Items Module
Managing Items
Items are reusable, vendor- or customer-specific templates that pre-fill Income’s and Expense Entries’ own forms — not a transaction record of their own, just a shortcut for entries you make repeatedly.
Start here
1Before you start
There are two separate item lists — Expense Items and Income Items — switched between with the tabs at the top of the page. Each item is just a label paired with a category account and (optionally) a vendor or customer; it doesn’t hold an amount, a date, or any transaction data of its own.
An item only matters once it’s picked from the Income Item or Expense Item dropdown on the Record Income / Record Expense form — at that point it fills in the Account field (and the contact field, if not already set) for you. Nothing here posts to your books by itself.
2Add an item
Pick the Expense Items or Income Items tab, then click + New Expense Item / + New Income Item.
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Label | Required — what shows in the picker, e.g. Fuel — Star Oil Spitex. Specific enough to tell apart from similar items (e.g. the same fuel category at a different branch) is the whole point. |
| Category Account | Optional. Which Chart of Accounts entry this pre-fills. Left as “Auto,” the form’s own default (Uncategorized Expense / Other Income) applies instead. |
| Vendor (Expense Items) / Customer (Income Items) | Optional link to a real contact — who this item is usually paid to, or received from. |
| Status | Active or Inactive — see Retiring an item without deleting it. |
Click Create Item. It’s now available in the matching form’s item dropdown — Expense Items appear in Expense Entries’ picker, Income Items in Income’s.
Common tasks
Creating an item on the fly
Don’t want to leave the Record Income / Record Expense form to set one up first?
Open the Income Item or Expense Item dropdown on that form and choose + Create New Income/Expense Item…. It opens the same create form in a quick modal — save it there and it’s immediately selected on the entry you were filling in, with its Account (and contact, if not already set) filled in for you.
Retiring an item without deleting it
Stopped using a vendor or category but don’t want to lose the record, or risk breaking anything that referenced it?
Edit the item and set Status to Inactive. Inactive items drop out of the Income/Expense Entries pickers (which only offer active items) but stay listed here, still editable, and can be reactivated any time. Use Delete only when you’re sure you want it gone for good — it’s a hard delete with no undo.
Reference
Item fields
| List | Table columns |
|---|---|
| Expense Items | Label, Category Account, Vendor, Status, Actions (Edit / Delete) |
| Income Items | Label, Category Account, Customer, Status, Actions (Edit / Delete) |
The KPI band at the top of the page counts each list separately: total and active count for Expense Items, total and active count for Income Items.
What this module doesn’t do
Unlike Income and Expense Entries, there’s no Import/Export toolbar here — items are added and edited one at a time.
Items never post to the GL, never show up in reports, and don’t track how many times they’ve been used. They only exist to pre-fill a field on the Income/Expense Entries forms — the actual transaction they help create is what gets recorded.
Expense Items and Income Items are two entirely separate lists — an item created on one side isn’t available on the other, even if the label and account would make sense for both.