Expense categories and why there are only six

The six

Utilities — electricity, water, internet, gas, generator fuel. Repairs & maintenance — anyone who fixes something and anything they use to fix it; also scheduled servicing. People — salaries, contractor fees for services (not repairs), benefits, the guard agency. Supplies — cleaning stock, consumables, stationery, anything bought to be used up. Fees & taxes — permits, licences, insurance, association dues you pay, bank charges, real property tax. Other — what truly fits nowhere. If Other is more than a few percent of your spending, something is miscategorised.

Why fixed

A P&L with six rows is readable at a glance and comparable month to month. A P&L with forty rows is a list. The detail you actually want — which plumber, which unit, which month — is in the description, the unit and the date, all of which are filterable. And your accountant has a chart of accounts already; six categories map onto it in a minute, and every month the mapping is the same.

Edge cases

A new aircon — repairs & maintenance, but mark it capital so the P&L can show it separately; your accountant depreciates it. Cleaning contractor — people, because you pay for a service. Cleaning supplies the contractor used — supplies. The building's internet that tenants use — utilities, general. Internet for one furnished unit — utilities, that unit. Refund to a tenant — not an expense at all; it is a credit or a deposit return, recorded on the money-in side.

Stock is not an expense when you buy it

Buying forty bottles of water is a purchase of stock; the expense happens when bottles are used or sold. The inventory module handles this: purchases go into stock, and consumption lands in the P&L as supplies in the month it happens. Stock value in your P&L explains the why.