Can we have multiple categories rolling into a single category-Subcategories?

Is it possible to have multiple categories (subcategories) roll into a single category? For example, for things that don’t come up much, maybe a couple times a year, I want categories for them to later find, but would like them all to roll into a standard “Misc” category. I want the Misc category on my monthly budget spreadsheet, but the subcategories to be hidden so they don’t show every month. Hopefully that makes sense. Thanks!

Hi @james3332,

It sounds like the Tags feature would be a good solution for you. You could continue to use “Misc” as your transaction category, and use tags to define your subcategories. I do something similar for several of my subscription services. The category is “Subscriptions” which will show on my budget report, and in the Tags column I will have values such as “Streaming-Netflix”, or “Subscriptions-AdobeCreativeCloud”. These Tags can be analyzed in the Tags Report Template. It’s a great way to keep the Budget spreadsheet clean while having more granular information when you need it.

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CCulber2,

Again, another great use of tags for granularity.

I have 3 Subscriptions categories (Subscriptions Media, Subscriptions News, Subscriptions Tools & Utilities) but Apple this & that, Netflix, NYTimes, Spotify, Norton, BackBlaze, 1 Password & Microsoft 365 tags - as a few examples from my sorry stable :smiling_face_with_tear:- is something I would like to keep track of. I may consider collapsing all three categories to a single Subscriptions one with your suggestion!

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Glad to be of help! I do the same for “Annual Memberships”, “Pet Care”, and “Web Hosting, Domains, & Storage” categories. My Budget sheet was getting far too crowded, so using tags really helped trim things down. I probably should reevaluate other categories that can be condensed in the same way. I’ll get around to it…eventually. :sweat_smile:

I realize this is solved but there is another option here if you are also wanting to track this spend at the sub-category level and budget for them. Not sure if the Tags feature accounts for the budget portion of this if you are wanting to do that…

Create separate sheets that store line items that rollup to your main Categories sheet through simple links.

Here is an example I built. On my main Categories sheet, my Reading category Jan 2023 cell simply equals C5 to my example here and then you drag right on Categories. Thus, I actually budget on this sub-category sheet and then it automatically links and rolls back up to Categories. This gives me control in budgeting for one-off things I want to roll up. Barnes & Noble here a good example of that.

The Budget Plan template will do this as well which is much more sophisticated than what I’ve done here but this is a poor man’s way of doing it and is fairly quick. And then you can just hide this sheet when not in use.

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