Personal Finance Tracker
Personal FinanceDocumentation
  • Guides
Overview
  • Introduction
Getting Started
  • Getting Started
  • Creating Your Account
  • Understanding the Dashboard
  • Setting Up Your Profile
Bank Accounts
  • Bank Accounts
  • Adding a New Account
  • Viewing Account Details
  • Editing Account Information
  • Managing Multiple Accounts
Transactions
  • Transactions
  • Filtering & Searching
  • Adding an Expense
  • Adding Income
  • Viewing Transaction Details
  • Editing Transactions
  • Bulk Editing
  • Deleting Transactions
Smart Input Features
  • Smart Input
  • Voice Input for Transactions
  • Receipt Scanning
Budgets
  • Budgets
  • Creating a Budget
  • Setting Budget Categories
  • Tracking Budget Progress
  • Editing Budgets
  • Budget Alerts
Goals
  • Goals
  • Creating a Financial Goal
  • Contributing to Goals
  • Tracking Goal Progress
  • Editing Goals
  • Completing Goals
Reports & Analytics
  • Reports
  • Viewing Financial Reports
  • Understanding Charts
  • Pie Charts & Breakdowns
  • Exporting Reports
  • Monthly/Yearly Summaries
Preferences & Settings
  • Preferences
  • Customizing Preferences
  • Notification Settings
  • Currency & Format
  • Account Settings
Tips & Best Practices
  • Tips
  • Budgeting Best Practices
  • Goal Setting Strategies
  • Organizing Transactions
  • Using Categories Effectively

Using Categories Effectively

Tips for choosing and using expense categories to maximize insights

1

Understand Available Categories

The app provides 11 expense categories:

  • Food & Dining: Restaurants, takeout, groceries
  • Transportation: Gas, parking, public transit, car maintenance
  • Shopping: Clothing, electronics, household items
  • Entertainment: Movies, concerts, hobbies, streaming services
  • Bills & Utilities: Rent, electricity, water, internet, phone
  • Health & Fitness: Gym, doctor visits, medications
  • Travel: Flights, hotels, vacation expenses
  • Education: Courses, books, tuition
  • Personal Care: Haircuts, spa, cosmetics
  • Housing: Mortgage, property tax, home repairs
  • Other: Anything that doesn't fit above
2

Be Consistent

Use the same category for similar transactions:

  • Always put Starbucks in Food & Dining
  • Always put gym membership in Health & Fitness
  • Don't switch categories month-to-month for same expense
  • Consistency makes reports and trends meaningful
3

Split Multi-Category Purchases

For purchases that span categories (like Target trips):

  • Create separate transactions for each category
  • $50 Target trip = $30 Groceries + $20 Shopping
  • More accurate than putting entire amount in one category
  • Helps budget tracking and spending analysis
4

Food & Dining: When to Use

This is usually the largest category. Include:

  • Grocery store purchases
  • Restaurants and takeout
  • Coffee shops and cafes
  • Food delivery services
  • Snacks and drinks from convenience stores

Consider separating groceries from dining out using notes if you want that detail

5

Bills vs Shopping vs Housing

These categories can overlap - here's how to decide:

Bills & Utilities: Recurring services (electricity, water, internet, phone)

Shopping: One-time purchases of goods (clothes, electronics, furniture)

Housing: Home-specific (mortgage, repairs, property tax, HOA fees)

6

Minimize Use of Other

The Other category should be your smallest:

  • Only use when nothing else truly fits
  • If Other becomes large, you're missing a common expense type
  • Review Other transactions monthly to identify patterns
  • Consider if the expense actually fits another category

Goal: Keep Other under 5% of total spending

7

Use Categories for Budgets

Categories power your budget system:

  • Create budgets for your highest-spending categories first
  • Check the pie chart to see which categories need budgets
  • Budget alerts only work if transactions are correctly categorized
  • Accurate categories = accurate budget tracking
8

Review Category Distribution

Use the Category Spending Breakdown pie chart monthly:

  • Check if any category dominates (>40% of spending)
  • Look for surprisingly large categories - might indicate miscategorization
  • Compare month-to-month to spot category trends
  • Ensure distribution aligns with your priorities and values