Businesses, categories and shared costs

Portfolio businesses

A Financials business represents an activity you want to report separately. It is different from a client-linked Project. Link Projects when useful, or assign a record directly during Financials review.

Management categories

Financials categories are configurable management labels. They do not replace the HMRC-aligned expense category, tax treatment or VAT fields on the original Expense or Bill.

Business use

Use the business-use percentage when only part of a cost belongs to business activity. Review this percentage with your accountant when tax treatment matters.

Shared costs

Mark a cost shared when it belongs to more than one portfolio business, then allocate fixed amounts or percentages. Allocations affect business P&Ls only:

• they do not create transactions;
• they do not change the overall portfolio expense total;
• under-allocation is allowed but flagged;
• over-allocation is rejected.

An archived business remains on historical records but is not offered for new assignments. Unassigned income, unassigned expenses and unallocated shared costs are shown in reconciliation so they are not silently hidden.