Splitting a payment across categories in Money by Zaweba
A split in Money by Zaweba divides one payment across several categories, such as groceries and household items, so budgets and reports stay accurate.
One payment rarely means one kind of spending. A big supermarket shop might be mostly food with some cleaning products and a birthday card. In Money by Zaweba you can split that payment across several categories, and each part then counts in its own category in budgets and reports.
Without splits, the whole shop lands in one category and your grocery figure quietly includes the bleach and the card. Over a year that can make a budget look further off than it really is.
How splitting works
A split keeps the payment as one transaction in the register, with one date, one payee and the same total as on your bank statement. Behind it sit the parts, each with its own category and amount. The register still matches the bank's line, so reconciling isn't affected, while budgets and reports see the separate parts.
You enter the parts in a split dialog opened from the transaction. Add a part for each category and give it an amount, until the parts add up to the payment.
When to split
Supermarket shops are the obvious case: groceries and household items, as in the example Money itself uses. Other common ones are a single online order containing things for different parts of the home, a petrol station visit that included a snack, or a payment that is part personal and part business for a sole trader.
That last one is worth thinking about. Money's category list includes Business for sole traders, and splitting a mixed payment keeps the business share in its own category, so the reports show it apart from household spending.
What changes in budgets and reports
Once a payment is split, each part is treated as spending in its own category. The monthly budget for Groceries counts only the grocery part, and the household part goes towards its own budget. The spending by category report shows each slice where it belongs, and the Home dashboard's picture of where the money went follows suit. The account balance doesn't change at all, because the total is still the one payment.
Where the numbers come from
Your receipt is the best guide. You don't have to split to the penny on every line; many people round to the main groups and put the leftover in the largest part. What matters is that the parts add up to the total.
Splits from imports
If you import QIF files, splits in the file are brought in as splits, so a statement or export that already divides payments keeps that work. CSV, OFX and QFX statements from banks give one line per payment, which you can then split by hand where it matters.
Payee rules still apply to imported rows, putting each payee's transactions into a category. A split is the step you take on top of that when one payment needs more than one category.
Keeping it manageable
Splitting every payment would be hard work and isn't needed. Split the big, mixed ones that would otherwise distort a category, and let the small ones sit in the category they mostly belong to. Check your spending by category report after a month or two; if a category looks oddly high, the cause is often a few large mixed payments that are worth splitting.
Used where it counts, a split is a small effort that makes Money by Zaweba's budgets and reports tell you what you actually spent money on.
