Map Categories to Revenue Accounts

When you sell a steak, the revenue should land on 3001 Food sales 12%. When you sell a beer, it should land on 3003 Alcohol sales 25%. Vendion doesn't know this on its own – you need to tell it by mapping each category to a revenue account.

Sounds like work, but it's a 10-minute one-time setup.

What is a category?

A category (also called varugrupp) is a collection of related menu items. For example:

• "Starters" – contains shrimp, tartare, soup
• "Mains" – contains fish, meat, vegetarian
• "Desserts" – contains ice cream, pie, cheese platter
• "Wine" – contains house white, red by glass, bottle
• "Beer" – contains IPA, pilsner, non-alcoholic

Every menu item belongs to exactly one category. Categories are managed under Admin → Menu → Categories.

Why must I map them?

For Vendion to build the voucher at Z-report, it needs to know which revenue account each sale credits.

Without mapping, everything falls back to the Default revenue account (default 3001) – which is wrong for alcohol (should be 3003 at 25% VAT).

Default revenue accounts for restaurants

How to do it – step by step

1. Go to Admin → Menu → Categories
2. Open a category (click pencil icon)
3. Find the "Account number" field (under advanced)
4. Type the correct BAS account (e.g. 3001)
5. Choose VAT rate (12% or 25%)
6. Save

Repeat for all your categories.

Tip: Make it simple by writing all categories on paper, next to each write "12%" or "25%" and the right account. Then enter into Vendion all at once.

Important: VAT per item VS category

Vendion supports VAT at both category and item level. If an individual item needs deviating VAT (e.g. non-alcoholic beer in the "Beer" category), you can set VAT at item level and it overrides.

Example:

• Category "Beer" → default 25%, account 3003
• Item "Tuborg Non-Alc" → 12% (non-alcoholic beverage)

Vendion books:

• Regular beer → 3003, 25% VAT → 2610 ✓
• Non-alc beer → 3002 (if separate category) or still 3003 but at 12% VAT

Recommendation: Create separate categories for non-alcoholic alternatives instead of mixing. It makes bookkeeping cleaner and easier for the accountant to verify.

Example 1: À la carte restaurant

Typical dinner restaurant.

Example 2: Bar / Pub

More alcohol-focused.

Example 3: Café

Coffee-focused, lots of milk and baked goods.

Cafés don't typically sell alcohol – hence no 3003 accounts.

Example 4: Food truck / takeaway

All food is takeaway → still 12% VAT (contrary to what many believe). Alcohol is unusual in food trucks but if sold → 25%.

Example 5: Catering

Catering is also 12% VAT for the food itself – but transport fees and staff surcharges can become 25%.

Important: Catering is a complex VAT area. Call your accountant when setting up catering categories.

Common mistakes

Non-alc beer/wine on 3003

Why wrong: Non-alcoholic variants are 12% VAT (food/beverage), not 25%. Consequence: You remit too much VAT and report wrong revenue account. Fix: Create separate categories "Non-alc beer" and "Non-alc wine" on 3002.

All beverages on 3001

Why wrong: 3001 is specifically for food. Beverages (even non-alcoholic) should be 3002 for better reporting. Consequence: Works – but accountant and analytics get less precise. Fix: Separate 3001 (food) and 3002 (beverages).

Mixing alcohol and non-alc in same category

Why wrong: Different VAT rates in the same category make bookkeeping hard to read. Consequence: Works if VAT is at item level, but makes sales mix analysis difficult. Fix: Always separate categories for 12% and 25%.

Forgetting to map a new category

Why wrong: New categories fall to the default account (3001) at 12% VAT. Consequence: Alcohol sold under a new category gets reported incorrectly. Fix: Add "map account" to your checklist when creating a new category.

Verify mapping via test order

1. Place an order in POS with one item per category you want to test
2. Pay
3. Close the day's Z-report
4. Go to Admin → Accounting → Vouchers
5. Open the voucher
6. Verify every row is on the correct account

If something's off – back to Categories and fix.

See also

• Map Payment Methods to Accounts
• Accounts in Vendion – Default Setup
• VAT in Vendion – Sweden
• VAT Calculation – Reverse Formula