# Groups

[Groups](http://bkper.com/docs/core-concepts.md#groups) in Bkper help you categorize and structure Accounts, making financial analysis and reporting easier. Unlike rigid structures in traditional accounting systems, Bkper Groups are fully flexible — you can modify and reorganize them at any time while balance values stay in sync.

![The current Bkper Accounts page showing account groups and hierarchy tags](http://bkper.com/docs/_astro/accounts-chart.kIhMA_a1.png)

Groups offer several advantages:

- **Simplified reporting** — view consolidated balances of multiple Accounts at once
- **Organized data** — structure your [Chart of Accounts](http://bkper.com/docs/guides/using-bkper/chart-of-accounts.md) logically
- **Meaningful insights** — enable better financial analysis
- **Hierarchy support** — Groups can contain both Accounts and other Groups

## Create a Group

In your Book, look for the **New Group** option in the left menu. Give your Group a name that reflects its purpose — like **Travel Expenses**, **Revenue Streams**, or **Operational Costs** — then click **Save**.

Your new Group appears alongside the others in the left menu, ready to hold Accounts. From here, you can **drag and drop Accounts into the Group** or adjust its hierarchy to better organize your finances.

### Renaming a Group

Click the **three dots** next to the Group's balance, select **Edit**, enter the new name, and press **Save**.

### Deleting a Group

Click the **three dots**, select **Delete**, and confirm. Deleting a Group does **not** delete the Accounts or their balance values inside it — those Accounts remain in your Book, just no longer grouped together.

### Hiding a Group

If a Group should remain in your Book but not appear in the left menu or reports, you can hide it. Click the **three dots** and select **Hide**. This is useful for auxiliary Groups used only for internal tracking, custom properties, or bot configurations.

### Showing a hidden Group

Hidden Groups are still visible (in light gray) in the Chart of Accounts. Click the **three dots** next to a hidden Group and select **Show** to bring it back into the left menu.

### Group properties

You can attach [custom properties](http://bkper.com/docs/guides/using-bkper/properties.md) to a Group — typically to configure bot behavior for all accounts in that group. For example, the [Tax Bot](http://bkper.com/apps/sales-tax-bot.md) reads `tax_included_rate` and `tax_excluded_rate` from a group to calculate taxes on every transaction in its accounts, and the [Exchange Bot](http://bkper.com/apps/exchange-bot.md) reads `exc_code` to know which exchange rate to use.

To manage group properties, click **More > Edit** on the group and expand the properties section. See the [Properties guide](http://bkper.com/docs/guides/using-bkper/properties.md#group-properties) for details and examples.

### Comments on groups

You can leave [comments](http://bkper.com/docs/guides/using-bkper/comments.md) on any group to coordinate with your team — for example, a note explaining why a group's structure changed or a request to review its accounts. Select the group and click the comment icon; mention a collaborator with **@username** to notify them.

### Locking a Group

To prevent accidental changes to a Group's structure, you can lock it.

- Only **Book Owners** can lock or unlock a Group.
- Only **Root Groups** (the highest level in a hierarchy) can be locked.

Locking ensures that no one accidentally reorganizes critical data that could disrupt reports or automated workflows.

### Drag and drop from the Transactions page

Find the Account in the left menu and **drag and drop** it onto the target Group. The Account is immediately added and its balance included in the Group total.

### From the Chart of Accounts

Open the **Chart of Accounts**, select the Account(s) you want to categorize, click the **Groups button**, choose the target Group, and apply. This method supports bulk selection, making it efficient for organizing many Accounts at once.

## Group hierarchies

Groups can be nested within each other to create structured financial hierarchies. At the top sits the **Root Group** (for example, Assets), beneath it are **Child Groups** (for example, Current Assets), and the lowest level of Groups contains the actual Accounts.

An example hierarchy:

**Assets** (Root) → **Current Assets** (Child) → **Receivables** (Child) → Customer A, Customer B (Accounts)

> **Note**
> A parent Group cannot contain both Accounts and child Groups simultaneously. Only the last level of Groups in a hierarchy can hold Accounts.
### Adding a Group to a hierarchy

To place a Group within a hierarchy, edit the Group and assign a **Parent Group**. The parent Group must already exist.

### Removing a Group from a hierarchy

To detach a Group from its parent while keeping it as an independent Group, edit it, clear the **Parent Group** dropdown, and save.

When a Group is removed from a hierarchy:

- Child Groups inside it remain intact.
- Accounts stay in both the removed Group and the parent Group, unless the parent is also removed.
- Accounts can be manually reassigned as needed.

With a well-structured hierarchy, you can retrieve an entire **Balance Sheet** or **Income Statement** with a single query — for example, `Net Assets on:2026` or `Net Income on:2026`.

### Searching by group

The `group:` [query operator](http://bkper.com/docs/guides/using-bkper/search-and-queries.md) filters transactions and balance values by Group. Combined with date operators, this gives you instant reports — `group:'Travel Expenses' after:$y-1 before:$y` shows last year's travel spend. Since Groups roll up balances from all their child Accounts, a single `group:` query can replace dozens of individual account filters.

## Bulk export and import

You can manage Groups in bulk using the [Bkper Add-on for Google Sheets](http://bkper.com/docs/guides/google-sheets.md). Use **[Fetch Groups](https://github.com/bkper/bkper-sheets#bkper_groups)** to export your Group structure to a spreadsheet, and **[Save Groups](https://github.com/bkper/bkper-sheets#group-columns)** to create Groups in batch — including hierarchy and Custom Properties.

## Related

- **[Chart of Accounts](http://bkper.com/docs/guides/using-bkper/chart-of-accounts.md)** — build and visualize your full account and group structure