Categories

All of it happens on the Budget tab.

• ADD — “Add Category” at the bottom of the list. Give it a name, a color and a monthly limit; the limit can be zero if you only want to track it.
• RENAME or RECOLOUR — open the category, then edit it. The change follows every transaction already filed under it; nothing is re-categorized and no history moves.
• DELETE — “Delete Category” on that same screen.

The starters that come with a fresh app are only starters. Rename, recolour or delete them until the list matches how you actually think about money — that is the single biggest thing you can do to make budgeting stick.

They are not deleted. A transaction whose category has gone becomes uncategorised, and it keeps its date, amount, account and merchant — it simply stops counting toward any budget line.

You can re-file them in bulk: on the Transactions tab, select the rows and use “Categorize selected”.

If what you actually want is to fold one category into another rather than lose the grouping, merge them instead — see “We ended up with the same category twice”.

Settings → Data & Backup → Repair Duplicated Records → “Categories under the same name”.

Merging picks a keeper (the one carrying the most transactions) and repoints everything at it — transactions, recurring items, dated overrides, rules and coverages all follow. Subcategories are folded too, including the duplicate pair the merge itself would otherwise create.

One thing it deliberately does NOT do is add the two budgets together. Two people who both tracked $1,900 of rent do not have $3,800 of rent. You are asked which figure to keep.

This is also the screen for duplicate accounts, duplicate rows left over from a restore, and copies pulled down from an older iCloud database.

A subcategory splits one budget line into named parts without splitting the budget itself — Groceries into “Weekly shop” and “Costco runs”, Car into “Fuel”, “Insurance” and “Repairs”.

The parent keeps one limit and one ring. The subcategories tell you where inside it the money went, which is what you actually need when a category is over and you cannot see why.

Use them when a single category is big enough that “over by $180” doesn't tell you anything actionable. Skip them everywhere else — a budget with forty lines gets abandoned.

Yes — the Budget tab list can be rearranged, and the order carries to the Home screen and to the reports. Put the four or five you actually watch at the top; the ones you only glance at monthly can live below the fold.