Invoice categories

Categories tell you what kind of money a line is — sales, rent, VAT, a transfer between your own accounts. Invoi ships a two-level tree: a parent group for browsing, and subcategories you actually assign.

They are the same list on invoices, expenses, and bank and cash lines. Change them in Settings → Categories.

#Why use categories

An invoice without a category is still a valid tax invoice. The category is for you — so the list of issued invoices also answers “what did we sell?” and “what did we spend on?”

• See the mix, not only the total. Matched vs unmatched tells you if money arrived. Categories tell you whether that money was product sales, a retainer, or a customer refund.
• One story for the accountant. The same names on sales, purchase invoices, and bank lines. Month-end is not three spreadsheets with three different labels for rent.
• Filter and report without recoding. Need all revenue this quarter, or only consulting? Filter by the parent, or pick the leaf. Exports keep the category, so the books import already sorted.
• Keep tax, operating, and owner money apart. VAT you remit is not “fees.” A draw is not a salary. Mixing those makes the P&L look healthier (or worse) than it is.
• Less guessing later. “Used for” on each row is the short rule so you pick once, when the invoice is created — not in a Zalo thread in March.

Skip Uncategorized when you know what the line is. That is the whole habit.

#How it works

• Parents are labels, not picks. Revenue, Operations, Taxes & Government — these group the list. You cannot put an invoice on a parent.
• Assign a subcategory. Product Sales, Rent, VAT payments. The picker only offers those leaves.
• Filter by parent includes the children. Filtering invoices by Revenue shows every sales subcategory under it.
• System categories stay locked. The built-in list cannot be renamed or deleted. Hover the info icon for Used for.
• Add your own if a leaf is missing. Custom names stay as you typed them.

#Where you pick them

When you create an invoice, open More and pick Category. On an issued invoice or an expense, the same picker is under More details.

The document keeps that category. Matching a bank transfer does not recode the invoice or the expense — the sale or the bill is still what it is.

On Dashboard → Bank & Cash:

• Unmatched rows on a linked bank, and Cash on hand, use the same tree. Pick a leaf (interest, bank fee, salary, owner, internal transfer, and so on) so the line leaves To match without inventing an invoice. No invoice needed does the same when there is no document to attach.
• Matched rows inherit from the document: Money in from the sales invoice, Money out from the expense. You do not pick a second category on that allocation. If one transfer covers several documents, each slice inherits separately. Any remainder can still be categorized.
• Invoi Balance has no invoice match. Every line gets a category.

See Match Payments.

The tables below match the in-app list. Category is what you pick. Used for is the same hint as the info icon.

#Revenue

Income flowing into the business.

#Cost of Goods Sold

Direct costs of producing what you sell.

#Sales & Marketing

Spending to acquire customers and grow the business.

#Operations

Day-to-day costs of running the business.

#Professional Services

External expertise and protection.

#Human Resources

Team-related costs.

#Travel & Entertainment

Business travel and client entertainment.

#Technology

Software and digital subscriptions.

#Banking & Finance

Financial transactions and fees.

#Assets

Capital expenditures and prepaid items.

#Liabilities & Debt

Obligations and deferred items.

#Taxes & Government

Tax payments and government fees. In Vietnam, VAT/GST/PST/QST Payments is where thuế GTGT remittances belong.

#Owner / Equity

Transactions between the business and owners.

#System

Catch-alls. Prefer a real subcategory when you know what the line is.