grassfeld app's categories are an effective tool for tracking and organising your spending. Categories ensure that each transaction has a distinct goal. They help you in creating a budget for entertainment, groceries, and ideal vacations.

Where to find categories?

To view and manage your categories, it’s easy to find them in both the mobile app and web app:

• On the Grassfeld mobile app, simply tap the "More" tab in the main navigation and find categories under the "Additional" section.
• On the Grassfeld Navigator, select Secondary to access them.

Once you open a category, you’ll see all its subcategories, linked transactions, and files attached, such as receipts or invoices. This gives you a clear overview of everything tied to that category in one convenient place.

Default and custom categories

Default categories are pre-loaded into Grassfeld to make your experience easier. Common areas of income and spending are covered by these categories. They are made to suit the majority of users' needs even if you cannot modify them.

Custom categories: you can create as many custom categories as you want and modify them to match your own financial habits. There are countless options, regardless of how frequently you travel or how much you need to track. All custom categories can be edited, archived, or deleted at any time. Read more about it here.

Subcategories

Both default and custom categories can have subcategories. Subcategories are a great way to classify your spending or income. This lets you not only divide expenses or income into broad categories. It also gives you a clearer picture of where your money is going. Subcategories can help you clarify the boundaries between transaction types. They also make budgeting more flexible.



For example, instead of simply having a "Groceries" category, you could create subcategories like "Fruits," "Dairy," and "Snacks" to track your spending more precisely. You can use subcategories separately from their parent category when linking to transactions or adding them to budgets.



On the other hand, by default, Reports and Analytics will display the primary (parent) categories. This keeps things simple. But, you can always view each subcategory's info by opening the parent category details or choose displaying details by subcategories. This lets you see a complete breakdown of your income or spending in that main category and guarantees that even with an ordered overview, you can still go deeper for more specific details as needed.

Fixed & flexible

Each category you create will fall under one of two types: Fixed or Flexible.

Fixed for categories like housing and insurance costs, because transaction amounts for these categories usually remain the same each month.

Flexible transactions in flexible categories like dining and entertainment usually vary each month. You can keep track of these variations in Analytics.

How categories help you

• Link to transactions: each transaction can be linked to a category, making it easy to track exactly where your money is going. Read more about linking transactions here.
• Budgets: help you keep within your financial goals by allowing you to specify which categories you wish to track and set limitations for each one. More about budgets here.
• Analytics: The app gives you information about your spending habits. It tracks trends, displays all of your expenses, and even predicts your financial future. The system also highlights which categories you're spending the most on, helping you make informed decisions. More about analytics here.