Categories are used to identify or designate how money is received or spent. Categories are used for labeling donations (on the Giving Screen), but they are also used for categorizing transactions and creating budgets (on the Accounting Screen).
If you're switching from Quickbooks or another church bookkeeping software that uses a "chart of accounts", you will convert many of those over to Categories in ChurchTrac.
You can view, edit and create categories by clicking Categories on the Accounting Screen's toolbar.
To create a new Category, click the "Add" button.
You will first be prompted to give it a name. After you name the Category, you can list it as a subcategory of another Category, list it as an Income or Expense Category, and assign it to a Fund. You can also assign category numbers.
Regarding subcategories, you may have an "Outreach Ministry" category. You could then create "Neighborhood Ministry" and "Homeless Ministry" subcategories to better track your expenses. To make a category a subcategory of another, simply select the parent category from the "Subcategory of" selection box.
To avoid confusion with ChurchTrac Funds, we recommend that you do not use the word 'Fund' when naming your Category.
You can't have subcategories of subcategories. Only one level of nesting is used in ChurchTrac.