Missing category list

Glad to have you here in the Community, @TCB246.

We currently have an ongoing issue where the category lists aren't showing from the drop-down when creating bills, expenses, or checks in QuickBooks Online. Rest assured that our product engineers are diligently working on a fix.

To ensure you'll get an update about the resolution status, I recommend contacting our QuickBooks Support Team. This way, they can add your company to the list of affected users and provide this investigation number for easy tracking: INV-55159. To reach our support team, please follow the steps below:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Click the Help button.
3. In the QuickBooks Assistance chatbox, select Talk to a human and choose I still need a human.
4. Hit Contact Us.

You can also check out this link for another way of reaching out to our support team and its support hours: QuickBooks Online Support.

For now, you can visit our blog site so you'll be able to get the latest news about QuickBooks and what our Product Care Team is working on. 

Thank you for your patience while we're working on this. If you have any other questions, feel free to comment below. Have a great day.

Thank you for your help.

In the meantime can I carry on inputting my expenses.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming back, TCB246.

Though there's no workaround formulated for INV-55159, you can carry on inputting your expenses. Once the issue is resolved, just go back to the transaction to categorize multiple expenses at the same time. Here's how: 

1. Click Expenses from the left navigation bar.
2. Tap the boxes of the expenses you'd like to categorize and click the Batch Actions drop-down list.
3. Select Categorize selected.
4. Choose the category you want, then Apply.

To learn more about recording, editing, and deleting expenses, see the Enter and manage expenses in QuickBooks Online (QBO) article. Feel free to visit our Expenses and vendors page for more insight about managing your expense transactions in QBO.

I'd like to know how you get on after trying the steps, as I want to ensure this is resolved for you. Just reply to this post and I'll get back to you. Have a great weekend. 

Maybe your personal categories are turned off?

If so...

Solution:

Step 1. Go to gear icon (settings). Under "TOOLS."
Step 2. Select "Manage categories." In the upper-right corner
Step 3. Toggle (switch on) "Personal categories."

Unfortunately, the "Personal categories" toggle (switch off) again when you run a report and then click on particular category (which links to transactions). No worries, simply switch on "Personal categories" again (Follow steps above.)

Rinse and repeat 15-20 times an hour.

It's tax season. Having fun yet?

I found and reported this bug with the QuickBooks Self Employed team at Intuit. As of today, a QBSE rep has escalated for further investigation and solution.

Got the same problem, there's no drop down list when entering credit card charges under categories, need help to fix this.

Hello there, KW1986.

I've got troubleshooting steps to ensure you'll be able to see the Categories drop-down list when entering credit card charges in QuickBooks Online smoothly.

Excessive cache stored on the regular browser may cause the QuickBooks to have system performance issues. With this, I recommend logging in to your QBO account using a private browser, as it ignores websites from using cache and cookies and doesn’t record any history and data. 

Use these keyboard shortcuts based on the browser you're using:

• For Firefox or Microsoft Edge, press Ctrl + Shift + P.
• For Chrome, press Ctrl + Shift + N.
• For Safari, hold down Command + Shift + N.

If it works in incognito, you'll have to clear the cache of your regular browser. This removes the history or log of sites so you can start with a clean slate. If the steps above don't work, use another supported browser as an alternative.

In case you need steps on how you can manage your transactions in QBO to avoid duplicate data, you can read this article: Categorize online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online.

If you have any additional concerns about entering credit card charges or choosing the right category for the entry, don't hesitate to return to this thread. I want to ensure that everything is taken care of, KW1986. Stay safe.

Is QuickBooks experiencing this problem again. The same thing just happened to me today. Please lmk asap if you are and if it’s being fixed 

I appreciate you for joining the thread, @Gmoneysiickwitit. I'm here to ensure you can access the category drop-down list when creating your transactions.

If you haven't tried doing basic troubleshooting yet, I suggest following the steps provided by my colleague @ChristieAnn above. This is to determine if the problem lies with your browser. If the issue is fixed after this, you'll want to clear your regular browser cache. Another option is to use other supported browsers.

If the issue remains, I recommend contacting our support team to have your account checked. Here's how to reach them:

1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Click Help (?).
3. Type in "Talk to a human," then press Enter.
4. Select Contact Support Team.
5. Type again Talk to a human and click Contact Support Team.
6. Choose a way to connect with us.

In case you plan on paying for your expenses in the future, you can enter it as a bill. Refer to this article for future reference: Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online.

Return to this thread anytime if you have further questions about the category list or QuickBooks in general. I'll be more than happy to assist.

Same problem here! Is there any estimate on when this is gonna be solved? Not being able to categorize the transactions makes QuickBooks just useless to my business.