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I’m
anxious
can you add categories for bills/expenses?
can you add categories for bills/expenses? i'm running an electrical co. so would like a category for materials.
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Hi Tom,
Right now you can't cusomise the category list for Bills and Expenses, although this is something we're looking to improve in the future.
We'll have a chat and see if we can add a specific Materials category for the next release.-
Mark February 18, 2010 19:13Custom categories is an essential feature that should be hurried along. Being restricted to the categories FreeAgent allows is going to cause headaches come tax time. A real shame because FreeAgent is superior to most in nearly every other regard.EditDeleteRemove
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Dawn Massa February 28, 2010 18:27I would love to see this feature added!EditDeleteRemove
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Hi Tom,
Why don't use Cost of Sales for now? -
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ok thanks olly. Cost of sales? doesn't that apply to a cost required to get a sale... like the cost of generating a written quote>? i suppose it doesn't matter - if the FAC guys add a materials cat. then i can change previous ones. Thanks stuart.
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No Tom, cost of sales can (typically) mean lots of things! In your case use it for materials until FreeAgent comes up with that category.
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I’m
confused
What happened to Tom's suggestion?
I just wanted to agree that a general "materials" expense would be great, I buy photography related items, that are not for specific jobs and not a cost of sale, all the time and don't know which category to put them in. -
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CHAMP
I’m
being assertive!
Having a "materials" heading would open up FreeAgent to a great deal more businesses. -
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EMPLOYEE
I’m
curious
Anna / Stuart,
Would you not think that having "Materials" under Admin Expenses as well as "Materials" in Cost of Sales (which is of course already there) could cause confusion?
Just interested to hear your opinions.
Kind regards,
Emily -
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CHAMP
I’m
embarrased
Rather embarrassingly I had forgotten Materials is a separate heading in Cost of Sales. Sorry to confuse everyone. I use too many charts of accounts!
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regardless of the specific category, the inability to add new categories that are appropriate to a specific business type is a drawback.
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I’m
worried....
Thanks for the replies everyone,
Personally I don't think it's confusing to have a materials category in both expenses and cost of sale. I don't use cost of sale much, my kind of photography is a service really. I agree with Gareth that being able to create new categories to suit the business would be best, but for now I would be really happy with a materials in expenses!! I am still on trial, with 17 days left and would love to stay! But what do I do with the expenses that relate to my trade and don't fit under any of the categories?
I am sure I am not the only one. -
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I’m
unconcerned
i agree with gareth...
" Gareth Howell
regardless of the specific category, the inability to add new categories that are appropriate to a specific business type is a drawback. " -
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Re Anna's last post:
I am using freeagent for the first time as a trial. As a freelance sole trader, I guess my accounts are straightforward, but if I can not find a category for an expense, I have just put it under 'Sundries'.
Is this OK? -
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Hello Steve,
As an accountant, I tell my clients to be wary of putting too much into Sundries, because seeing a large amount there can sometimes trigger an inspection by HM Revenue.
What I would do, is try and find another home for your costs as much as you can, and use Sundries as a last resort.
That said, I know there are other accountants who make more liberal use of Sundries than I do. So if you have an accountant, I would talk to him/her as well.
Does that help, please?
Kind regards,
Emily-
Thanks for the advice Emily. I shall certainly follow it.
Steve -
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I’m
confused
I have a graphic designer who designs our publication. Which category should I use for her bills? -
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Hi Christiane,
If your business is to produce the publication (e.g. you're a magazine editor) then I'd put her bills to Cost of Sales.
If your business is different and the publication is for e.g. advertising (so it's your brochure or sales catalogue) then I'd put her bills to Advertising and Promotion, or Stationery.
Does that help, please?
Kind regards,
Emily -
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I’m
confident
Thank you, Emily. We produce the newspaper. I used "Subcontractor costs".
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Hi Christiane,
That's absolutely fine - if you produce the newspaper, the cost needs to appear somewhere in direct costs, and "Subcontractor costs" will do just as well as "Cost of Sales".
Kind regards,
Emily -
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Any news about allowing users to create/delete/modify categories? -
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I'm looking forward to this too. I provide professional services, so I would turn off all the categories irrelevant to my business. And I am in the US, so I would rename and adjust the categories to match our tax requirements. Thanks... -
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I’m
sad
I would also like to have a "materials" or "equipment" category - or better yet, ability to add my own. Many freelancers are active in the arts and "office equipment" just doesn't apply to my digital camera, bicycle, art supplies, etc.
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I’m
hopeful
I think all us freelancers would love to have access to the categories list... throwing out a wish list for quick changes on here prob isn't so helpful, but allowing us to customize or at least add options to the list would prove very important so we can tailor our FreeAgent to our own specific accounting needs.
The only drawback I can see is that it would potentially allow errors to start creeping in where people add categories to the wrong VAT / tax section and hence get accounted wrongly.
I'm only a couple days into using FreeAgent and I love it, but the slightly confusing list of categories did throw me a little.... perhaps even just an easy link to a guidance list of what they all mean and are supposed to be used for would be helpful? I mean, what is a Contra account?!
I don't envy you Free Agent lot - you must have a very big wall filled with a lot of Post Its of features to include / improve!!!-
There is actually a guidance list on the knowledge base:
http://www.freeagentcentral.com/suppo... -
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To be honest I like the restricted categories. It has simplified things a lot for me and will hopefully result in less errors, but that view may change as I use the system more. I agree with Andy though, that a guidance list of what they all mean would be a very helpful reference. -
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@leandra completely.
A restricted set should be fine but only as long as people know where 95% of all items should go. Like Emily said, you don't want to put too much in a vague sundries category, so a guidance list for each category would be helpful in figuring out which category an item should accurately be in. -
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Unfortunately for those of us in different tax jurisdictions the existing restricted set includes many that are useless and lacks necessary ones.
Allowing them to be customizable by the account admin would allow them to stay restricted for regular users. -
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I’m
frustrated
I have been using Free-Agent for about a month now and find it generally very user friendly. By far the largest drawback is the lack of customizable bill categories and that any business is going to find a lot of the categories are not relevant. Trying to decide how to fit items that don't fir and searching a list of items one does not need is frustrating.
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The more i think about it, the more i wonder if opening up the category list might be a bad thing.
Whilst it would be great for adding more specific and relevant categories for what your line of business is, the more chance there is for error to creep in - remember that the primary reason of these classes is to make the end of year tax return add up and show in an accurate fashion - If I had created a category in the zero-VAT section that should have been VATable, I would paying the incorrect amount of VAT in my end of year return.
What I think people are really wanting is to know that they are putting the right things in the right category - something that admittedly itself could lead to incorrect returns - for this a more detailed section / knowledge base article would hopefully dispel any of these questions - a field specific link / search form would just be awesome here.
Just my thoughts :) -
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That's fine if the categories comply with your company's legal and tax obligations, but they don't with mine...
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Boo.. This feature is essential... I need to be able to do such things as have subcategories for reports.. ie.. fuel expense... maintenance on vehicle etc. I realize that can all go into Auto Expense but my tax guy asks for them separated. As for my cell bill.. the ability to track long distance, overages etc.. is important.. this software seems to want to just lump everything all together. Why would I switch from quickbooks which is $40 cheaper per year.
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I agree that the customization of the categories are essential. I was thinking of using Freeagent for 2 companies, but it won't be possible with the actual category list. :( That's too bad because the rest of the feature were very interesting. I was planning to switch here from freshbooks but I think I'll have to stay overthere :( -
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I’m
undecided
On Trial at the moment and lack of customisation is a real concern. As a photographer I take deposits for future years bookings so should be carried over to next tax year as a liability, and then become an income for the year the job is actually done. -
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I’m
frustrated
I must say I am very disappointed that you cannot add or change the category list. The rest of the product is fantastic but this limitation is extremely frustrating. I understand the need to manage categories for local UK VAT reporting but this product is not limited to users in the UK! How about a tax category list that remains fixed and a reporting category that the rest of us can use for our own reporting needs?
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Hi all,
You'll be glad to know that flexible categories are now at the top of our features-en-route list in our depot http://depot.freeagentcentral.com/
So we are working on improvements to this and please watch this space to see when they will be available!
Kind regards,
Emily-
Great timing! I'm just evaluating FreeAgent now, and this one was a dealbreaker for me.
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Well this has been a long time coming...
We've now implemented customisable income and spending categories so expenses, bills and bank transactions can now be described using your own categories.
More info here:
http://www.freeagentcentral.com/centr... -
EMPLOYEE
EMPLOYEE
