> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.decodahealth.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Categories

> Organize services, products, medications, and packages into logical groups for reporting and commission tracking.

Categories group related items together across your clinic's catalog. They apply to [Services](/modules/settings/services), [Products](/modules/settings/products), [Medications](/modules/settings/medications), and [Packages](/modules/settings/packages) — so you only manage one set of categories for everything.

Use categories to organize your offerings by treatment area (e.g., "Facials", "Injectables", "Consultations"), track revenue by group, and structure commission rules.

## Create a Category

<Steps>
  <Step title="Navigate to Categories">
    Go to **Settings** and select **Categories**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create Category">
    Click the **Create Category** button.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Enter Details">
    * **Name:** A descriptive label for the category (e.g., "Facials", "Injectables", "Consultations").
    * **Description:** An optional summary of the category's purpose.
    * **Parent category:** Optional. Pick a category to nest this one under, or leave it as **Top level (no parent)** to keep it at the root. Categories can nest up to three levels deep, so you can build hierarchies like *Injectables > Neurotoxins > Botox*. Items always belong to one specific category — the parents exist for grouping and rollups only.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    Click **Create**. The category is immediately available for assignment to services, products, medications, and packages.
  </Step>
</Steps>

You can also create categories inline when editing a service, product, medication, or package — type a new name in the Category dropdown and select **Create new category**.

## Edit a Category

Click on a category name in the list to open the editor. Update the name, description, or parent category and click **Save Changes**. Moving a category to a new parent takes every child with it. You can't move a category into one of its own descendants — those options are greyed out in the parent picker.

## Nesting and Rollups

When a category has children, tables that **Group by category** — for example [Revenue](/modules/analytics/revenue), [Provider Earnings](/modules/analytics/providers), and the group-by view of the [Packages](/modules/settings/packages) list — show the category as an expandable row with its subcategories nested beneath. The parent row rolls up totals from itself and every descendant, so you can see subtotals at any level without flattening or double-counting.

## Where Categories Are Used

Categories appear throughout the platform:

* **Services, Products, Medications, Packages** -- Each item can be assigned to one category for organization.
* **Billing & Checkout** -- Items can be grouped by category in the checkout flow (controlled by the **Item Sort Type** setting in [General Preferences](/modules/settings/general)).
* **Commission Structures** -- Commission rules can be scoped to specific categories.
* **Membership Discounts** -- Membership plans can offer category-level discounts that apply to all items in a category.
* **Tax Rules** -- Tax rates can be scoped to items in specific categories.
* **Reporting** -- Revenue and sales data can be filtered and grouped by category.

## Advanced Configuration

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Category Merging">
    If you rename a category to match an existing category's name, the system will merge them. All items previously assigned to the renamed category will be reassigned to the existing one.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Restoring an Archived Category">
    If you create a new category with the same name as one that was archived earlier, the archived category is restored instead of a fresh one being created. Any items, services, or commission rules that were attached to the original come back with it. To start clean, archive the old category with **Reassign to** set to another category first, then create the new one under a different name.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Shared Across Item Types">
    Categories are shared across services, products, medications, and packages. Creating a new category from any item editor makes it available everywhere. This keeps your catalog organized with a single, consistent set of groupings.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Permissions">
    * **View Inventory** -- Required to view categories.
    * **Manage Inventory** -- Required to create, edit, and delete categories.

    Admin users have full access to category management by default.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>