What are Transaction Groups used for?

Transaction Groups provide an alternative way to view and 'slice' Income & Expenditure data for analysis.

They are equivalent to 'Class', 'Department', or 'Tag', which are the names you might be familiar with in other finance software programs.

Most organisations don't need to use Transaction Groups since they can create the reports they need by just recording income and expenditure against 'categories'. So if you are unsure, we'd recommend you don't use them and you leave them set as hidden.

However, Transaction Groups can be particularly useful for:

multi-site churches or
multi-parish benefices or,
where you need to track income and expenditure related to specific grants received, as the expenditure may occur across multiple funds and categories.

Here is an example of how Transaction Groups could be used:

When putting on Christmas Services, a church might record the expenditure to several different categories. For example, the children-related expenses in one category, refreshments in another category, publicity in another, etc., as shown in the example below:

general screenshot showing Christmas expenditure across several different categories

What if you want to get a report with all of the transactions relating to Christmas Services? (those highlighted in blue above)?

In ExpensePlus, by creating a 'Transaction Group' called 'Christmas Services', you could set all of the relevant transactions to this group. You could then use the 'Income & Expenditure (by Transaction Group) report' to view a breakdown of expenditure for the Christmas Services, while leaving transactions themselves still part of the expenditure categories they belong to.

Transaction Groups allow you to view 'cross-category' income and expenditure, as in the example above.

If you want to view income and expenditure for several whole categories, you probably want to use the 'Income & Expenditure (by Transaction Group) report', which allows you to pull together full categories into one report without the need to use Transaction Groups.

For more information, read: How do Projects work in ExpensePlus?

Turning on Transaction Groups

If your organisation wants to use Transaction Groups, they must first be set either as 'optional' or 'required' in the system-wide settings. The default setting is 'hidden'.

To do this, go to the Organisation Settings screen, and select the 'Edit' button on the right-hand side.

ExpensePlus screenshot of Organisation Settings screen

In the pop-up that appears, scroll down to the 'Transaction Groups' section, select 'optional' or 'required', then click 'Submit'.

ExpensePlus screenshot of 'Edit Organisation settings' pop-up

If transaction groups are set as 'required', users will be required to enter a transaction group when submitting purchases, invoices, and adjustments, and when they edit any existing income and expenditure transactions.

For any existing transactions, users will need to manually update these if they want them to have transaction groups.

Setting up Transaction Groups

Once turned on, Transaction Groups can be set up in the Settings menu > Transaction Groups settings. Select 'Add New' to set up a new Transaction Group.

ExpensePlus screenshot showing Transactions Groups settings window, with 'Add New' highlighted

It is possible to create Transaction Groups with either a specified opening balance or a zero balance.

ExpensePlus screenshot showing 'Transaction Group details' pop-up

Deactivating and managing Transaction Groups

You can deactivate or manage Transaction Groups from the Transaction Groups Settings screen.

Note: Transaction Groups run across financial years. This is different from Categories, which are split by financial years.

ExpensePlus screenshot showing 'Transaction Group Settings' window, with 'Manage Deactivated' and 'Deactivate' highlighted

Viewing the Transaction Groups report

You can view your transaction group income, expenditure, and remaining balance via Finance Reports > Income & Expenditure Transactions (by Transaction Group)

ExpensePlus screenshot showing the 'Transactions Group' report

Finding and moving transactions without a Transaction Group

You can find and allocate transactions without a transaction group Transactions (by Transaction Group) report.

In the drop-down menu, select 'View Transactions without a Transaction Group'
Select 1 or multiple transactions from the table below
Clock 'Move Selected Transactions'

ExpensePlus screenshot showing the 'Transactions' report, with 'View Transactions without a Transaction Group' highlighted

To better understand the Finance Reports module, please view the module overview video here.