CSV import and subcategories

[ThomMei]

Hi,
Thank you for this tool.
I struggle with importing CSV with categories and subacatgories, they always end up unnested.

I tried these formats:

• Cat > Subcat > Subsubcat
• Cat:Subcat:Subsubcat
• Cat/Subcat/Subsubcat

What should it be?

Thank you

[xop01]

Nested categories only work on the category tree import, not on a normal bank statement CSV.

In the app, use the category import/export flow (Categories screen, import a category file). For CSV, the importer expects a header row with a column named path (or category / name). Each row is one category, and nesting uses a greater-than separator with spaces:

path,type
Food > Groceries > Produce,expense
Food > Restaurants,expense

Colon (:) and slash (/) paths are not parsed as nesting. You can also import JSON exported from Budget, which keeps the tree under children.

If you tell us whether you used statement import or category import, we can narrow it down further.

@ThomMei

[ThomMei]

Thank you!

I was importing a CSV export from Skrooge with all transactions.

With your method, I managed to create nested categories, but then, the CSV import doesn't map to them and recreates everything (one row per Cat > Subcat, named "Cat > Subcat")

[xop01]

The nested categories you created are stored as separate names, a parent and then a child. A Skrooge transaction row does not use that tree. The whole category cell is saved as one name, so Cat > Subcat is looked up as a category named exactly Cat > Subcat. No category has that name, so the import creates a new one, unnested, with that whole string as its name.

The transaction importer does not split on >. Putting the parent and the child in one cell will keep creating those flat categories.

If each subcategory name exists only once, change the category column to the last part only, Subcat. The import then finds the one category with that name, including one that already sits under a parent. If two parents both have a child with the same name, that lookup cannot choose between them, and a new top-level category with that name is created.

[ThomMei]

The import then finds the one category with that name, including one that already sits under a parent.

I tried that, and the CSV statements importer still recreates every category, including those who have the same name (I checked if there was a space at the beginning or end of the name, there was not).

Thank you for your time, I have more than 200 categories

[otherworld-dev]

This will be fixed in 3.0. The import reads the category column as a path, so Cat > Subcat > Subsubcat from Skrooge goes under Subsubcat in your existing tree, and any level that doesn't exist yet gets created in the right place. You can import the Skrooge file as it is, there's no need to cut the column down to the last part (that workaround also relies on 3.0, which is why it didn't work for you).

Before importing again, delete the transactions from the earlier attempts and the flat "Cat > Subcat" categories they made, otherwise those categories will keep getting the rows. Refunds will also go back into the expense category they name, rather than creating an income category with the same name.

[ThomMei]

Allright, thank you