Before You Start

This guide assumes you have administrator access to a Xero organization. Basic understanding of your chart of accounts is beneficial.

Overview

20 min
Setup Time
Intermediate
Difficulty
Monthly
Review

What You’ll Learn

  • How to define and set up Tracking Categories in Xero
  • Applying categories to invoices, bills, and transactions
  • Running segmented Profit and Loss reports
  • Best practices for consistent category usage

1. Preparation Steps

Before configuring tracking categories, ensure you have:

Required Prerequisites

  • Administrator access to your Xero organization
  • Clear objectives for what you want to track (e.g., departments, projects, locations)

Recommended

  • A documented list of your intended tracking options
  • Communication with your team on how to use categories

2. Understanding Xero Tracking Categories

Xero’s equivalent of “classes” or “tags” are called Tracking Categories. They allow you to segment your financial data beyond just accounts.

Category Features: What Xero Offers

This is how Xero’s built-in feature works.

Pros:
  • Flexible P&L segmentation.
  • Up to two active categories.
  • Easy to apply to transactions.
Cons:
  • Limited to two categories.
  • No nested sub-categories.
  • Requires manual application.

Expert Tip: Careful planning of your categories is crucial before implementation. Once applied to transactions, changing category names or merging options can affect historical reporting accuracy.

3. Step-by-Step: Setting Up Categories

Here’s the high-level workflow for configuring and using tracking categories.

{
  "tracking_category": {
    "name": "Department",
    "options": [
      "Sales",
      "Marketing",
      "Operations"
    ]
  }
}

This is how a conceptual category definition might look.

4. Applying Categories to Transactions

  1. 1

    Create Tracking Category

    Navigate to Accounting > Advanced > Tracking Categories. Click ‘Add Tracking Category’.

  2. 2

    Add Category Options

    Enter the name for your category (e.g., “Department”) and then add individual options (e.g., “Sales”, “Marketing”).

  3. 3

    Apply to Invoices/Bills

    When creating or editing invoices, bills, or other transactions, you will now see dropdowns to select your tracking categories.

Common Error: Inconsistent Application

Ensure all relevant transactions have categories applied for accurate reporting. Missing categories lead to incomplete segment analysis and skewed reports.

5. Running Segmented Reports

Test Report Checklist

  • Run a Profit and Loss report by Tracking Category
  • Verify transactions appear in correct segments
  • Check for uncategorized transactions and rectify
  • Confirm overall totals match standard P&L report

Need Help?

Need Advanced Reporting?

Struggling with complex Xero reporting or need help designing your tracking categories for optimal insights? Our experts can help optimize your setup.

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