---
title: "Managing expense categories for Administrators - Payhawk Help Center"
slug: "creating-editing-and-deleting-expense-categories"
description: "Create, edit and delete expense categories in Payhawk: customize categories to match your accounting structure on the Payhawk spend management platform."
updated: 2026-10-27T14:43:51Z
published: 2026-10-27T14:43:51Z
canonical: "payhawk.com/creating-editing-and-deleting-expense-categories"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://payhawk.com/help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Creating, editing, and deleting expense categories

Through the expense categories features, Payhawk provides a powerful tool for automating the accounting processes at your company and for maintaining faster and easier financial control.

## Overview of Payhawk expense categories

In Payhawk, expense categories are user-friendly names you can assign to expenses. Each expense category is linked to an optional account code from your chart of accounts or other systems of record.

> [!TIP]
> The account codes will be visible only in your monthly report.

When uploading expenses to Payhawk, employees set the category of the expense. If you link each expense category to your bookkeeping account number, your controlling team will view this data in the exported Excel file and they can start analyzing and slicing the numbers immediately.

## Creating expense categories

To create an expense category in Payhawk:

1. In the [Payhawk Web Portal](https://portal.payhawk.com), open the app switcher in the top-left corner and go to **Settings** > **Fields library** > **Category**.
2. Click on **+ Add category**.
3. In the panel that opens:
  1. Enter the name of the new category, its [account code](/help/managing-account-codes-for-expense-categories), and the tax rate that will be applied to the expenses.

Note that to be able to add a default tax rate from the drop-down menu, you need to first [create a tax rate expense field](/help/creating-editing-and-deleting-default-tax-rates) with the desired value.
  2. Under **Visibility**, define which entities, teams or specific users will use this value, and which roles can see and change the value of this field.
  3. Under **Conditional display**, click on **+** **Add condition** to choose when this value will be visible.
4. Click on **Save**.

![Category page in the Fields library with the New category panel open, showing the name Equipment, account code 6600, tax rate 20% - Standard rate, the Visibility and Conditional display settings, and the Save button.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/GA%3AFields%20library/creating_expense_categories_1_20261009_ai.png)

## Editing expense categories

To edit an expense category:

1. Click on the desired category.
2. In the panel that opens, edit the data.
3. Click on **Save** to apply the changes.

![Panel for the Travel category with its name, parent category, account code, tax rate, visibility and conditional display settings, and the Save button.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/GA%3AFields%20library/editing_expense_categories_2_20261009_ai.png)

## Deleting expense categories

To delete an expense category:

1. Select the checkbox next to the desired category.
2. In the panel that opens, under **Operations**, click on **Delete**.
3. Select the **I understand this action cannot be undone** checkbox and click on **Confirm**.

![Category page with the Travel category selected and Delete under Operations, and the Delete one value panel warning that the category and all of its children will be deleted, with the confirmation checkbox selected.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/GA%3AFields%20library/delete_category_20261009_ai.png)

## Adding sub-categories

To add a sub-category to an existing expense category:

1. In the **Fields library**, select the desired expense category by clicking on it, for example, **Category**.
2. Click on **+ Add category**.
3. In the panel that opens:
  1. Enter the name of the new category, its [account code](/help/managing-account-codes-for-expense-categories), and the tax rate that will be applied to its expenses.

Note that to be able to add a default tax rate from the drop-down menu, you need to first [create a tax rate expense field](/help/creating-editing-and-deleting-default-tax-rates) with the desired value.
  2. Under **Parent category**, from the drop-down menu, select the parent category to which the new one will be a sub-category.
4. Click on **Save**.

![Category page with the New category panel open, showing the name Hotels, Travel selected as the parent category and the account code 6120.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/GA%3AFields%20library/adding_subcategories_3_20261009_ai.png)

## Editing sub-categories

To edit an expense sub-category:

1. Click on the desired sub-category.
2. In the panel that opens, edit the data.
3. Click on **Save** to apply the changes.

![Panel for the Flights sub-category showing Travel as its parent category, the account code 6110, visibility and conditional display settings, and the Save button.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/GA%3AFields%20library/editing_subcategories_4_20261009_ai.png)

## Deleting sub-categories

To delete an expense sub-category:

1. Select the checkbox next to the desired sub-category.
2. In the panel that opens, under **Operations**, click on **Delete**.
3. Select the **I understand this action cannot be undone** checkbox and click on **Confirm**.

![Category page with the Flights sub-category selected and Delete under Operations, and the Delete one value panel with the confirmation checkbox selected.](https://cdn.payhawk.com/GA%3AFields%20library/delete_sub-category_20261009_ai.png)

## Useful resources

- [Automatic population of expense field data](/help/automatic-population-of-expense-field-data)
- [Importing and exporting expense categories in bulk](/help/importing-and-exporting-expense-categories-in-bulk)
- [Adding default tax rates to expense categories](/help/creating-editing-and-deleting-default-tax-rates)
- [Applying updates to existing expense fields historically](/help/overview-of-expense-fields)