Explore the Top Categories Insight
Explore the Top Categories Insight
Top categories shows which expense categories account for the highest total spending across expenses you have permission to view.
You can use Top categories to:
- Identify which expense types account for the most spending.
- Compare spending across categories such as Travel, Meals, or Office Supplies.
- Monitor spending patterns by category.
- Identify areas where you may need to adjust budgets.
What Top categories shows
Top categories highlights the five expense categories with the highest total spending, ranked from highest to lowest.
Each category is represented by a slice of a donut chart, making it easy to compare its share of spending. The table below the chart shows:
- Number of expenses: How many expenses contribute to the category’s total.
- Total spend: The combined amount of expenses in that category.
- Percentage of total spend: The category’s share of overall spending.
This makes it easier to understand which expense types account for the largest portion of spending.
Who can see Top categories
Top categories only appears if a workspace you can access has categories enabled.
The expenses included depend on your permissions:
- Workspace admins and auditors can see expenses across their workspace.
- Approvers can see expenses submitted to them.
- Members can see their own expenses.
If categories aren’t enabled, a workspace admin can learn how to create expense categories.
How Top categories is calculated
Top categories groups expenses by category and ranks categories from highest to lowest total spend.
Results include expenses within the selected date range that you have permission to view. Amounts are converted to the selected Group currency.
The Date, Workspace, and Group currency filters are shared across all insights, allowing you to adjust which data appears.
How to explore Top categories
Top categories displays the five categories with the highest total spend for the selected date range.
To see spending for every category, select More (⋮) on the visualization, then select View on Spend. This opens the related results in Spend, where you can explore spending beyond the top five categories.
You can also select a slice of the donut chart to open Spend with the expenses in that category, listed from newest to oldest.
Learn how to explore expenses from an insight.
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FAQ
Can you export Top categories?
Grouped totals and summary data can’t be exported directly from Top categories, but you can export the underlying expenses from Spend.
What other insights are available?
Additional insights help you analyze spending from different perspectives:
- Spend over time shows how total expenses change over a date range.
- Top spenders shows which members have the highest total spending.
- Top merchants shows which merchants account for the most spending.
Learn more about the available insights.
Why can’t I see Top categories?
Top categories only appears when at least one workspace you can access has categories enabled.
If the insight isn’t available, check whether categories are enabled for your workspace. A workspace admin can create expense categories.
Why is an expense missing from Top categories?
An expense might not appear if:
- You don’t have permission to view it.
- It falls outside the selected date range.
- Its category isn’t among the five highest-spending categories shown in the visualization.
To explore spending beyond the top five categories, select More (⋮), then View on Spend.
