Creating and Editing Categories
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.
Creating Categories
You can view, edit and create categories by selecting "Categories" on the Accounting Screen's toolbar.
Step 1: Select "Add"
To create a new Category, select the "Add" button.
Step 2: Customize Your Category
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.
Editing Categories
There are occasions when you may need to rearrange your categories, edit the name or status of a category, or delete a category.
Editing Category Name
Select the name of a Category or Subcategory to begin editing it. The edit window will appear to the right. You can make changes to any of the fields in that window at any time.
Deleting Categories
If you need to delete a category, ChurchTrac will check to determine if that category is in use, either on the Giving Screen or the Accounting Screen. If there are donations or transactions that utilize the category, ChurchTrac will prompt you to reassign the money in that category to another category.
Rearrange Categories
Categories can be moved into any order you prefer. To change your Category order, simply click the up/down arrows to the right of the Category name and drag it to whatever position you prefer. Subcategories can be sorted by assigning a sequential Category Number in the order you want the subcategories to appear under the parent.
Pro Tips
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.