How to set up Category Connectors

This article explains what Category Connectors are, why you might want to use them, how to set them up, and how to use the Category Connectors report. It also looks at potential problems with Category Connectors, and how to resolve them.  

What are Category Connectors?

Category Connectors are the mechanism by which you link categories between funds. This allows you to view a breakdown of income and expenditure by category across all funds.

Commonly, charities and churches choose to use Category Connectors to group together several categories for presentational purposes in their published end-of-year accounts.

For example, you may have many administrative expenditure categories across different funds, but for public communication, you may choose to group all of these as 'Administration'.

Learn more here: What's the difference between Funds, Categories, Category Connectors, Projects and Transaction Groups?

Quick set-up

For most organisations, setting up Category Connectors is quick and easy. We'd recommend you only set up Category Connectors once you have set up all your income and expenditure categories.

Within the Category Connector Settings screen (within Settings), you will see a 'Quick Setup' button at the top of the screen. 

Click 'Quick Setup' to create your Category Connector structure based on the Income & Expenditure Category structure of one of your funds AND to automatically connect all existing categories to a Category Connector (where the category and Category Connector names are the same, which they usually are). 

This feature will enable you to set up and link your Category Connectors in a single click, and you can then make any further changes manually.

Manual set-up

Alternatively, you can manually set up your Category Connector structure from scratch and then link each category to a Category Connector of your choice.

STEP 1: Category Connector set-up

Go to the Category Connector Settings screen (within Settings) to set up your Category Connectors.

We recommend you set this up based on how you want to report on income and expenditure across all your funds.

For example, you may wish to consider how you normally format the Income or Expenditure notes within your end-of-year accounts. Typically, organisations report at a level of detail (and grouping) similar to their categories; or they set up their Category Connector structure to match the category group level (with multiple categories connected to each Category Connector).

The names of Category Connectors don't have to be the same as the names of your categories (although most organisations do name Category Connectors in a way that's consistent with either their categories or category groups).

The diagram below shows how a 'Donations' Category Connector could be used to 'link together' 3 different 'donations' income categories from 3 different funds, into one reported total.

The reason for connecting these categories together is to produce a simplified aggregate total.

STEP 2: Linking Categories to Category Connectors

Once you've set up your Category Connectors, you can then link your categories to the Connectors. To do this, go to the Category Settings screen, then select the 'Category Connectors' tab at the top-right of the screen.

If you are in the process of setting up ExpensePlus, then the most efficient way to set up categories and Category Connectors is to set up just one fund and set up all of the categories for this fund.

Then, once you have linked all of these categories to Category Connectors, when you come to add further funds, you will have the option to 'duplicate categories from an existing fund' (and all of the categories and Category Connector links for this fund will be created for you).

Viewing the Income & Expenditure Summary (by Category Connector) Report

Once all of your categories have been linked to a Category Connector, you'll be able to begin using the Income & Expenditure Summary (by Category Connector) Report.

This report has multiple views, and you can switch between them using the tabs at the top of the report.

The totals displayed within this report (including budget amounts, projection amounts and variances) are calculated from the totals for the income and expenditure categories that are linked to each Category Connector.

Troubleshooting

If the report isn't showing any Category Connectors, then either:

• you haven't completed the setup above, OR;
• you are viewing a different financial year in this report to the year you set up.

For example, if you only set up Category Connectors in your 2024 financial year, this report will not display data if you are trying to view your 2023 financial year.

If the report is showing Category Connectors, but all of the rows are zero, then either:

• no transactions have been reconciled yet in the financial year you are viewing, or;
• you have chosen the manual set-up option, and you haven't completed Step 2 for all funds for the year you are viewing.

If this is the case, you will see a warning box at the top of this report, with a link to the category settings screen. This will allow you to link categories to a Category Connector where this hasn't yet been done.