Categories - Forecast Commander Help

Categories and tags are different things#

A category is what something was: groceries, rent, fuel. You file each transaction under one, or split it across several. Categories form a two-level tree, and Budgets and Reports are built on them.

A tag is a label that cuts across categories, written with a hash, like #tax-deductible or #vacation2027. A transaction can carry several. Tags answer questions categories can't, like "what did that trip cost across every category".

The forecast works without either.

The starter pack#

The top of the categories page: a Default Category Starter Pack panel offering to import 9 standard parent categories and 40 plus subcategories, with a Pre-populate Standard Categories button. Below it three numbered panels: create main category, with a name field, twelve color swatches with one selected, a note that each is tested to stay readable on every background the app uses, and a Create Category button; create subcategory, with a parent category menu, a name field and a Sub button; and create custom tag, with a tag field and a Tag button. — Import the standard set, or build your own.

Pre-populate Standard Categories imports nine parent categories and more than 40 subcategories in one go: housing, bills and utilities, food and dining, transport, shopping, entertainment, health, financial, and income.

It's safe to run more than once. It matches on name and skips anything you already have, so you won't get two of everything.

Two levels of categories#

The Category Hierarchy Tree: twelve parent category cards in three columns, each with a colored dot, a name, a rename pencil and a Delete control. Beneath each name is the place its subcategories are listed. Eleven read No subcategories created; the Utilities card lists one, Water, indented beneath it with its own dot, a rename pencil and a remove control. — Parents, each with the place its subcategories are listed.

The tree has exactly two levels. A subcategory can't have children of its own.

Filtering by a parent includes all of its subcategories.

Budgets are set per category. On the Budgets page, a group's header adds up every budget inside it, but a budget on the parent category itself counts only what's filed directly under the parent, not under its subcategories. To plan Food and Dining as one figure, budget the categories inside it and read the total on the group's header. A group can also carry a target as a share of income, set from the Budgets page.

The colored dot is a button. It opens a palette of 12 colors, each tested to stay readable on every background the app uses.

What deleting a category removes#

Deleting a category treats your transactions and your budgets differently.

Your transactions survive: Anything filed under a deleted category becomes Uncategorized. Nothing is deleted and no amount changes. The same goes for recurring rules.
Its budgets go: Any active budget on that category is permanently removed, and the confirmation names how many before you agree.
Deleting a parent takes its children: Every subcategory under it goes too, and the confirmation says how many.

If nothing is attached, the confirmation is just the question. It lists consequences only when there are some.