Re: Stuck Up In My Category Tree

I now have a work-around.  I have a view called amntby_cat that contains the sums by category, which I pull into a LibreOffice Calc sheet.  I then use a second sheet with a list of the top-level categories, and a series of formulas to sum all the sub-categories for each top-level category,

I am now curious as to how business accounting databases approach transaction categories?  If I am selling widgets to all 7 continents (as i learned them), I might have sales as follows:

Antartica - expeditioners love our widgets!
Europe
  Germany
    Berlin, Mainz
  England
    London
    Brighton
North America
  USA
    New York
    Atlanta
    LA
  Mexico
    Mexico City
etc... ad nauseum.

But I may only want to see sales by continent.

Or more closely related:
Sales
  Advertising
  Communications
Operations
  parts
  labor
  Equipment

But I May only want to see the figures summed up at the top-level. 

How is this issue approached in other cases?  Have I taken a bad approach to my category structure?  It appears to be a common approach to categories in general, but is there a solution that better fits my case?

Thanks,
Don
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D.C. Parris, FMP, LEED AP O+M, ESL Certificate
Minister, Security/FM Coordinator, Free Software Advocate