Out of the box, Car Money gives you sensible defaults — refueling, parking, service, insurance, washes. They cover most days. But after a year of tracking, the right category structure for you depends on how you actually drive.
This is a 5-minute setup that pays back every time you open Reports.
Start with the defaults
The defaults are the right starting point. Do not over-think them on day one.
- Refueling — every fill-up
- Parking — meters, garages, valet
- Service — anything mechanical
- Insurance — premium, claims
- Other — for the rest, until a pattern emerges
Add custom categories when a pattern repeats
After two or three months, look at your “Other” entries. If three of them are tolls, that is a category. Same for car wash, charging, registration fees, road tax. Custom categories are free and you can rename them later — there is no penalty for trying one out.
If you will want to report on it separately later, it is a category. If you just want to find it, a search or a note will do.
The Fuel Category trick
Car Money has one special category — Fuel. Reports use it to calculate fuel efficiency, cost-per-mile, and fuel-only spend trends. By default it is wired to “Refueling” and you do not need to think about it. But if you rename or replace the category, set it back in Settings → Expense Categories → Fuel Category. Reports will silently stop calculating efficiency otherwise.
Income and maintenance entries
Car Money supports income entries (rideshare, side rentals, Turo, depreciation reimbursement) and maintenance flags. Use them. They keep your expense reports from being weirdly negative when a year-end depreciation credit lands.
Multi-vehicle: keep one set
If you have multiple vehicles, share one category list. You do not need separate “Tesla Insurance” and “Honda Insurance” categories. Vehicle is its own filter — categories cut across them.
When to clean up
Once a quarter, archive categories with zero entries in the last six months. Your future self thanks you when the picker gets shorter.
Time to set up: 5–10 minutes. Time saved over a year: about an hour and a much cleaner Reports view.