Category tree
Categories organize income and spending. Big Picture Money ships a default tree that matches the canonical taxonomy used across the product.
Structure
- Top-level groups — Income, Housing, Food & Drink, Transportation, and others
- Subcategories — finer buckets under each group (for example, Food & Drink → Groceries, Restaurants)
- Income vs expense (reports) — Income categories count toward income totals. Transfer In and Transfer Out (and their subcategories) are excluded from both income and expense report totals so moving money between your accounts is not treated as earning or spending. Other non-income categories count as expenses when they appear on Spending or Income vs expense.
Transfer categories
Transfer In and Transfer Out (and their subcategories, such as Credit Card Payment and Savings) represent money moving between your accounts. They are not counted in spending reports or Income vs expense — otherwise paying a credit card would look like spending twice. See View income vs expense.
| Category | When to use |
|---|---|
| Transfer Out · Credit Card Payment | Paying a credit card from checking or savings |
| Transfer Out · Savings | Moving money to a savings account |
| Transfer Out · Investments | Moving money to a brokerage or retirement account |
| Transfer In | Money arriving from another of your accounts |
Loan payments use purpose-specific categories (for example, Car Loan, Mortgage) when you have not linked both accounts yet. After linking, both sides typically use transfer categories. See Transfers.
Default categories are seeded on first run. You can add subcategories, rename (non-system) categories, reorder, and archive categories you do not use. See Add a category and Edit a category.
Primary vs supplemental
| Concept | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Primary category | One main classification per transaction (or per split line). Drives rules and spending totals. |
| Tags | Multi-label markers (for example, vacation, tax-deductible) — see Tag a transaction |
| Split lines | When one purchase spans categories, each line has its own primary category and portion of the amount |
A transaction has either a single primary category or split lines — not both.
Defaults
The shipped default list aligns with the application taxonomy (version tracked in app metadata). On upgrade, new default categories may be added without overwriting names you changed or categories you created.
System categories such as Uncategorized cannot be archived.
Archiving
Categories and tags are archived, not permanently deleted. Archived items are hidden from pickers but stay on historical transactions. See Archiving categories and tags.