Adding subcategories under "Transfer"

@DannyB

Simplifi already recognizes that we will sometimes transfer money to/from external accounts (meaning one not listed in my Simplifi)… that's what the "Transfer:Transfer" category is for. I am going to suggest that we be allowed to create our own Transfer subcategories, but first I wanted to be sure it wasn't already possible to do it.

Currently, when my bank account sends/recieves a transfer to/from an external account that transaction is categorized as "Transfer:Transfer." That is what I am calling an "external transfer." If I recategorize it it becomes either Income or Expense — which I often don't want it to be.

I would like to add my own subcategories to Transfer so that I can categorize transactions for easier recognition — something like "Transfer:XXX Checking" — but still have them treated as transfers.

@RickS

Sure, I could use Tags. But the Category column is where the destination for other transfers is shown, so it makes sense to use it for external transfer destinations as well. Also, in the new customizable register (which I have been experimenting with) I prefer to use the limited screen space for an expanded Notes column and hide the Tags column, which I don't use as much.

@EL1234

Any reason not to create a manual account to "transfer" the money to and from?

I could do that, but these are not my accounts. They are other entities that I transfer money to and/or from on a fairly regular basis. There are several of them, and I don't want to have to create multiple fake accounts.

Instead, I'd like to be able to look at the transaction's Category (using a subcategory of Transfer) and know where the transfer went — just like I can when I transfer money to one of my own accounts.

There is already the top-level Category of Transfer that works exactly like I am suggesting - it isn't linked to an account. The problem is just that there is just the one top-level category like that. No more "unlinked" categories can be added under the Transfer section, and no subcatgories are allowed under the one that exists.

@EL1234

the best (existing) solution would be to use the Transfer category and tags to be more specific.

That works, but as I said above I don't usually have the Tags column visible because I want more space for the Notes (and other) columns.** Another solution is to use the Payee column to encode this information, which works better for me.

It's not that there is no possible way to work around this. It's that, in all my internal transfers, the source or destination for the funds shows up in the Category column. And I would like for that to be the case with external transfers as well — for consistency and ease of use.

** NOTE: I've been using the new customizable transaction register for several months, which allows me to change the width and position of columns. It will probably be released for general use soon.