You'll have a basic understanding of Accounting Categories from reading our Getting Started With Accounting article. The core concept is that you will classify your income and expense transactions to associate them with a category. The category totals are then used across different features in Farmbrite. You'll find them used in the Expense Categories chart on the Accounting Dashboard, on your Profit and Loss and Cash Flow Statements, and on other financial reports.
Using Standard Categories
Farmbrite provides a standard list of income and expense categories that come preloaded in your account by default. These categories are aligned with the US IRS Schedule F Form 1040, which helps to translate your Profit and Loss statement to the tax form. Here is the full list of your options.
Expenses Categories
| Income Categories
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Even if you don't need to fill out that tax form, we find that these standard categories are still useful and relevant throughout the world for agricultural operations.
Did you notice the last option on each list though? You can always use the "other" categories to add income and expense transactions that do not fit into the default categories. When you select Other, you'll be able to define your own custom category. Those custom categories will also display in your charts and reports as well.
Using Custom Categories
If you don't want to use the default categories, you can access your account settings to remove them. Doing this will allow you to type a custom category each time you create a transaction. You won't see the drop down menu of preloaded categories and instead will have a text box to write your own category. The custom categories that you add will be retained for future use as well. Please note though that the categories you add will no longer map to the categories on your Schedule F used for US tax purposes. Also, be aware that previously categorized transactions will not be updated/changed with this selection.
Please let us know if you have questions or comments.