My hack: I have a cheat sheet where I have assigned unused existing categories to represent categories I want for both Income and Expenses. When I download reports, I edit the spreadsheets to reflect my actual categories.
It would definitely save me the hassle if this feature were provided!
Iām shocked that this hasnāt been revisited in 2 years. Iāve only been using Stessa for a year and I immediately recognized the need to be able to make my own categories compared to how Stessa has it set up.
They create their own limited categories, but regularly tell their users to consult a tax professional about proper categorization. I found the site map of categories, but have yet to find a helpful overview of how some of these categories will appear on reports. That is to say, will the category or sub-category be recorded as income, an expense, or a transfer? If they explained how the categories work (income, expense, transfer) Iām sure they would get fewer questions about how to categorize something.
I doubt the owners and developers even use Stessa software. When my husband and I read what Stessa can do, we thought it was a godsend after the management company we had been using royally screwed up our properties and accounting. My husband set up our properties on Stessa, and I came on to get the accounting aspect taken care of. I am no professional, but Iām also not an idiot, and immediately found so many basic requirements that are missing. Iām shocked at the number of basic āfeaturesā that Stessa users are still waiting on.
Iām also convinced that their Wishlist set up (great idea, in theory) doesnāt organize suggestions in an easy to find manner. Iāve searched numerous ideas to make sure they werenāt already posted, found NOTHING, and by accident later on, found suggestions on that very topic (dated prior to my search). Again, itās an issue of someone with great ideas that doesnāt even try their own software.
i agree 100%
Iām seeing that overall the bones of Stessa are good but there are feature or functions that are either missing or not working that really donāt make sense from the users standpoint.
AGREE!!!
i hate that i spent so much time onboarding all my properties and data manually and i am looking for other services to switch to at the same time.
foundation repairs as a catagory
Take a look at how Baselane have their categories broken down. Would love to see Stella do the same. Also having the non-property expense category is great.
Just want to note that this debate is as old as the Stessa platform and there are great arguments on both sides as to whether custom categories should be allowed/supported. Our position has always been (and still is) that Stessa is an opinionated platform thatās easy to set up and works right out of the box. If you want endless customization options and complicated double-entry accounting ledgers, thereās always Quickbooks.
That said, we do add new categories from time to time, based on frequency of requests, the degree of alignment with existing categories, and consensus feedback from the community. With that in mind, feel free to keep populating this thread with requests for specific new income and expense categories.
For non-property expenses, we recommend assigning these at the portfolio-level if youād like to track them without assigning to a specific property. More information about how to do that can be found in the Help Center: Assigning Transactions & Reporting: Portfolios, Properties, and Units | Stessa Help Center
We need user defined categories !!!
Feel like a broken record on Stessa forum topics with asking for user defined categories. Will 2025 be the year for.. Goal 2025 = Stessa user defined categories
Devin, hate to beat a dead horse (or so it seems) but I just cannot comprehend how your team has not decided to add in Custom User Defined Categories and/or subcategories. I am one of your first users and stopped using the platform SPECIFICALLY for this reason. My CPA firm just cannot function in the narrow STESSA pre-defined world. It seems from all the threads concerning this that there are MANY paid subscriptions (myself included) waiting on the sidelines for this feature set. Please - please hav ether team consider this greatly needed upgrade to an otherwise amazing platform. I literally want to pay for Stessa and use it but cannot with the constraints inherent in the software categories. TIA.
We all NEED CUSTOM CATEGORIES IN ADDITION TO UOUR OPINIONATED CATEGORIES.
All the best,
Paul Lavallee
508.942.2530
| andrew
May 4 |
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Devin, hate to beat a dead horse (or so it seems) but I just cannot comprehend how your team has not decided to add in Custom User Defined Categories and/or subcategories. I am one of your first users and stopped using the platform SPECIFICALLY for this reason. My CPA firm just cannot function in the narrow STESSA pre-defined world. It seems from all the threads concerning this that there are MANY paid subscriptions (myself included) waiting on the sidelines for this feature set. Please - please hav ether team consider this greatly needed upgrade to an otherwise amazing platform. I literally want to pay for Stessa and use it but cannot with the constraints inherent in the software categories. TIA.
Devin, I worked as a full stack developer for IBM for 7 years and built systems like this. Youāre argument is void. Preventing a user from customizing categories on their end for reporting purposes is extremely important. You can still have standard categorization āout of the boxā for every user but not allowing someone to create a subset mapping of those for their own purposes is just wrong. If this is Stessaās stance on categorization then Iām out.
I agree with you. Preventing users from customizing categories is wrong.
All the best,
Paul Lavallee
508.942.2530
| 917ellison
May 9 |
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Devin, I worked as a full stack developer for IBM for 7 years and built systems like this. Youāre argument is void. Preventing a user from customizing categories on their end for reporting purposes is extremely important. You can still have standard categorization āout of the boxā for every user but not allowing someone to create a subset mapping of those for their own purposes is just wrong. If this is Stessaās stance on categorization then Iām out.
A great example there is not bathroom remodel, kitchen remodel.
floor and carpet - there are different kinds of flooring and have different life spans.
This isnāt rocket science.
All the best,
Paul Lavallee
508.942.2530
| meritageinvestmentpa
May 11 |
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A great example there is not bathroom remodel, kitchen remodel.
floor and carpet - there are different kinds of flooring and have different life spans.