Managing categories

Add a sub-category or main category, rename one, set its Shariah class, restrict who may spend from it, or deactivate it — and understand why every change waits for approval.

Categories are how your charity sorts every rial of income and expense into the right line of work. This guide covers the everyday register work: adding a new sub-category, adding a new main category, renaming or adjusting one, restricting who may spend from it, and deactivating one you no longer use. You'd do this when a new fund-raising line opens, when a name needs tidying, or when you're retiring an old heading.

Two things are worth knowing up front, because they shape every step below. First, the register is a two-level tree — broad main categories with sub-categories underneath, and money is only ever filed against a sub-category. Second, no change you make here takes effect immediately: adding, renaming, reclassifying or deactivating all raise a change request that a Finance Manager signs off and the CEO approves first. So this guide is really about proposing a change cleanly; the sign-off is covered in The category approval workflow.

Who can do this. Adding a category (sub- or main) needs a finance role that grants create — typically the Accountant or Finance Manager. Renaming, reclassifying or deactivating one needs update — again the Accountant or Finance Manager (the organisation Owner and Admin can do both too). Approving the change you raise is a separate permission held by the Finance Manager and CEO. If you don't see a New category or Edit control, your role doesn't grant it — that's by design, not a bug; see Members & roles.

Where to find it

Open Finance → Settings from the dashboard, then choose Categories in the left-hand menu. (The older Finance → Categories link takes you to the same register.) You'll see the colour-coded list of main categories; click any one to expand it and reveal its sub-categories.

The Categories section of Finance settings, with the New main category and New category buttons above the colour-coded registerScreenshot to be added

Add a new sub-category

A sub-category is where money is actually filed, so this is the change you'll make most often. It always sits under an existing main category, and it inherits that parent's Shariah class automatically — you never set the class on a sub-category by hand.

Open the new-category form

In the register, press New category (top right). A dedicated form opens, ready for one new sub-category.

Choose the parent and confirm the code

Pick the Parent main category from the list. As soon as you do, WAQAF suggests the next code under that parent — for example 03.10 if 03.09 is the last one used. The code always starts with the parent's two digits, then a dot, then the sub-index. You can edit it, but it must stay under the parent you chose (a code like 03.10 belongs under 03); a mismatch is rejected when you submit.

The new sub-category form showing the Parent selector and the auto-suggested Code fieldScreenshot to be added

Enter the Arabic and English names

Fill in both Arabic name and English name — categories are bilingual, and the name shown to a user follows their language. Each name must be unique within your organisation; reusing a name already on another category is blocked when you submit.

Set fee-exempt and spending, if needed

Two optional controls follow:

Exempt from admin fee — tick this to stop the administration fee being taken from money filed here. You usually leave it as inherited: Zakat and restricted Sadaqah are exempt automatically, so you rarely need to set it by hand.
Who may spend from this category — tick one or more roles to restrict spending to them. Leave it empty to allow any role with spending permission. A restricted category shows a small lock in the register, naming the roles allowed.

Write a reason and send for review

Type a short Reason for adding — it's logged for audit, and the reviewer reads it before approving. The reason must be a real sentence (a few words minimum), so "test" alone won't do. Press Create & send for review.

The new sub-category is filed as a draft change request, not a live category. It shows in the register marked Draft and Pending change, and you can't file money against it until it's approved.

You won't see balance figures while doing any of this. Viewing category and fund balances is reserved for the Finance Manager, CEO and Auditor; as an accountant you manage the register without ever seeing the running totals. That's deliberate. See Balances & privacy.

Add a new main category

Main categories are the broad headings — Endowments (Waqf), Zakat & kaffarat, General sadaqah, Mosques, and so on. You add one far less often, usually only when a genuinely new area of work begins.

Open the new main-category dialog

In the register, press New main category. A dialog opens. WAQAF assigns the next two-digit code (01, 02, 03…) for you — you don't choose it.

Fill in the details

Enter:

Arabic name and English name (both required, both unique).
Colour and Icon — these set how the heading appears in the register, on receipts, and in reports.
Type — the Shariah class for the whole heading: Zakat, Waqf, Sadaqah, Restricted, General, or Adjustment. This is the important one — every sub-category you later add under this heading inherits this class, and the class decides which fund the money lands in. Choose it carefully.
Sub-categories fee-exempt by default — when ticked, new sub-categories here start exempt from the admin fee. A Zakat heading is always treated as fee-exempt regardless, because Zakat must be disbursed in full.

Write a reason and submit

Add a Reason for the change and press Submit for approval. Like a sub-category, the new main category is a change request first — it appears as Pending change and becomes live only when the CEO approves.

Rename or adjust a category

To change an existing sub-category, expand its parent and press Edit on its row. You can update its Arabic and English names, its Scope (whether it's used for income, expense, or both), its fee-exempt flag, who may spend from it, and — in the cases described next — its Shariah class. For a main category, press Edit main category on the heading row instead; that dialog also lets you change the colour, icon, sort order and the fee-exempt default.

Every edit needs a Reason for the change and, like an add, becomes a change request that the Finance Manager and CEO must approve before it takes effect.

The Edit category dialog with the name, scope, Shariah class, fee-exempt, spending-roles and reason fieldsScreenshot to be added

Changing a Shariah class moves real money. A sub-category's class is normally inherited from its parent. If you correct it directly, WAQAF re-points the sub-category to the matching fund, and if it already holds money the balance is moved to the new fund with an audited transfer entry. Correcting a class out of Waqf moves money out of protected endowment principal — only ever do this to fix a genuine mis-coding. These changes are guarded and need two people to approve them.

Deactivate a category

You never delete a category — its history must stay intact for the audit trail. To retire one, you deactivate it: open its Edit control and untick Active, give a reason, and submit it for approval.

A category that still holds money cannot be switched off. Its vault must be empty first — meaning the balance filed under it has been spent or moved elsewhere. If you try to deactivate a category with a balance, the change is blocked (at the time you raise it and again when it's approved). The same empty-vault rule applies to changing a main category's type, because that re-points every sub-category's fund. Empty the vault first, then deactivate.

What happens when your change is approved

Nothing you propose here is live until it clears two sign-offs:

A Finance Manager reviews and signs off your request.
The CEO approves it — at which point the live category is created or updated in one atomic step. (A Finance Manager may approve the CEO step on the CEO's behalf, with a justification note, when the CEO is unavailable.)

If the approval re-check fails — for example the code was taken by someone else in the meantime, or a vault that was empty no longer is — the request is rejected rather than half-applied, and the proposer is notified. The full journey, including how to approve, is in The category approval workflow.