Deactivating subcategories

We have a few subcategories created in the past that are no longer used and need to be cleaned up. A brief search suggests I can deactivate them by going to View/Update Categories, however this doesn't seem to be available in the current version of MLS, nor is there anything on the website to allow this. What's the current method to remove these unused categories?

It's still in MLS. Select Finance > Budget > Add/Update Categories. Note that you can only remove budget subcategories. The top level budget categories are fixed and can't be changed or inactivated.

First, you must make sure the subcategories are empty. If there are any funds in them, you cannot deactivate them.

Not all categories can be deactivated, but any created by the ward/branch should be able to be deactivated.

At what point can the categories be deleted? There are OTHER categories in the list from seven years ago that have been deactivated but still appear on the category list and the delete button is greyed out. I'd like to be able to declutter the category list.

aclawson wrote:At what point can the categories be deleted? There are OTHER categories in the list from seven years ago that have been deactivated but still appear on the category list and the delete button is greyed out. I'd like to be able to declutter the category list.

The subcategories will be automatically deleted (assuming the system is working correctly) when all of the following conditions are met:

• The subcategory has a 0 balance.
• The subcategory has been deactivated.
• The subcategory has had absolutely no activity (meaning no income, expense, or transfer, including adjustments) for the retention period for the country (3 years plus current year in the US, but various periods up to 7 years in other countries).
• The previous year's finances have been closed. For example, in the US, if the last activity in a subcategory was in 2014, then if all the other conditions were met, the subcategory should have been automatically deleted as part of the process of closing the 2017 financial year and moving into 2018.

If this is not happening as you expect, you should run detailed reports on the subcategory with a custom date range back to the beginning of 2014 to see if you can see any activity and to verify the balance.

In the meantime can Other subcategories be 'hidden' if no longer used?

waltbristow wrote:In the meantime can Other subcategories be 'hidden' if no longer used?

Then can be inactivated (using Finance > Budget > Add/Update Categories in MLS). This doesn't hide them completely but they don't show up as options when recording donations or writing checks.