Mercury uses the word "category" in more than one place, and if you're using Books alongside your banking dashboard — or moving to Books from another accounting system — it's worth knowing which is which. This article explains the three concepts and how they relate.
The three concepts
| Mercury categories | Books ledger accounts | ERP GL codes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What they are | Spend categories in your banking dashboard | The accounts in your Books chart of accounts | The accounts in a third-party accounting system like QuickBooks Online, Xero, or NetSuite |
| What they're for | Quick visibility into where money goes | Formal double-entry bookkeeping and financial statements in Mercury Books | Formal double-entry bookkeeping and financial statements in third-party accounting systems |
| Where you set them | On the Transactions page in your banking dashboard | On the Transactions page in Books | In the third-party system, with codes surfaced in Mercury when it's connected |
| Who typically uses them | Founders and employees categorizing their own spend | Whoever keeps the books — you, your bookkeeper, or your accountant | Your bookkeeper or accountant |
| What they feed | Mercury Insights | Financial reports in Books | Financial reports in your third party accounting system |
Mercury categories
Categories in your banking dashboard are a lightweight way to see where your money is going. They're the categories your team applies to card spend, and they power Mercury Insights.
They're not accounting categories, which are typically referred to as general ledger, or “GL” accounts. They don't roll up into financial statements, and they don't map one-to-one to a chart of accounts.
Today, your Mercury categories are not connected to your Books chart of accounts. Changes to Mercury categories do not affect Books and vice versa. They are two distinct systems.
Books ledger accounts
Ledger accounts are the accounts in your Books chart of accounts — your revenue accounts, expense accounts, assets, liabilities, and equity. When you categorize a transaction in Books, you're choosing a ledger account.
This is what produces your financial statements. Every ledger account has a type that determines where it appears on your reports, and a code that controls how accounts are ordered and grouped.
A ledger account that represents a real financial account — a bank account, credit card, or payment processor — is called a source account. Books creates and manages those for you.
To learn more, see Understanding your chart of accounts.
ERP ledger codes
If you connect Mercury to QuickBooks Online, Xero, or NetSuite, you code transactions to that system's ledger codes from your banking dashboard, and they sync across.
Those codes belong to that system, not to Books. Books has its own chart of accounts, and the two are separate — changes in one don't flow to the other.
To learn more, see Using Mercury Books alongside another accounting system.
If you're using Books, your ledger accounts are what matter for your financials. Categories remain useful for day-to-day visibility in your banking dashboard.
FAQs
If I categorize a transaction in Mercury banking, does its ledger account change?
No. The two remain distinct concepts — a Mercury category isn't a ledger account and one does not affect the other.
Do I need to keep using Mercury categories if I have Books?
Not for your financial statements — that's what your ledger accounts do. Categories are still useful for quick visibility in your banking dashboard and for employees coding their own spend.
Can I make my Mercury categories match my chart of accounts?
You can modify your categories to match your Books chart of accounts, but today they still will not be linked.
Categories and ledger accounts serve different purposes and don't need to line up. Your chart of accounts is usually more detailed and structured than your category list.
I asked Command to categorize transactions and it used the wrong kind of category.
Be specific and name what you want — "categorize these to a ledger account" or the account name itself.
Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.
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