Introduction to categories

A category is a means of classifying products and services you sell to customers. Categorizing what you sell can help you better understand sales volume and what people are buying. Categories also make it easier for employees to account for inventory correctly and with minimal effort.

Additionally, categories save you time when completing transaction forms, since you can search for items by category.

When you create (or edit) an item or service, you can select its category from the Category drop-down menu. To create a new category, select Add new.

Alternately, you can also set up your categories by clicking Manage Categories on the Products and Services list page and then adding new categories. See step-by-step instructions to add a category.

Go to All Lists (located under the Gear icon near the top of your page) and select Categories. In the categories list, choose the category you want to edit. Click Edit to make your changes. You can alter the category name, its place in the hierarchy (moving it to the top level, or under a sub-category), or delete it by using the Remove button.

If you remove a category, items that are within it will be either moved up one sub-category level or reclassified as Uncategorized.

See step-by-step instructions to edit or delete a category.

Transaction forms display the full name of items and services (including categories). When you add an item or service to a transaction form, you can search by that item/service name, SKU, or category to add it to the form.

No, items can be in only one category. Note that products in a subcategory also belong to the parent category.

Yes, you can import categories the same way you import products and service using Excel. For instance if you specify an item as Men’s Clothing:Pants in the import data file, QuickBooks creates a category called Men’s Clothing and an item called Pants.

Any items or sub-items that have child items will be converted into categories (and QuickBooks maintains the hierarchy). Any items or sub-items (that have their own sub-items) that have been used within transactions will now be converted into stand-alone items. QuickBooks also creates a matching Category to house any lower-level sub-items. All existing item names will remain the same.

No. Categories are used to categorize items you buy and sell. They aren't intended to be used on transactions. However, when adding items to your transactions, you can still search for those items by categories.

Yes. Categories are meant to help make your work easier. You can assign and reassign them however you like to best suit your needs. Note that categories aren’t meant to be used on transactions.

You can have up to 4 category levels. For example, you could have a parent level called Clothes and 3 sub-categories: Men's clothes:Shirts:T-shirts.

No. Categories don't affect reports.

No. Categories don’t affect your accounting, but they're a great way to help you better understand your sales. They also make it easier to manage your record keeping.

Yes, categories and subcategories can be deleted. When you delete a subcategory, any items or services within it “walk up” one level to their parent category or subcategory. When you delete a top-level category, all the products and services within it are reclassified as “uncategorized.”

We're releasing Categories in stages. If you use sub-items now, you can switch to Categories before everyone else. Soon, though, we'll turn it on for everyone.