The categorization workflow for QuickBooks Online

Categorize QuickBooks without the back-and-forth.

Categorly asks whoever made each purchase what it was, then books it in QuickBooks for you — no logins, no spreadsheets.

Free to start · No credit card required · Connect your first company in minutes

Bundle transactions
Ask the right person
Auto write-back
categorly.dev/app
Pending pool
Acme Retail · Uncategorized Expense
4 purchases
DatePayeeAmount
Jun 2Alibabapending$1,240.00
Jun 3Adobepending$89.99
Jun 5Ulinecategorized$512.30
Jun 6Amex feepending$46.10

Built to be trusted with your clients’ books

Official QuickBooks Online integrationOAuth — we never see your passwordAccess tokens encrypted at restFirm-level data isolation
The problem

The uncategorized pile is quietly costing you

Every business runs charges that don't explain themselves — an unfamiliar vendor, a card fee, a one-off purchase. In QuickBooks they collect in a holding or “Ask My Accountant” account and wait. Getting them categorized means tracking down the one person who remembers.

The pile never stops growing

New transactions land faster than anyone can explain them, and the holding account turns into a black hole you dread at month-end.

The person who knows can't easily help

The employee who made the purchase doesn't have QuickBooks — and handing out logins to your clients' books is a risk you don't want.

So it becomes a chase

Emails, texts, and spreadsheets fly back and forth. Answers arrive late, guesses get miscategorized, and the cleanup lands back on you.

Categorly turns that chase into a clean, repeatable loop.

How it works

From mystery charge to categorized in three steps

The whole loop, minus the spreadsheets and the Slack chasing — set it up once and run it every month.

01

Connect a company

Link a client's QuickBooks Online in a few clicks and pick the holding account where uncategorized purchases collect. We pull the pending pile automatically.

02

Send a request

Bundle the transactions that need answers, choose exactly which accounts are allowed, and assign them to an employee by email. They get a link — not a login.

03

It writes back

They pick an account per charge from the options you set. Categorly re-books each one in QuickBooks and it drops out of the pool — no manual re-entry.

Why Categorly

One workspace, every client company, tight guardrails

Purpose-built for firms that keep many sets of books — so categorization stays fast, accurate, and firmly under your control.

Multi-company by design

Manage every client's QuickBooks from one firm workspace, each one cleanly isolated from the others.

Constrained choices

Employees only pick from the accounts you allow per request — no wrong-account guesses to clean up later.

Safe write-back

Every change is a read-modify-write with SyncToken and freshness checks — Categorly never silently clobbers your books.

No QuickBooks access

Employees answer through a simple portal. They never see — or touch — your clients' QuickBooks.

Who it's for

Made for the people who keep the books

If you're responsible for someone else's categorization, Categorly gives you the answers without giving away access.

Bookkeeping firms

Keep every client's books clean from one place, and stop chasing the same answers every month.

Accounting & CAS practices

Standardize how categorization requests go out across your entire client roster.

Fractional CFOs & controllers

Manage multiple entities without living inside each company's QuickBooks day to day.

Growing finance teams

Let the people who spend explain their own charges — without handing out QuickBooks seats.

Security & trust

Built to be trusted with your books

You're accountable for your clients' financial data. Categorly is designed around least privilege and careful writes, so connecting it never means loosening control.

OAuth, never your password

Connect through Intuit's official flow. Categorly never sees your QuickBooks credentials, and you can revoke access anytime.

Encrypted tokens

Connection tokens are encrypted at rest, and refreshes are serialized so your connection stays healthy without leaking access.

Least privilege for employees

Employees answer categorization requests in a focused portal. They never get a QuickBooks login or see the wider books.

Safe, reversible write-back

Read-modify-write with SyncToken and a freshness re-check means Categorly never overwrites a change someone else just made.

Firm-level isolation

Every firm's data — and every client company inside it — is walled off from every other firm on the platform.

A full audit trail

See who categorized what, when, and where it landed — every request is tracked from send to write-back.

FAQ

Questions, answered

The things firms ask us most before connecting their first company.

Clear your first pile this week

Set up your firm, connect a company, and send your first categorization request in minutes. Free to start — no credit card required.