Categories

Categories

Every transaction ends up in exactly one category. A category's kind decides how it's counted.

Contents

• Kinds
• All the fields
• Credits and what they offset
• Taxes
• Groups and flexible spending
• Kids-gone and retired changes
• Defaults and automatic categories
• A good starting set

Kinds

Kind	Use for	How it's counted
spending (default)	Regular monthly spending: groceries, dining, utilities…	Averaged; a row in the planner.
one_time	Irregular or yearly costs: property tax, income-tax payments, a big purchase	Kept out of averages; an on/off toggle under "Yearly and one-time costs".
credit	Money in that offsets spending: work reimbursements, refunds, deposits	An on/off line you can subtract.
ignore	Not spending at all: paychecks, card payments, transfers between your accounts, 529 or savings transfers	Never counted (but still visible in Settings › Categorize).

Refunds of ordinary purchases (e.g. a store return) are best left in the spending category of the purchase; they reduce it.

All the fields

Field	Default	Applies to	Meaning
name	(required)	all	Unique name.
kind	spending	all	See Kinds.
group	Other	spending	Planner heading (Essentials, Flexible…). Groups appear in the order they first occur.
flexible	false	spending	Trimmed by "Try 10% less on flexible spending".
kids_gone_pct	0	spending	% change once all children have left home.
retired_pct	0	spending	% change after retiring (on top of kids-gone).
default_on	false	one_time, credit	Ticked by default.
in_retirement	false	one_time, credit	Continues after retiring.
tax	false	one_time	Counts in "Tax set-aside" instead of spending.
offsets	none	credit	The category this credit reduces (see below).
label		one_time, credit	Text for the toggle, e.g. "Set aside for property tax".
note		one_time, credit	Small print next to the toggle.

Credits and what they offset

Where a credit appears depends on offsets:

offsets	Appears	Example
a spending category	Indented under it in the planner, with a "net" line	Work reimbursements under Shopping & Household
a one_time category	Nested under that toggle, reducing it	Federal tax refund under Income tax
nothing	Below the planner total, with "Net spending"	Other credits (mobile deposits, cash-outs)

- {name: Reimbursements, kind: credit, default_on: true, offsets: Shopping & Household}
- {name: Federal tax refund, kind: credit, default_on: true, offsets: Income tax}
- {name: Other credits, kind: credit}

Credits stop at retirement unless in_retirement: true.

Taxes

Make tax payments one_time with tax: true so they show in the strip's Tax set-aside:

- {name: Income tax, kind: one_time, tax: true, default_on: true}            # stops at retirement
- {name: Property tax, kind: one_time, tax: true, in_retirement: true}       # continues

Groups and flexible spending

group is just a heading; use any names. Mark discretionary categories flexible: true to include them in the planner's "Try 10% less" button.

Kids-gone and retired changes

Starting guesses for Spending Over Time, editable there too:

- {name: Kids' school, kids_gone_pct: -100}
- {name: Groceries, kids_gone_pct: -35}
- {name: Travel, retired_pct: 25}
- {name: Transportation, kids_gone_pct: -15, retired_pct: -20}

Defaults and automatic categories

• Money out that no rule matches goes to default_category (Other); money in goes to default_credit_category (Other credits, a credit).
• A category named in a rule or mapping but not listed is created automatically as regular spending. Add it to the list to set its kind and group.

A good starting set

financial_plan init writes one: Housing, Utilities, Groceries, Kids' school, Kids' activities, Health & Wellness, Insurance, Transportation (Essentials); Shopping & Household, Dining, Travel, Entertainment, Subscriptions & Phone (Flexible); Other; Income tax and Property tax (one-time); Other credits; Paychecks and Transfers & payments (ignore). The demo adds Coffee, Pets, Venmo, Cash & checks, Furniture and reimbursement examples.