Tracking - Increase the number of tracking categories
I have a real estate client who wants to track clientID and Postcode but also Agent name and property value range. I can only use 2 categories and so have had to make a number of Item codes for each agent 30+ codes per agent in order to do this. If we could have more than 2 tracking categories that would be great!
Hi everyone, we appreciate all the interest in Tracking. As widely used as this feature is we have no plans at this point to develop and extend the current limitations of Tracking in Xero.
As some here may have explored - there are connected apps that may serve some of the needs of Tracking, as well as Xero Projects for those looking to monitor and record finite business projects or jobs.
If there's any change, we'll return here to update.
You're welcome to continue to share detail of how increasing options for tracking could benefit your business, however we want to be transparent in our position, so you can make the best decision as needed for your business.
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Nishan Song commented
I would like see each tracking category allowing more than 100 tracking options. We use these options as cost centres and is critical to cost allocation. The limit of 100 is a deal breaker and will push us to look at other accounting software that offers that much more range. I appreciate the flexibility and stability of Xero and would really love to see the Product team roll this out within the next 6 months.
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Peter Miles commented
Whilst looking at this, it would be great to be able to have relationship between tracking categories. I.E. that certain job codes could be linked to certain activity codes, giving another level of analysis.
Jobs for specific types of work could be grouped together to summarize the activity. For example Gardening Jobs etc -
Laura Wetherall commented
I agree with everyone below. We are about to separate our business into 4 discreet arms and would like to track against each arm. If Xero can't do this we will need to find a company that can. Xero is generally helpful so surprised and disappointed that requests to increase the number of tracking categories appears to have been shut down so quickly.
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Genevieve Hilton commented
CRITICAL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Steven Molotsky commented
It's been since inception there are only two. If we are having to tolerate changes in coding and platform the flexibility to increase must be an easy addition and very overdue
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Anura Ranasinghe commented
This is veryimportant
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Genevieve Hilton commented
Imperative !!!!
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Dongyan Liang commented
Hello, This is critical to our business as we are required to run reports by salesperson by department and by territory. The current set up with only two active tracking categories is not sufficient to support this. Lots of manually works for us to generate the reports required.
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jim Alexander commented
Hey, I'm a developer/director for a tool called InBill.
If you ever consider an add-on to solve this issue and get more versatility from tracking or the bills process in general at your company, we might be a great fit!
One of InBills features is 'Category groups' (see attached example)
The filtering and search-ability is also very mature where you can combine any combination of suppliers / categories / status's to show exactly what you want.
If this is something you're interested in lets talk!
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Tim Martin commented
@Genevieve Hilton, For clarity I have a Tracking Category with ~700 Options added and maintained directly in the Xero interface.
(The API cannot handle this number of Options).
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Genevieve Hilton commented
@Tim Martin - so to be clear, you were able to add 700 options to one category ?
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Tim Martin commented
@Genevieve Hilton, I have seen the API break firsthand. The affected Tracking Category has about 700 Options that were originally added via the Xero Interface.
Now trying to add a few more categories via the API fails. Actually, I should say that the API appears to work and I even get successful return status with the ID of the new Option, but the option is never actually added. It is not available in the Xero interface and not available to read from the API.
Similar issue with renaming Options. The API appears to work with successful status and a return result with the updated name, but the rename never actually updates the Option.
I believe I have had some Tracking Categories work via API with around 300-400 options.
If you aren't using the API you should be able to get away 700+ options, but Xero does not support it.
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Genevieve Hilton commented
@Tim Martin - have you experienced the break after 100 options ?
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Tim Martin commented
Adding additional tracking categories would definitely make life easier. Even more than that we need to remove the Tracking Category Option Limits.
Xero limit the Option count to a soft ~100 Options for each Tracking Category. The API silently breaks without warning after an undefined number above 100.
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Genevieve Hilton commented
This is so critical in the businesses I look after. It is important for Management to be able to look into the Xero file and pull a report to see in real time the profitability on a job. Our business has 100's of jobs each year !!!!!!! Please enable more tracking options for each category - pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease !!!
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Louise Birnie commented
This is critical to our business as we various revenue streams and offices.
We need more granular detail and better reporting functions from Xero! -
Claire White commented
Please provide more Tracking Categories to allow a transaction to be tracked under multiple categories.
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Barbara Kyle commented
I would urge Xero to reopen this question and consider offering more than 2 tracking codes. I work for a nonprofit - we use one code for department, one for funders. But I need another to track specific EVENTS. This is a serious limitation. I may need to find a new accounting software.
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Trefoil Networks Accounts commented
Limiting Tracking categories to just 2 is chasing away your clients and you should know this. Most businesses now have departments and divisions and track revenue and costs along those lines. Most businesses have more than 2 departments and even divisions for Medium businesses. So xero is saying, you dont want those businesses to scale with you. You are losing out to your competitors. Increase this now.
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Trefoil Networks Accounts commented
Since Xero does not have divisional accounting, and resorts to Tracking categories as the alternative, why are we limited to a maximum of 2 Tracking categories. We really need to have 4 or more active tracking categories not just 2. Increase the numbers now.