The Uncategorized Expenses report lists every expense that’s still missing an IRS Schedule C category. It’s the report to run first, before any financial statement, because uncategorized expenses don’t get attributed correctly on the P&L or the Income and Expense Report.
Think of it as a to-do list: anything that shows up here needs a category before your books can be considered closed.
When to run it
- Before generating P&L or Income & Expense reports — uncategorized rows distort the totals.
- At the end of each month — keeping the list short makes year-end painless.
- Right after a big import — bank statements always come with rows that need a human decision.
Opening the report
- Open Reports from the sidebar.
- Find Uncategorized Expenses under Review & Data Quality.
- Click the card to open the report.
Choosing the period
At the top of the report you’ll set:
- Business — required.
- Bank — pick a single account, or check Consolidate all accounts to include every bank under the business. (If you consolidate, the Bank selector is ignored.)
- Year — pick the tax year, or switch to Date Range and set From / To for a narrower window. The two are mutually exclusive — pick one. If you use a date range, you must fill in both dates.
If you forget a required field, the report shows a short message telling you exactly what’s missing (for example, “Please select a bank or consolidate all accounts.”) instead of running with partial filters.
What the report shows
A single table grouped by month, with one row per uncategorized expense. The columns are:
| Column | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Method | The payment method (Credit Card, Check, ACH, etc.) — the Simple-C method assigned to the row |
| Provider | The vendor / provider name |
| Description | The expense description |
| Date | The expense date (MM/DD/YYYY) |
| Amount | The expense amount |
Rows are sorted by month, then by method, then by date. Each month block starts with a bold month header and ends with a Sub Total row, and the very bottom of the table shows the grand Total. If there are no uncategorized expenses for the period, the report shows “No data available for the selected criteria.” — which is the goal.
The report deliberately filters out Adjustment and Cash Credit entries — those have their own places in the system and don’t belong in the to-categorize list.
Quick links and exports
When the report has run, the header panel shows the client name, EIN, and selected bank (or “All the bank accounts” when consolidated), plus a row of buttons:
- Expenses — jumps straight to Manual Entry for the same bank and year so you can start categorizing immediately.
- Summary — opens the Summary for the same bank and year to review balances.
- Reports — takes you back to the Reports catalog for the same bank and year.
- Export to Excel — downloads an
.xlsxyou can sort, filter, or hand to a preparer. - Download — generates a printable PDF (Letter size, with a footer showing the company and client and page numbers); opens in a new tab so you can print or save it.
How to clear out the list
The Uncategorized Expenses report is read-only — you can’t categorize from this page. Once you’ve identified what needs work, head over to one of the categorization tools:
- Bulk Updates — when many of the uncategorized rows share the same provider or method, this is the fastest path. Filter by Category = Uncategorized, select rows, and use the Classify action.
- Manual Entry — when you want to walk through them one at a time and use field locking to fly through similar entries.
- Entry Workflow → Expenses step — when these were just imported, the workflow is the natural place to classify them with Simple-C’s category suggestions.
A handy shortcut: the Expenses quick link at the top of the report takes you straight to Manual Entry with the same bank and year already selected.
Tips
- Don’t let the list grow. A handful of uncategorized rows are easy to clean up; a year’s worth is painful. Check this report at least monthly.
- Look for patterns. If the same provider keeps showing up uncategorized, set its default category once via Bulk Updates and the next import will know what to do.
- Run it again after categorizing. A quick second pass on this report confirms you didn’t miss anything before generating financial statements.
- Consolidate for a bird’s-eye view. Checking Consolidate all accounts is a fast way to see every uncategorized row across the business in one list — useful right before year-end close.