Managing Categories

How to edit, view, delete categories (also known as codes, chart of accounts or nominal headings)

Luke Mayo avatar
Written by Luke Mayo
Updated over a week ago

The application will have generated a set of categories (also known as chart of accounts/nominal or heading codes) when you picked the areas of Farming Activities that apply to your business when it was created.

If the categories provided do not suit your business then they can be adapted.

The majority of them can be edited or deleted. You can also change the order that they are presented in by renumbering them but we recommend that you give this some thought so that similar categories are grouped together.

The total range of categories are split into:

Reserved Categories: You should note that some categories are reserved for the system to use and may be unavailable. These tend to be found at the end of each range. The exact categories depend on your various factors such as the type of business but will not be available for selection. These default categories cannot be edited or deleted in Farmplan Business Cloud.

Managing Categories

Existing categories can be edited using the pencil icon on the right hand side of the Accounting > Categories screen.

Unwanted categories can be deleted using the red dustbin icon providing they have not been used. If the icon is greyed out, it is reserved and cannot be deleted but you may still mark it as inactive.

New categories can be added from the Accounting > Categories option and clicking on the + sign.

Alternatively you can click on the + at the top of the screen:

You will also be able to add new categories from within any of the transaction entry options as you require them.

Name - Each category will be allocated a name which can be amended at any time.

Category Type - The category type will fall into the ranges as above – i.e. revenue, purchases, assets, liabilities and equity.

Category Code – the system will automatically allocated the next spare code in this category type though you may wish to override that to keep similar codes together. The numbering can be altered at a later date if you wish to change the order of the display on reports.

Default Tax Code – how is the VAT normally treated for entries allocated to this category?

For example:

If you do not fill this field in, items will be treated as Standard rated by default, however you can always change the Tax code in an individual transaction.

NV – Non VAT'able means that any entries coded to this will not be included on a VAT return as they are outside the scope of VAT – for example private drawings or wages.

EX (Exempt or Zero-Rated) means the net amounts will be included on the VAT return even though there is no VAT.

Inactive – if this category is no longer required and you wish to be able to filter it out of the Category report, then it can be marked as inactive.

Direct Costs - Expense codes can be marked as ‘Is Direct Cost’? This means that it is a variable cost (for example seeds, fertiliser, feed etc.) rather a general running cost. Do not worry if you get this wrong – it can be amended later – but will affect the layout of certain reports such as the Profit & Loss which will have sub-totals for each type of expense.

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