Finance ▸ Settings ▸ Classification Categories. The page opens for the Accounting, Fixed Asset Admin or Equipment Admin permission. What you can edit depends on which of those you hold.
A category is the rule that decides what happens when somebody places an item of that kind into service. Products point at a category; the category does the rest. Nothing here is decided per request.
Using Classification Categories
The page heading reads Classification categories. Rows are subcategories, grouped under the two finance main categories: Assets and Consumables.
Stock is sellable stock-on-hand until it is classified. Sellable is not a category and does not appear on this page.
Two roles, one row
Each subcategory has two halves, and the split is enforced when you save, not just hidden on screen.
Finance — the side of the books & the approval route — needs the Accounting permission. Sets Main category (Asset or Consumable), Approved by (permission) and Active. Finance also creates new subcategories with New subcategory.
Equipment/stock admin — how units of it are handled — needs Fixed Asset Admin or Equipment Admin. Sets the name and description and every operational property below.
An administrator holds both halves.
What a category controls
Main category — Asset or Consumable. Assets are capitalised to the balance sheet and every unit is tracked on the register with an FA- tag. Consumables are expensed to P&L.
Tracked in software — for a Consumable, whether each unit stays a tracked register unit (EQ- tag, serials, custody, off-site rule, sign-off) or is written off from stock at issue with only the consumption logged. For an Asset the switch is forced on: assets always live on the register.
Lifetime (months, approximate) — roughly how long the thing lasts, which drives the replacement date.
Serial numbers — whether a serial number is required, optional, or not applicable.
Off-site policy — whether the unit may leave the premises.
Returnable (pool + re-issue) — whether it goes back to the pool for re-issue.
Holder signs responsibility — whether the holder signs for the unit, and the Responsibility statement they sign.
Approved by (permission) — which permission decides its place-in-service requests. The blank option reads — Finance default gate —.
There is no finance-treatment field. Whether a unit is capitalised or expensed follows from the main category: Asset means capitalise, Consumable means expense. The old per-category "decide by cost against the threshold" setting no longer exists.
The rows that ship
Three visible rows are seeded and locked, because the mobile app's contract derives from them: Consumable — direct use, Equipment (expensed) and Fixed asset — general. Their side of the books and their tracked-or-not behaviour cannot be changed and they cannot be deactivated. The rest are ordinary rows you can edit or add to: Tool — re-issuable, PPE & Clothing, IT — portable, IT — fixed.
On a database that has had the two-role migrations applied, Fixed asset — general and both IT rows sit under Assets; Consumable — direct use, Equipment (expensed), Tool — re-issuable and PPE & Clothing sit under Consumables.
Two things people get wrong
Approved by is not decoration. Setting it to Equipment Admin means Finance no longer sees those requests by default — the routed permission-holder does. This is how a laptop request reaches IT rather than the accountant. Set it deliberately. (Accounting still acts as a universal approver on any card, so Finance can always step in.)
Changing a property does not rewrite history. Each unit takes a snapshot of the category when it is created. Editing the category changes what future issues get. Units already on the register keep what they were given.
A change that flips which side of the books a subcategory sits on is refused while any product points at it or any register unit was converted under it. Create a new subcategory and re-classify instead.
Steps
Open Finance ▸ Settings ▸ Classification Categories.
Click New subcategory (Finance), or Edit on an existing row.
Choose the Main category first — it decides whether Tracked in software can be switched off.
Fill in your half of the properties. Leave Approved by (permission) on — Finance default gate — unless a specific team should decide.
Save. It applies to the next issue, not to units already registered.
Related
Equipment and fixed assets: how the flow works
Place in Service: asking for an item to be tracked — raising the request