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Edit category from income to expense

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Alan

27 Jan, 2021 06:29 AM

Using the latest mdance and can't figure how to edit 1 category that I wrongly labeled as income rather than expense. I can add the category as expense and leave the other alone, but would rather edit the original to an expense, but get this warning which is concerning.
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• md2.png 60 KB

1. 1 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 27 Jan, 2021 06:42 AM

   

   This means you have something attached to the category you’re trying to delete. Use the find and replace tool to look for txns in that category and to move them to the new category....

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2. 2 Posted by dwg on 27 Jan, 2021 06:45 AM

   

   I'm a fellow user.

   Once a category has been created it is not possible to change the type. You need to take an indirect approach to facilitate this. We need to create a new category of the correct type and move the transactions to this new category.

   As with any restructure you should take a backup before you start, but it is especially important here because any mistake can really damage your data.

   Firstly create a new category of the correct type. After doing this open the category you wish to change the type of, you do this by going to the category window through the menu command Tools → Categories, select the category then right click and in the drop down select “Open in New Window”.

   This displays a register window – but note this is a category register window not the account type registers you are used to working with. Select all transaction in this register, generally you can do this by selecting a transaction then using the keyboard shortcut CTRL-A (CMD-A on Mac)

   Now right click on the transactions and Select Batch Change. Select to Change the Account (Yes I mean Account!). The software will then display a window where you can scroll down and select the Category to move the transactions to.

   After pressing the OK button the transactions will be moved.

   The original category should now be empty, if there are any subcategories you should change the parent of these and after doing this you should be able to delete the category.

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3. 3 Posted by dwg on 27 Jan, 2021 06:55 AM

   

   I should add that after doing this you can rename the new category to whatever you want.

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4. 4 Posted by Alan on 27 Jan, 2021 11:32 AM

   

   many thanks
   all the best

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5. Melissa closed this discussion on 12 Feb, 2021 10:32 AM.