I’m new to this too and they have great videos that help you understand the intended methods. Like you, I thought the Jan - Dec Budget columns in Categories would be a great place for Actual data to show. That worksheet is intended for you to build your budget for monthly amounts. Since I’m interested in only tracking Actual, and not doing Budget yet, those columns are not used by me.
AUTOCAT will be your best friend to save time. For Groceries, my AutoCat value has 2 lines. The one for Kroger replaces “KROGER #0591 BURLESON TX” with simply the name.
As mentioned above, the Monthly Analysis will show the Jan - Dec spread by month of your actual transactions. The other Add On Templates will give you other views.
Here’s the link for the great webinars on getting started: