I am restructuring all of my categories by using class designations for some items. I own two homes and before had Housing as a main Category and home 1 and Home 2 as a sub-category and then utilities as a sub-category of home 1 and home 2 along with mortgage,insurance, etc. I am currently re-categorizing and making Utilities the main category i.e. UTILITIES:Electric/Home 1, therefore having a much cleaner and shorter category list. My main question is: I am just working with the last two years of of data. What happens if i go back 5 years and need to look at that data ,say for an audit. Will the items beyond the two years be uncategorized or will they retain their original category, even though I have deleted the old category in my current category list. If they do so, that means that I would have to retain all of the original categories or a lot of the transactions would be uncategorized. Is this true or can I safely clean up my category list? Thank you.
Deleting categories
Jan 12, 2007
2 Replies
Here's how I'd do it:
Create the new categories and classes. Don't delete the old ones yet. Use the find/replace function to locate all transactions charged to - housing:home
1:utilities. Replace these transactions with the category/classes - utilities:electric/home 1. When through, run a report to see if anything is left in housing category. When you are satisfied you've reassigned everything in housing, delete the category.
To illustrate what happens when a sub-category is deleted:
You have a category; Utilities:Electricity:Home 1 You delete the sub-sub-category 'Home 1' Any remaining transactions under the 'Home 1' sub-category get 'bumped up' to Utilities:Electric - there is a pop-up warning message to this effect when you attempt to delete a category.
The previous response gave you some good pointers.
I would also recommend that you work across the full database - not just two years. It really isn't any more work at this point and to come back later and attempt to untangle it would be nearly impossible.
The recommendation to run a category reports before you delete a category is excellent advice - just make sure the category report is customized to include hidden accounts. The Find/Replace includes hidden accounts but the category report default does not. Might be helpful during this exercise to check the option 'View hidden accounts' - in the Account List.
Make frequent back-ups as you proceed.
Have gone through the exercise you are planning - and have shot myself in the foot more than once - got in a hurry - got careless - you name it. Backups will be your savior!!!
The end result is worth the effort - a much cleaner category list - easier data analyses in some cases. Good Luck.
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