Canonical list of Category strings used in the Expenses tab of the MooseQuest Ledger YYYY workbook. These strings must be typed exactly — the CPA will re-map them to tax-return lines, and consistency is what makes that mapping clean.
The bookkeeper role must never invent a new category on the fly. If a transaction doesn't fit any category here, it goes in as Unknown — CPA review and waits for a human decision. Drifting category names (e.g., "Heroku" as Internet & Hosting in January and Software & SaaS in June) destroys the value of the ledger.
If a new category genuinely is needed, it gets added to this file in a PR before it's used in the workbook.
| Category (use exactly) | Schedule C line (CPA confirms) | Typical examples for MooseQuest / Raxx |
|---|---|---|
Advertising |
8 | Domain purchases for marketing, Google Ads, LinkedIn ads, pre-launch brand work (e.g., logo design) |
Car & Travel |
9 + 24a | Mileage, flights, hotels, ground transport for client / business travel |
Commissions & Fees |
10 | Payment processor fees (Stripe fees) |
Contract Labor |
11 | 1099 contractors (designer, devs) |
Insurance (business) |
15 | E&O / cyber / general liability |
Legal & Professional Services |
17 | Trademark attorney, business-formation attorney, CPA fees, USPTO filing support |
Office Expense |
18 | Software subscriptions that don't fit Supplies, small office stuff |
Rent (office) |
20b | Home-office deduction if claimed (CPA computes) |
Repairs & Maintenance |
21 | Rare for us |
Supplies |
22 | Notebooks, small hardware |
Taxes & Licenses |
23 | PA LLC annual report fee, state filings, USPTO fees |
Travel (overnight) |
24a | Hotels, airfare, conference registration |
Meals (business) |
24b | Business meals — 50% deductible; flag partial-50% |
Utilities |
25 | Phone business %, internet business % |
Internet & Hosting |
27a (other) | Heroku, Cloudflare, Dreamhost, Dyn DNS, Sentry, Google Workspace |
Payroll (S-Corp salary) |
26 | Owner W-2 once S-Corp elected |
Software & SaaS (work) |
27a | GitHub, Anthropic API (if metered), vendor SaaS tools |
Education & Training |
27a | Courses, books, conferences (non-travel component) |
Dues & Subscriptions |
27a | Professional memberships |
Bank Fees |
27a | Checking account fees |
Unknown — CPA review |
? | Use when you can't confidently categorize — never guess |
In the Deductible column on Expenses, use exactly one of:
yes — clearly business, fully deductibleno — clearly personal or non-deductiblepartial-X% — partial deduction (e.g., partial-50% for business meals, partial-30% for home-office share of utilities)confirm-with-CPA — the default when in doubtThe bookkeeper role never converts confirm-with-CPA to yes unilaterally. The CPA does that at tax time.
sole-prop-kris — pre-LLC transactions; Kris's Schedule CMooseQuest LLC — post-LLC-formation (#153)personal — reimbursement due to Kris — personal card accidentally used for business, or business card accidentally used for personalThe Schedule C Summary tab structure is valid while Kris operates as sole-prop + single-member LLC (disregarded entity by default). Once the S-Corp election (#156) takes effect, the bookkeeper swaps the tab for an S-Corp Summary structured against Form 1120-S line items. The chart of accounts above is durable across that transition — only the line mapping changes.
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