> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.budgetbandit.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Categories and groups

> How categories hold your assigned money and how groups keep the budget readable.

A category is a job you give your money: Groceries, Rent, Car Insurance, Vacation.
A group is a labeled section that holds related categories together. Together they
are the shape of your budget.

## Categories

Each category has three numbers on the budget page:

* **Assigned** — what you put into it this month.
* **Activity** — what you spent from it this month, as transactions come in.
* **Available** — what is left to spend. Green when there is money, red when you
  overspent.

You spend from a category by recording transactions against it. The Available
amount is the truth about how much you have left for that job.

### Good categories are specific enough to act on

"Stuff" is a useless category. "Groceries," "Eating Out," and "Household Supplies"
each tell you something. Split categories when you want to see the difference, and
merge them when the detail is not worth the upkeep. Add a category for the
irregular costs people forget — car maintenance, annual subscriptions, gifts — so
they never blindside you.

## Groups

Groups organize categories into sections so a long budget stays readable. Common
groups: Bills, Everyday, Savings Goals, Debt. Collapse a group to hide its rows
when you are not working in it. A group shows the combined total of the categories
inside it.

## Working with categories and groups

You manage all of this on the Budget page, in context — no separate setup screen.

* **Create** a category or group as your budget grows.
* **Rename** anything; the name is just a label.
* **Reorder** categories and groups by dragging, so the order matches how you think.
* **Hide or archive** a category you have stopped using. Hiding keeps its history
  intact, which is why you hide instead of delete a category that has transactions.

<Note>
  You can hide a category that has history, but you cannot delete one outright,
  because deleting it would orphan past budget months and transactions. Hide it
  instead — the history stays, and the row leaves your active budget.
</Note>

## Income is its own kind of category

Income categories feed [Ready to Assign](/concepts/ready-to-assign) rather than
holding spending money. When money lands in an income category, it becomes money
you can assign. Most budgets have one or two income categories.

## Credit-card payment categories

When you add a credit card, the budget creates a payment category for it
automatically. You do not assign to it directly the way you assign to Groceries —
it fills up as you spend on the card with budgeted money. See
[How credit cards work](/concepts/how-credit-cards-work).

## Next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Organize categories" icon="folder-tree" href="/budgeting/organize-categories">
    Create, rename, reorder, group, and hide — the practical steps.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Set a target" icon="bullseye" href="/budgeting/set-a-target">
    Tell a category how much it needs and by when.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>
