Transactions and categorization
A transaction that says SQ *LANDSCAPE SUPPLY 4412 isn’t bookkeeping yet. Categorizing is the step that turns it into “materials, for the Hendricks job” - which is what makes job costing and your P&L true.
Growth and up. Requires banking.view to see transactions and
banking.manage to categorize them.
The basic loop
Open the list
Books → Banking, then pick an account. Uncategorized transactions are surfaced first, because they’re the ones that need you.
Pick a category
Choose what the money was for: one of the six quick categories (fuel, materials, subcontractors, and so on), or any account from your chart of accounts. A category is a shortcut - the transaction posts to the account that category is set to suggest, and that account is frozen on the row.
Attach it to a job, if it belongs to one
This is the step people skip, and it’s the one that pays off. A material purchase tied to a job shows up in that job’s true cost. One that isn’t just disappears into overhead.
Save
The transaction moves out of the uncategorized list.
Who you paid
The Paid to line under a transaction (Received from, on a deposit) ties it to a vendor, so the Expenses by Vendor report, the vendor’s own page and the 1099-NEC worksheet all see the money. It’s separate from the category on purpose: naming the payee doesn’t file the row, and filing it doesn’t need a payee.
When the payee isn’t a vendor yet, make it one right there. Type the name in the picker and choose Create vendor ”…”, or click New vendor when LawnLedger has nobody to suggest - it starts from the bank’s merchant name. It asks for the name and whether they’re a 1099 contractor, nothing more; terms and contact details can wait for the vendor’s page. The new vendor is tied to the transaction straight away.
Add as expense, Split, the bulk bar and the rule editor offer the same Create vendor option, and Add as expense starts from the payee the transaction already has.
A name that’s already a vendor offers you that vendor instead of making a twin. An inactive one can’t take new transactions - reactivate it from its page first.
Creating a vendor needs vendors.manage on top of banking.manage. Without
it, the picker still ties vendors that already exist.
Let it learn
When you categorize the same vendor the same way twice, create a rule so LawnLedger does it next time. Look for Create a rule from this on a categorized transaction.
Rules match on the description and, optionally, the amount. They run on transactions as they arrive, so the uncategorized list stays short instead of becoming a monthly chore.
A rule can also name a payee. Every transaction it matches is tagged with that vendor, the same tag the categorize panel sets by hand, so the Expenses by Vendor report and the 1099-NEC worksheet see the spend without anyone typing the vendor again. That holds for a rule that creates an expense, too: the expense is booked to the vendor, not just to its name. A rule whose vendor you’ve since made inactive still files the transaction - it just stops tagging the payee.
Splitting a transaction
One trip to the supply yard often covers three jobs. Use Split to divide a single transaction across multiple categories or jobs, by amount or percentage. The parts must add up to the whole before it will save.
Matching, not duplicating
If you already recorded an expense or took a customer payment in LawnLedger, the matching bank transaction should be matched to it, not categorized separately - otherwise the same money is counted twice. LawnLedger suggests matches when it spots one; accept it rather than categorizing over it.
Stripe works the same way in both directions. A payout matches the deposit it became. And when refunds or disputes leave your Stripe balance below zero, Stripe pulls the difference from your bank: that withdrawal matches the Stripe debit LawnLedger suggests for it. Match it rather than filing it as an expense - the books already recorded the money leaving.
Tips
- Do it weekly, not monthly. Ten minutes on Friday beats four hours in April, and you’ll still remember what a vendor charge was for.
- If you don’t know what something was, leave it uncategorized rather than guessing. An honest gap is easier to fix later than a wrong answer you’ve forgotten making.
Troubleshooting
A transaction appears twice. Usually a real duplicate from the bank (a pending and a posted version), or an expense you also entered by hand. Check for a match before deleting anything.
The job I want isn’t in the list. Only open jobs appear. If the work is finished and invoiced, the cost still belongs to it - reopen it or attach the cost from the job itself.