What are categories and how do they work?

Categories are used to group related income and expense transactions, both to understand how your business is doing, and to help you prepare for tax time.

When you import transactions from eBay, Seller Ledger already has a good idea from the information eBay provides what is in each amount. So, we automatically assign categories to things like item sales, shipping, and fees.

However, when we first import transactions from banks and credit cards, we don't know much about them, so we ask you to tell us.

How do I categorize a transaction?

If you click into a bank or credit card account, you will see a nice blue button with the word "categorize" on it:

Click on it, and you will be presented with the following pop-up:

Choose the correct category from the drop down and then, if you would like Seller Ledger to apply this categorization to all other transactions for this payee, check the box. We can also do it for all similar transactions in the future.