Loading Profile...
Remove default categories that cannot be deleted
The large number of default categories is distracting, can be confusing, and just makes using the application harder.
There are currently around 40 default categories, and these cannot be deleted. Users may add their own categories, but they are relegated to the bottom of the list, beneath the default set, and are often not even on-screen due to the excessive length of the default categories.
The defaults are so broad as to virtually guarantee that no user uses more than 70-80% of them, and are very US-centric, yet there is no way to remove them.
To compound the problem, updates add new defaults. As all existing users will have already added any additional categories they need, updates often add duplicates of these custom categories. This is confusing, and it leads to entry errors.
I suggest the removal of the entire default categories mechanism from Cha-Ching.
It already has a most satisfactory system in the custom categories. Adding a few default suggestions to this list when creating an empty database is a perfect substitute for the only useful purpose the default categories fill: as a guideline.
As things stand, I believe the default category system as it stands (i.e. they can't be deleted, custom categories are second-class citizens) adds nothing to the functionality of Cha-Ching but has serious negative effects on its usability.
There are currently around 40 default categories, and these cannot be deleted. Users may add their own categories, but they are relegated to the bottom of the list, beneath the default set, and are often not even on-screen due to the excessive length of the default categories.
The defaults are so broad as to virtually guarantee that no user uses more than 70-80% of them, and are very US-centric, yet there is no way to remove them.
To compound the problem, updates add new defaults. As all existing users will have already added any additional categories they need, updates often add duplicates of these custom categories. This is confusing, and it leads to entry errors.
I suggest the removal of the entire default categories mechanism from Cha-Ching.
It already has a most satisfactory system in the custom categories. Adding a few default suggestions to this list when creating an empty database is a perfect substitute for the only useful purpose the default categories fill: as a guideline.
As things stand, I believe the default category system as it stands (i.e. they can't be deleted, custom categories are second-class citizens) adds nothing to the functionality of Cha-Ching but has serious negative effects on its usability.
I’m peeved
18
people like this idea
I like this idea!
Tell me when this idea gets some attention.
The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
The more people who like this idea, the more it gets noticed.
The company has this in progress.
Create a customer community for your own organization
Plans starting at $19/month
-
Inappropriate?This is already implemented in Cha-Ching Touch 1.5 and will be coming very soon to the next 2.0 beta on the desktop. Thanks for the feedback!
I’m confident
-
Inappropriate?To further this discussion, I don't use categories at all: I don't see the reason for them to exist in addition to tags. I've always felt that tags and categories were redundant mechanisms that served the same purpose in different ways.
Gmail is an excellent example of the difference between tags and categories; labels and folders. Traditionally email was always fitted into folders, if an email fell into both, there were simply two copies of the email stored. This methodology is born directly out of real-world paper filing methods.
Tagging has totally changed around this mechanism, allowing an item to be filed in many different sections while maintaining only one copy. Something doesn't have to have multiple tags, whereas sometimes it does.
Cha-Ching handles tagging very well as I see it (beyond Touch not having any tagging support- this is in the works I read here). The list of tags is auto-generated and new tags can be easily created without fiddling with preferences.
To summarize, I think it needs to be considered if Categories and Tags are both needed in Cha-Ching. In my personal use categories have no place: when I want to categorize it, I simply assign the appropriate tag by typing the first few letters.
I’m indifferent
1 Comment
Add a comment
This is one of the best points
-
Okay so here is the deal... Basically on the iPhone a concept like tags, with its infinite flexibility is very very unwieldy.
Even on the desktop it is fairly difficult to design a budgeting system that captures every tag used on every transaction.
What we have found is that often times we forget to include a tag in our budget which means the budget doesn't accurately capture all spending.
This problem is even more apparent on the iPhone. We wanted our users to be able to set up and maintain a budget on the iPhone. This was impossible with tags. Designing a simple UI for creating a tag based budget proved to be very very difficult.
Additionally, creating transactions and tagging them on the phone was not a good experience.
We needed to come up with a way that users could quickly and easily enter and track spending as well as create a budget that would capture all of their spending.
This is why we created categories. On the desktop, categories and tags will work together. You don't lose anything by using categories. We still expect you to tag almost the same way you would today.
Think of categories as the "group" that the transaction falls into and "tags" as any means to describe a transaction.
Tags are so much more powerful than categories in this regard which is why Cha-Ching will always have them and one of the main reasons Cha-Ching is superior to other applications.
Categories are a fantastic way to budget and tags are a great way to track spending. The two together are very powerful.
Take the category "auto" for example. It is easy to lump all auto related expenses into this category. Then using tags, you can specify exact details about each expense.
If you own two cars, and you take one in for an oil change, you can categorize this as "Auto" but then tag it as "Oil Change", "Maintenance" and "Mazda".
This kind of detail is only possible with tags.
We think over time the marriage of categories and tags is going to be great for our users :D
Does that make sense? -
Inappropriate?A good argument and point. I can actually see using it from that point-of-view. The original idea here is needed even more when put that way though: categories need to be an easy to access list, with custom categories not at the bottom.
The idea that just struck me is a UI element I've seen a few dozen times: In the preferences, two lists; one with all the categories (custom as well) and a second with the list that shows up in the transaction editor. Using drag-and-drop and/or arrow buttons (preferably both) the categories could be moved from inactive to active. Also that the 'active' list could be sorted manually in the order of the user's importance.
I’m confident
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
-
Let me take this one step forward, check my picture mockup on how to use your "favorite" categories: http://getsatisfaction.com/midnightap...
-
Inappropriate?The desktop category editor is being revamped and changes will be coming soon. We know it needs to be easy to use as well as easy to pick a category when entering a transaction.
The idea is that you will be able to pick/add a new category simply by typing right into the field as opposed to manipulating a pop up in Cha-Ching 2.
I’m confident
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
-
Inappropriate?This looks like a good solution, easier to manipulate too. Glad to see things heading in a positive direction. I'm a long-time customer of version 1.x and will happily upgrade after the beta!
I’m confident
-
Inappropriate?It's worth mentioning that tags is a really bad way to do budgeting.
The whole point of tags is to put things into multiple categories as you see fit.
What you absolutely cannot have in a budget is transactions being counted twice, which is exactly what happens if you aren't careful with your tags.
Try it: create a transaction with tags matching two budget items, and hey presto!, Cha-Ching tells you that you've spent or earned twice as much money as you actually have.
So basically, the entire purpose of tags (multiple categories) is something that must be avoided at all costs when creating a budget (and Cha-Ching, unfortunately, does nothing at all to prevent or warn you of double-counting).
Great for reports, as you can divide up your transactions any way you want, but not for budgets.
I’m worried MA didn't realise this
1 person thinks
this is one of the best points
1 Comment Add a comment
This is one of the best points
-
You shouldn't be worried... we are addressing this and your point is exactly what we have already mentioned...
categories are perfect for budgeting, tagging is great for reporting.
This is the direction we are headed.
EMPLOYEE
