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Categories

Categories let you organize your purchase invoices by type of expense. By assigning a category to each invoice, you can filter your purchases, generate reports by expense type, and get a clear picture of where your money goes.

What Categories Are For​

Every business has different kinds of expenses: office supplies, rent, utilities, raw materials, equipment, travel, and so on. Categories map these expense types to your invoices, making it easy to:

  • Filter the invoice list to show only a specific type of expense.
  • Report on spending by category over any time period.
  • Search and find invoices related to a specific area of your business.

Creating Categories​

To create a new category:

  1. Navigate to Purchases settings or the categories management area.
  2. Click Add Category or the add button.
  3. Enter the category name (supports both Arabic and English).
  4. Save the category.

The new category is immediately available for assignment to invoices.

tip

Keep your category list focused. Too many categories make classification difficult and reduce the usefulness of reports. Start with broad categories and add more specific ones only when you need the granularity.

Editing Categories​

To rename or update a category:

  1. Go to the categories management area.
  2. Find the category you want to edit.
  3. Click the edit button.
  4. Update the name.
  5. Save.

Editing a category name updates it everywhere. All invoices previously assigned to that category will reflect the new name.

Deleting Categories​

To remove a category:

  1. Go to the categories management area.
  2. Find the category you want to delete.
  3. Click the delete button.
  4. Confirm the deletion.
caution

Deleting a category removes it from any invoices it was assigned to. Those invoices will no longer have a category unless you assign a new one. Consider renaming the category instead of deleting it if invoices are currently assigned to it.

Assigning Categories to Invoices​

You can assign a category to an invoice in several ways:

  • During creation -- Select a category in the invoice form when creating a new invoice or during AI extraction review.
  • During editing -- Open an existing invoice and change its category.
  • Bulk operations -- Select multiple invoices and assign a category to all of them at once.

Each invoice can have one category assigned at a time.

Filtering Invoices by Category​

On the Purchases list page, use the category filter to narrow the list:

  1. Click the category filter or dropdown.
  2. Select one or more categories.
  3. The list updates to show only invoices in the selected categories.

This is useful for reviewing all expenses of a particular type, such as viewing all utility bills for the quarter or all equipment purchases for the year.

Default Categories​

When your tenant is first set up, Shaari may include a set of default categories to help you get started. These are common expense types that most businesses use. You can:

  • Keep and use them as-is.
  • Rename them to match your preferred terminology.
  • Delete any that do not apply to your business.
  • Add new ones for your specific needs.
info

Categories are tenant-specific. Each tenant has its own set of categories, and changes made by one tenant do not affect others. Different users within the same tenant share the same category list.