Two settings underpin the whole Finance area, and both live outside it, in Vessel Settings under the Finance tab. The tab only appears when the vessel's licence includes the Finance module, and changing anything on it needs the Vessel Settings → Edit permission.
Currency
Currency is the single currency in which the vessel reports. Account balances, budgets, the charts on Finance → Overview and the Amount (vessel) column on the expense list are all expressed in it.
It does not restrict what you can spend: an expense is recorded in whatever currency it was paid in, along with an exchange rate and the resulting vessel-currency total. Only that total feeds the balances and budgets.
A new vessel starts on EUR. Changing the currency changes the label the existing figures are shown under; it does not re-convert amounts already recorded. Set it once, when the vessel is being set up.
Budget categories
Below the currency is the Budget Categories editor, a two-level tree: top-level categories on the left and their Sub-categories on the right for whichever one is selected.
Both levels are used by Finance:
- An expense you add is filed under a category and a subcategory, both required.
- A budget line is set per top-level category, so subcategory spending rolls up into its parent.
Every vessel starts with a suggested set of categories and subcategories. They are only a starting point — rename them, add your own and remove the ones you do not need, so the tree matches how your fleet accounts for spending.
Use the add control on either panel to create a category or a subcategory, and the pencil to rename one. Deleting is deliberately restrictive; the delete control is disabled and explains why when:
- the category still has subcategories,
- the category is used in a budget, or
- the category is linked to expenses.
Clear the reason first — remove the subcategories, take the category out of the budget months that use it, or recategorise the expenses — and the category can then be deleted. Renaming a category is always safe: the expenses and budget lines pointing at it simply show the new name.