In xtraCHEF, Purchase Categories allow you to further break out General Ledger (GL) codes into more specific groups. Purchase categories do not affect your accounting extracts, but they do enable additional layers of insight in much of our analytics and reporting features.
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This 4-minute video walks you through creating and editing purchase categories in xtraCHEF. It also highlights the insight that becomes available to you as a result of creating a purchase category system within your GL Codes.

Note: Purchase Categories is the categories screen in xtraCHEF — there is no separate Categories entry under the gear icon. If Purchase Categories is the only option you see, you are in the right place. Throughout this article and in the product, buttons such as + Add Category, Edit Category, Deactivate Category, and Activate Category all act on your purchase categories.

Select the button below for an in-product guide to creating purchase categories in xtraCHEF. You must be logged into xtraCHEF to view this walkthrough.

​Learn to Create Purchase Categories

Note: If the gear icon is grayed out, is not clickable, or does not show Purchase Categories at all, this is an access issue rather than a navigation issue. xtraCHEF access is granted separately from your Toast Web admin rights, so being an admin or owner in Toast Web does not by itself grant xtraCHEF admin access. An existing xtraCHEF Tenant Administrator can grant access under gear icon > Users. If you don't have anyone with that access yet, try these steps in order:

To create a new purchase category, select the gear icon in the top-right corner and choose Purchase Categories. You may already see several purchase categories here since xtraCHEF provides new users with a set of default categories. On this page, select the + Add Category button at the top.

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Name this new purchase category and select the GL Code Mapping and COGS Group Mapping you wish the purchase category to break out from. Select Include for COGS if you wish to map your COGS Groups to purchases. Visit xtraCHEF: COGS Mapping to learn more about COGS mapping. Finally, select +Add to lock in your new purchase category.

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Select the gear icon in the top-right corner of xtraCHEF and choose Purchase Categories. To edit a purchase category, select its checkbox and the select the Edit Category button.

Here, you can make changes to the purchase category's associated COGS Group Mapping or GL Code Mapping. Remove the COGS group mapping by selecting the drop-down, choosing Select, and unchecking the box for Include for COGS. You can also make an active purchase category inactive by unselecting the Active box. Select Save when you're done and your changes will immediately take effect.

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If you wish to deactivate or activate purchase categories, you can do so individually or in bulk. Navigate to the gear icon > Purchase Categories. Now select the checkbox for each purchase category you'd like to manage. Next, select Action > Deactivate Category.

By default, inactive purchase categories do not appear on this page unless Include Inactive Categories is selected. Once this filter is enabled, follow the steps above to select the purchase category's checkbox and navigate to Action > Activate Category. Note: Inactive purchase categories can still be viewed, but items can no longer be assigned.

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You can easily update multiple purchase categories at once. First, select the checkbox for each purchase category you want to include. Then select Action and select either Edit COGS Mapping or Edit GL Code Mapping. Once you've selected your intended COGS Group or GL Code, select Save.

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