Holvi's bookkeeping categories and groups help you organise and understand your business and personal income and expenses – then export clean, accurate reports for tax time.
This article covers how to use them:
What are bookkeeping groups?
Get more accurate financial reporting with groups
Holvi’s groups tool gives you a better understanding of your business performance by filtering your categories into helpful groups.
This lets you calculate profit/loss, VAT and map income and expenses more precisely. Our groups include:
- Business income
- Business expense
- Personal deposit
- Personal withdrawal
- Other income
- Other expense
Think of groups as higher level categories. Within each group, you can add new bookkeeping categories. For example, spending money on printer paper? You can create a new category for Office supplies within the Business expense group!
What are bookkeeping categories?
Bookkeeping categories sort transactions into, well, categories! This gives you a clearer picture of your income and expenses, and also helps prepare your accounting for tax time. We provide some default categories for you to get started, but you're free to create your own.
There's no limit to how many categories you can create. However, you might want to look into your region's chart of accounts. Our accounting partners recommend using industry-standard categories to ensure a smooth bookkeeping experience.
How do I create a new category?
Create your own categories by going to Bookkeeping > Categories > New category. To save a new category, you'll need to add it to a group.
For example, you might want to create a category for Holiday expenses. You'd save that under the Personal expenses group to make sure those expenses don't factor in to your business reporting.
Note
When creating new categories, make sure you assign them to the appropriate group. This keeps all your ins and outs in the right place – so your reports stay tidy and true.
Holvi's default categories
Pending income
Whenever you send an invoice from Holvi, the invoiced amount is categorised as Pending income. This means that you haven't yet received the money, but you're waiting for it to arrive. This Pending income category lists all the invoices you've sent but haven't been paid for, as well as the unpaid amounts of partially paid invoices. When an invoice is paid, the amount paid will automatically move into the income category assigned to the invoice.
Uncategorised
If you receive a payment that doesn't have a reference number, it'll appear as uncategorised. This happens when someone pays you using only your IBAN. If you know of a matching invoice for an uncategorised payment, you can manually match the payment with an invoice. All payments that arrive to Holvi with a reference number will be automatically matched to the corresponding invoice.
Company taxes
This is for business-related taxes like VAT, income tax and any other business-related. Payments categorised as Company taxes will be exempt from your reports.
Holvi service fees
This category shows you the total amount you've been charged from Holvi's service fees. You can also get a receipt for these from the Reports section.
Other default categories
- Business income
- Business expenses
- Non-business inbound payments
- Non-business outbound payments
If your business is VAT-liable, you'll also have these default categories
VAT receivable
This category is visible if you've set your business as VAT liable. Your VAT receivables are made up of all outbound transactions containing VAT. This category shows your total VAT receivables.
Note: Holvi is cash-based, so in your VAT categories you'll only see transactions that are complete.
VAT payable
This category is visible if you've set your business as VAT liable. Your VAT payables are made up of all inbound transactions containing VAT. This category shows your total VAT payable.
Note: Holvi is cash-based, so in your VAT categories you'll only see transactions that are complete. For example, the VAT amount of a sent invoice isn't shown in the VAT payable category, only the VAT for paid invoices is shown.
If you're a freelancer or sole trader, you'll also have these default categories
Personal deposits
If you're using Holvi as a sole trader or freelancer, you'll need to track how much money is moving in and out of your account as a result of personal use. Use the Personal deposits category for personal deposits into your Holvi account (inbound payments).
Personal withdrawals
If you're using Holvi as a sole trader or freelancer, you'll need to track how much money is moving in and out of your account as a result of personal use. Use the Personal withdrawals category for personal spending from your Holvi account (outbound payments).
How categories and groups impact reporting
By using Holvi groups, you'll get more accurate financial statements. Only Business income and Business expenses groups will appear in your reports. All transactions assigned to the Personal and Other category groups are intentionally excluded from reporting.
Specifically, groups impact the following Holvi reports:
- Profit/Loss
- Income statements
- Expense statements
- VAT reports