Using Categories & Tags
Categories and Tags are the foundation of your financial organization in Simplifi and Quicken Business & Personal. Every transaction you categorize becomes meaningful data in your reports, budgets, and tax preparation tools. The Categories & Tags dashboard is where you review, edit, and create the organizational system that powers your financial insights.
Access Categories & Tags anytime from Settings in the left navigation.
What Categories Are
A category describes the purpose of a transaction—such as Groceries, Rent, Advertising, or Consulting Income. Categories give structure to your financial data and help Quicken show you exactly where your money is going and how your income adds up.
Quicken comes with pre-configured categories designed for both business and personal finances. You can use these as-is, customize them, or create your own. Categories are organized into two main types:
Income categories track money coming in (like Consulting Income, Sales Revenue, or Salary)
Expense categories track money going out (like Office Supplies, Utilities, or Groceries)
Categories can also be organized in groups with subcategories beneath them. For example, Business Expenses might include subcategories like Office Supplies, Travel, and Advertising. This hierarchy keeps related categories organized and makes reports easier to read.
Why Categories Matter
Using categories consistently ensures:
Clear spending patterns Quickly see how much you spend in each area month over month.
Accurate budgets Categories help you plan ahead using real spending trends.
Tax-ready reports Business categories in Quicken are pre-mapped to IRS tax schedules (Schedule C, Schedule E, Schedule F). When you categorize a business expense as Office Supplies, Quicken knows this maps to the correct line on Schedule C. This makes tax time significantly easier and helps ensure you don't miss deductions.
Clean business vs. personal separation Even if you use the same card for both, categories keep your records organized and audit-ready.
Meaningful reports Every report in Quicken relies on categories to show you where you stand financially.
⚠️ Important: Uncategorized transactions won't appear in category-based reports, won't count toward budgets, and won't be included in tax schedules. Taking a few moments to categorize each transaction protects the accuracy of your entire financial picture.
Examples of Categories
Groceries → Personal Expense
Office Supplies → Business Expense (Schedule C, line 18)
Client Lunch → Meals & Entertainment (Business)
Consulting Income → Business Income (Schedule C, line 1)
Mortgage Interest → Housing Expense (Schedule A, line 8a)
Rental Income → Rental Property Income (Schedule E, line 3)
Category Tips
Keep names simple and consistent.
Avoid duplicates—search before creating a new category.
Use existing categories whenever possible before creating new ones.
If you run a business, stick with categories that align with tax reporting—your built-in defaults already do this.
Review your categories periodically and delete or merge ones you're not using.
Tags
What Tags Are
Tags let you add an extra layer of detail to any transaction, without changing the core category. Tags are flexible, optional, and perfect for grouping expenses in ways that categories don't cover. A single transaction can have multiple tags, giving you several ways to track and report on the same expense.
You'll see your existing tags at the top of this page, such as Reimbursable, Vacation, LLC, or Estimated Quarterly Taxes.
Why Tags Matter
Tags help you:
Track cross-category spending Use the tag Vacation for flights, meals, hotels, and shopping—no matter what category they fall under.
Mark business-related items Tag personal transactions that are Reimbursable or Tax Related.
Organize by project or purpose Track your home remodel by tagging purchases from different vendors.
Identify who or what Tag expenses by client, family member, or business entity.
Filter reports flexibly Pull up all transactions with a specific tag, regardless of their categories.
How Tags Work with Categories
Tags and categories work together to give you complete flexibility. Here's a concrete example:
A $45 lunch is categorized as Meals & Entertainment (Business), but you can also tag it as both Client Meeting and Reimbursable. Now you can:
See all Meals & Entertainment expenses in your P&L report
Filter for all Client Meeting expenses across multiple categories
Identify all Reimbursable transactions when submitting expense reports
The category determines where it appears on tax forms and reports. The tags let you slice that data in additional ways.
Examples of Tags
LLC — track business transactions across multiple categories
Reimbursable — flag expenses you expect to be paid back
Holiday — group purchases for seasonal events
Client: Smith — track all expenses related to a specific client accross categories
Home Office Renovation — monitor project spending across vendors
Q1 Taxes — organize estimated tax payments
Tag Tips
Use tags to track who, what, or why—anything that doesn't belong in a category.
Keep tags broad enough that you'll reuse them, but specific enough to be useful.
Decide on a naming convention and stick with it ("Client: Smith" vs. "Smith, J.").
Review your tags quarterly and delete ones you're no longer using.
Tags work best for temporary or project-based tracking that spans multiple categories.
Best Practices
For Categories:
Review and categorize transactions weekly to stay current.
Use existing categories whenever possible before creating new ones.
For business expenses, keep your categories aligned with tax reporting needs.
Split transactions when a single purchase includes both business and personal items.
If you have 50+ categories, consider consolidating—you may be over-categorizing.
For Tags:
Create tags for tracking needs that span multiple categories.
Use consistent tag names across all transactions.
Think of tags as the "who, when, or why" while categories are the "what."
Don't create a tag if a category would work better—tags are for cross-category grouping.
For Both:
Set up Rules Once your categories and tags are organized, create Rules to automatically apply them to matching transactions. This saves time and ensures consistency.
Review regularly Spend a few minutes each month tidying up—merge duplicates, delete unused items, and refine your system.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Creating too many categories If you have dozens of highly specific categories, you're making more work for yourself. Consolidate similar categories and use tags for the details.
Using categories when tags would work better Categories define what the expense is. Tags define who it's for or why it happened. Keep this distinction clear.
Mixing business and personal in the same category Keep these separate for tax reporting and audit protection.
Creating duplicate categories with slightly different names Search first, then create. "Office Supplies" and "Office Supply" will split your data.
Not categorizing regularly The longer you wait, the harder it becomes to remember what each transaction was for.
Managing Categories and Tags on This Page
View and edit your existing categories, including their type (income or expense) and tax-line assignments.
Create new categories that match the way you track money.
Add or adjust tags to support additional tracking and grouping.
Search finds categories by name—helpful when you have many categories.
Filter by category type (Income/Expense) or group (Business/Personal/Rental).
Expand category groups (like Business Expenses) to see subcategories beneath them.
Sort by name, type, or tax line assignment to organize your view.
Organizing your financial data with categories and tags makes everything—from dashboards to reports to tax preparation—more accurate and more powerful.
Ready to Get Started?
Review your existing categories below—are there any you're not using?
Create 2-3 tags for your most common tracking needs (like Billable or Tax Deductible).
Apply categories and tags to your recent transactions.
Check your spending reports to see your organized data in action.
Set up Rules to automate categorization for recurring transactions.
Learn more about Categories & Tags: