Category Properties

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The Category Properties

Before setting up your categories, it’s important to note the function and purpose of the category properties, as they dictate how transactions assigned to the categories are treated throughout Lunch Money.

In Lunch Money, there are three category properties:

  • "Treat as income"

  • "Exclude from budget"

  • "Exclude from totals"

A category can have any combination of category properties, for example:

  • An regular expense category (eg. “Restaurants”), will likely have no properties enabled.

  • An income category (eg. “Salary”), will likely have just the “Treat as income” property enabled.

  • A transfer category (eg. “Payment, Transfer”), will have both “Exclude from budget” and “Exclude from totals” enabled.

Sub-categories (categories nested within a category group) inherit these properties from their parent category! To update the properties of sub-categories, you must revise the properties of the category group.

Treat as income

Throughout Lunch Money, you will see in overview and summaries a line item called "Income" and another called "Expenses". The "Income" line items are calculated from transactions assigned to categories marked as "Treat as income". A category without the “Treat as income” property will be treated as an expense category.

For example, if you have a credit transaction (eg. +$500) assigned to a category marked with “Treat as income”, the transaction will appear as “Income” in overview and summaries:

Alternatively, if you have a debit transaction (eg. -$500) assigned to a category marked with “Treat as income”, it will still be deducted from your "Income" totals:

On the other hand, if you have an uncategorized transaction, it will be treated as "Income" or “Expense” based on the amount notation. If the uncategorized transaction has a credit notation, it will appear as “Uncategorized Income”:

You can use “Treat as income” on more than one category. For instance, you can break down your different income streams by creating a number of income categories, eg. "Interest income", "Part-time job", "Tutoring job", "Passive income', etc.

Exclude from budget

Categories with the "Exclude from budget" property enabled will not be part of the budgeting aspect of Lunch Money. You won't be presented with an option to set a budget for these categories on the Budget page.

A common use for this is on categories used to track reimbursable items, emergency expenses, and transfers between accounts.

When looking at the Budget Breakdown on the Overview page, you will be able to select whether to show or hide categories with the “Exclude from budget” property as part of the view.

Exclude from totals

Transactions in categories that have the "Exclude from totals" property enabled will not be counted towards total spending or income calculations and summaries throughout Lunch Money.

This is useful for categories that are used to track payments and/or transfers between accounts, or reimbursable items.

In the settings for the Spending Breakdown on the Overview page, you will be able to select whether to show or hide categories with the “Exclude from totals” property as part of the view. When looking at the Stats, Trends, Calendar and Analyze pages, you will have the option to include transactions from “Exclude from totals” categories as part of the reports and totals in the calculations.

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