Hi there,
Thanks so much for sending a screenshot. I completely understand why you'd want to create specific categories to track things like software subscriptions and affiliate income it's a great way to get a really clear picture of how your business is doing.
I'm here to shed some light on this for you. With QuickBooks Solopreneur, the categories are actually designed a bit differently than some of our other products. It's built specifically for sole traders like you, and the categories are carefully matched to the sections of the UK's Self Assessment tax return. This unique design is what makes it so much easier and faster to get your tax return ready at the end of the year, as all your income and expenses are already organized correctly. Because of this direct link to the tax form, the option to create brand new custom categories isn't available in QuickBooks Solopreneur. The goal is to keep everything streamlined and perfectly aligned with HMRC's requirements.
The reason why you're seeing a different display from my colleague's response is that they're using QuickBooks Online subscription instead of Solopreneur, where users of QBO have the ability to create custom categories.
While you can't create a new category, you can still categorise those specific transactions. When you're adding a transaction, you can use the existing categories, such as General Administrative Expenses for your software, and then add a clear note in the description field, like Adobe subscription or Canva Pro. This way, you can easily find and filter for all those specific expenses later on if you need to
Feel free to leave a reply if you have additional concerns with QuickBooks Solopreneur. We're always here to help.
