How to Create Custom Categories with Baselane Smart

Creating custom categories in Baselane lets you organize income and expenses in a way that fits your business. You can go beyond the default Schedule E categories to track specific costs, such as maintenance, utilities, or services.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• Understanding Categories
• How to Create Custom Categories
• Managing Custom Categories
• Frequently Asked Questions

Understanding Categories

Baselane allows you to tag transactions across your Baselane banking accounts and external accounts to specific income and expense categories. This allows you to understand property-level cash flow and generate important financial and tax reports.

There are three different types of categories Baselane users should understand:

• Type 1: top-level categories like Revenue, Operating Expenses, Loan Payments
   
• Type 2: categories like Advertising, Auto & Travel, Cleaning & Maintenance
   
• Type 3: subcategories under Level 2

Custom categories can only be created at Type 2 and Type 3. In other words, users cannot create Level 1 custom categories.

How to Create Custom Categories

From the Transactions tab

• Go to Bookkeeping & analytics → Transactions
• In the Category dropdown, select the plus (+) icon 
  
• Enter a Category name and select a Grouping
   

From the Category search bar

• When tagging a transaction, open the Category search bar
• If the category you search for does not exist, you will see + “Add [Category Name]”
• Selecting this creates the new custom category, and you can then assign it to a group
  
   

From Workspace Settings

• Go to Workspace Settings → Transaction Categories 
  
  
• Select Add Category
• Review all categories, grouped by Schedule E and General, or manage your custom categories
  

Managing Custom Categories

Editing categories

• Custom categories can be edited at any time from your Workspace settings → Transaction categories
• From here, you can:
  • Update the category name
  • Change its grouping under
  • Delete the category

Using Advanced Tagging Rules with Custom Categories

You can use advanced tagging rules to automatically assign transactions to your custom categories, helping you automate your bookkeeping and reduce manual work. Custom categories will appear within the category drop-down when setting up new rules.

If you decide to delete a custom category that is tied to a rule:

• Rules linked only to that category will be deleted
• Rules linked to both a property and a category will remain, but the category will be removed and listed as uncategorized

Deleting Custom categories

When you delete a custom category, the transactions that were tagged will either need to be re-assigned to another category or marked as uncategorized

Note: If you delete a category that has subcategories:

• All of the subcategories will also be deleted
• Transactions tagged to those subcategories must also be either:
  • Assigned to another category, or
  • Marked as Uncategorized

Downgrading from Smart

If you downgrade from Baselane Smart, your existing data will remain, but you will lose the ability to tag new transactions to your custom categories.

• Transactions already tagged to custom categories will remain tagged
• Users will still be able to filter and view these categories in their reports
• You will no longer be able to apply custom categories to new transactions after the downgrade

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I create duplicate categories?
No. Category names (default or custom) cannot be duplicated, regardless of capitalization, spacing, or special characters. You can create a distinct variant, for example, “Short Term Rent, Ohio” and “Short Term Rent, Michigan.”

Do I need to group my Custom Categories?
Yes. All Custom Categories must be grouped under Level 2 or Level 3. Level 1 is not customizable.

Will Custom Categories show up in reports?
Yes. They appear in reports when Subcategories are toggled on, and in Schedule E and NOI when grouped under eligible levels.

Can I automate transactions to Custom Categories?
Yes. You can use advanced auto-tagging rules to automatically tag transactions. (Insert link/screenshot to Auto Tagging HCA)

Can I filter and search by Custom Categories?
Yes. You can filter by individual custom categories and search globally across all transactions.

Can I create or map Custom Categories when using CSV importing?
You cannot create new Custom Categories through CSV imports. However, you can map imported transactions to Custom Categories that already exist in your account.