Expense categories:
the eight defaults.

Every expense entry in nouz picks one of eight default categories. These aren't customisable in v1 — that's deliberate. Fixed categories mean Statistics can compare your spending patterns consistently across weeks, and across your shops if you run more than one. Custom categories would break that.

01 What are the eight expense categories?

• Advertising
• Transport
• Staff extra hours
• Packaging
• Repairs
• Meals
• Spoilage
• Other

02 What belongs in each category?

• Advertising — anything that markets the shop. Google ads, Instagram posts boosted, posters, flyers, sponsorship.
• Transport — getting supplies to the shop. Petrol for the supply run, delivery fees from a wholesaler, taxi to fetch a forgotten ingredient.
• Staff extra hours — casual labour and overtime that isn't covered by base salaries. Day-rate help, bonus pay for a busy weekend.
• Packaging — cups, lids, takeaway bags, napkins, the stuff you give away with sales.
• Repairs — fixing what's already there. Plumber call-out, broken handle replacement, espresso machine service.
• Meals — food and drink for staff (the free meal at shift change). Not customer sales.
• Spoilage — pastries you tossed at close-out, milk that turned, the sandwich that didn't sell.
• Other — everything that doesn't fit. Use sparingly so the categories stay meaningful.

03 Why eight fixed categories and not custom ones?

These eight cover roughly 95% of expense lines for small brick-and-mortar shops in our beta, and they're fixed on purpose. Custom categories sound flexible but they're a tax on Statistics — comparing "advertising spend across last quarter" stops working when every owner names their categories differently. Fixed buckets keep the cross-cutting analytics honest, including across multiple shops. If you find yourself using "Other" more than once a week, email us; we expand the list based on real demand.

If you find yourself using "Other" more than once a week, drop us an email — the eight defaults may need a ninth that we haven't added yet. We expand the list based on actual demand, not speculation.

04 What should not go in expenses?

Recurring bills like rent, insurance and salaries don't go in Expenses — they belong in Fixed Costs. The distinction is critical: fixed costs are allocated as a daily slice across every active day, while expenses hit only the day they're logged. Putting rent in Expenses would create a huge spike on the 1st and nothing the rest of the month — exactly the noise the daily-slice pattern exists to prevent. Capital and inventory purchases also stay out of Expenses.

Also not in Expenses: capital purchases (a new espresso machine), inventory purchases (your weekly supply order — those are COGS via product sales). When in doubt, see Large one-off expense vs fixed cost.