[GNC] New question: designating classes for expenses.

[Adrien Monteleone]

This has been discussed many times here on the list.

There are various creative ways to approach the topic, I'll cover two.

One is to make a detailed (some would argue convoluted) account tree 
structure. This can work for long-term classification just as any 
account would, but doesn't fit well for short-term projects and events.

For those cases, the general recommendation is to use one of the 
free-form text fields to include some sort of label or 'tag' (designed 
however you like) with your 'class'. Various reports (but not all) can 
then filter on these tags via text-matching. The available fields which 
can be searched and matched using filters are:

*Description
*Notes (only visible in Double-Line Mode)
*Memos (some may only be visible in Auto-Split or Transaction Journal Mode)

Using Description can be problematic for some folks depending on their 
usual use of that field, especially with respect to the 
Auto-Fill/Complete feature.

Otherwise, Notes & Memos are likely the best bet. I use Notes for info 
concerning an entire transaction, and Memos only for that particular Split.

Sadly, while the Action field is also 'free form' (despite the built-in 
drop-down) and otherwise a great place to put a tag on a split, the 
report filters do not work on it. (but you can run a Find on that field 
and then possibly get a report from the results, though the available 
reporting in that case is fairly limited)

The Transaction Report using Filters is probably the most powerful and 
versatile option.

Regards,
Adrien

On 9/9/26 13:03, Robert Johnson wrote:
> Hello GNU group —
> 
> Not all expenses are “equal”.  There are some that you would want to designate as different from other more general expenses and then be able to view them in a report along with all the other general expenses.  In Quickbooks this is done by assigning a class to the particular expense and running a custom summary report with class columns.  Any ideas if doable.