Expense by Category moved to Profit and Loss
Use Profit and Loss for expense totals and supporting Category transactions.
Expense by Category is no longer a separate report. Profit and Loss is the authoritative report for Income, operating Expenses, Other Expenses, and Net Income. This avoids presenting a second expense total with a different subtotal scope.
Steps
- Open Reports > Profit & Loss.
- Choose a Report Period. Preset periods show their From and To
dates as read-only values. Choose Custom Range when you need to enter different dates, then select Apply.
- Expand the applicable expense section.
- Select an eligible account to view its supporting transactions.
Dashboard Expenses opens Profit and Loss for the selected period. Selecting an available item under Top Expense Categories opens that account's Profit and Loss transaction detail. An older saved Expense by Category link is redirected to Profit and Loss and retains its period and Category when available.
Drilldown, export, and print
When drilldown is open, the current detail becomes the export target. Use the available export control for the summary or active drilldown and Print for a printable view. The legacy summary CSV identifies parent and subaccount rows, shows each account's direct activity separately, and places rolled-up amounts only in the Parent Total column. Its Total uses the report total rather than adding parent and subaccount summary rows a second time. Summary printing includes every matching account, including accounts beyond the current page.
Data rules
- Completed transactions contribute when their destination Category is a Profit
and Loss expense account, regardless of whether an older imported row used an Income or Expense workflow label.
- Posted Journal Entry lines assigned to expense accounts are included.
- Asset, liability, equity, bank, credit-card, and property-and-equipment
Categories are excluded.
- Expense refunds and other money-in reductions display as negative amounts and
reduce the original Category.
- Needs-review rows remain outside final totals until completed.
- Split transactions contribute through their individual Category lines.
- Transaction counts count each source transaction once even when it has more
than one split line under the same parent account.
- A system-calculated parent may display a calculated result but cannot receive ordinary manual posting.
- Rental expenses use their accounting Category and saved Rental Property assignment for their respective reports.