You Need A Budget Catch-all

Finally got all my on-budget accounts reconciled after the year of not having a PC. Yey.

I feel like someone mentioned this before, but I learned that if you want to make multiples of the same transaction, you can add it as a repeating transaction and then in the bottom sheduled transaction window, right click on it and choose "Enter in register now", and edit the date of the recurring transaction it spits out to the one you want. I did this because I was putting in a "this is roughly how I spent all the cash I never got a receipt for" transaction for every month of the past year. It doesn't normally allow you to "schedule" a transaction into the past.

In other news that probably is covered in the welcome tutorial or something but I just stumbled on it again, you can enter < and > into the search bar to show "all transactions less than X"

I'm now up to looking at the budget page (legacy version mobile doesn't have that) and trying to work out how to make the numbers make sense, because a lot of stuff in there seems out of whack.

Hobear, I can't say for 100% certain but I'd be very suprised if the app for the new version doesn't have manual input. It definitely has account import.

Hobear wrote:

Hoping someone can give me some information on the YNAB online version. Currently we use an app called Goodbudget and we love it but lately we have wanted to do more reconciliation by having a system that can download transactions into your account should you miss one. Goodbudget only does manual entry and not account verification. Shame as it is a great app.

Does YNAB allow for manual entry via phone so we keep up our goodbudget practice of basically keeping a checkbook or is it different? Would love any information as we are considering the jump for August. I know they offer a month free so hoping to give it a try. It's hard as we love goodbudget so much it just is missing this one key feature.

I am 90% certain the mobile app now does both-- manual entries (which it's always done) and they recently added the ability to import through account linking (though I tend not to do that since I prefer the granular control of a real mouse and keyboard over a tiny touchpad).

"Upgraded" to the web based version today and I already can't find how to edit recurring transations. *fart sound*

The online version is unfortunately obtuse but when you see what the answer is half the time it is staring you right in the face.

Right now I have a message into them as their auto categorize of transactions is horrible and to turn it off I need to turn it off individually for about 200 payers all while the menu jumps back to the top after you edit a payer. Suggest an infuriating item. Just have a turn off all button or mass select option.

However it is one of the best apps I have used. Just wish it wasn't so stupid sometimes.

I am still trucking along with the old app based version. I very much do not like subscription fees for software. I think I heard they recently raised the price to like $7 a month?

LeapingGnome wrote:

I am still trucking along with the old app based version. I very much do not like subscription fees for software. I think I heard they recently raised the price to like $7 a month?

They did but grandfathered in all current users and anyone testing it with the old fee. Almost any software that is out there now that connects up to the account seems to be $50 a year. We used to use Goodbudget a wonderful free budget envelope app but since it didn't connect in we could lose some transactions and wanted to move to this model.

I started using the online version last January, and like it. There were some things I didn't like or took getting used to, but I honestly can't remember what they were now. The speed and functionality of the mobile app (and no more Dropbox for syncing), the ability to use my YNAB on any computer, and transaction imports made up for them.

I still haven't fully grokked the YNAB philosophy, but the software (old and new) is great.

For anyone using the new YNAB for credit card accounts, apparently the credit-card account type is funky. Many people are just using a normal bank account type instead.

Also, in the thread I read that in, people were talking about tracking upwards of 25 accounts in YNAB. Checking, savings, credit, retirement. I am going to start working toward having, if not a complete, a more-complete picture of my finances.

I've got credit, savings, and checking in my YNAB now. I've been thinking lately about trying to track my 401K account as well, mostly because I've been pretty hands-off with it and just let Fidelity do their thing. Any time I check in on it, if there's a bit more there than last time I checked I leave it at that.

Yep, same. I shouldn’t be hands-off but I so don’t care about money it’s just frustrating.

I have 24 accounts in my ynab, including my FSA and HSA from work. I don’t have my 401k, I guess I could but I am not sure of the benefit.

How is YNAB different from Mint?

It's more focused on you telling your money where it goes. Mint never did the trick for us. It was apps or pen and paper/excel that forced us to sit down and look at our budget every month to know what our plan was.

We went through the Dave Ramsey program which is a great one but very g
Faith focused. For a less faith heavy version check out his total money makeover book. Solid principles and good advice.

You can try YNAB for a month but to be honest the first month is spent trying to figure out how it works. It's confusingly obvious. I say it's worth it as we have really whipped our wallets into shape.

I just learned about budget templates. This is what I've been missing all along! It's all about using the goals function, which lets you budget money you don't have (yet), and makes things like annual expenses a snap to budget month-to-month.

I went back and created goals for almost every category in January, then selected everything in February and clicked "Underfunded". Boom goes the dynamite, February is all budgeted.

Oh nice.

Today in WTAF is the web-based one doing: no running balance column. The browser extension by some third party adds it. I don't import transactions from the bank, so I 100% need the running balance. This isn't ideal.

I have to say the Wife and I have switched to YNAB online from another app (GoodBudget) which we loved but wanted some e-connectivity capability. I love some of YNAB. It's pretty, intuitive, but horribly obtuse. It has some key features that if not kept in-check will destroy your budget and mean massive review to fix transactions. Unfortunately I am at the point where I want to go back as we did better before it felt like. YNAB every month I hope we can do better with and we hit the same point every month. Transactions are moved to parts of the budget they have no place being in, etc. It's horribly obnoxious. Just venting. I love it but most days I want to throw it out the damn window as the interface is so simple it's impossible to find. Give me a damn button to press some times not just click on the thing that shouldn't ever be clicked on to fix it. Once done it is obvious but there are too many things. I want an interface, a blanking interface!!!!

PC is out of commission right now so I can't use the Chrome extension workaround for running balance so basically can't use YNAB properly.

Therefore I can't budget for a new PC. I'll fix what I can, but I don't like putting a massive "adjustment transaction" to square things up. Don't have the option of importing from the bank. Going to leave them feedback about this.

Any library you can access YNAB from?

Or the mobile app? You can import transactions and such on Android now...

This is unhelpful but I am so happy I’m still on desktop.

WipEout wrote:

Or the mobile app? You can import transactions and such on Android now...

Have to enter all the categories manually anyway, and the bank transaction list (payee data) adds a whole lot of location/personal details to my ynab that I'd rather not, and ideally I'd like to get in the habit of entering transactions as I go, so for the most part the balance in ynab would be real time.

That's fair. I'm not sure about how much location or personal data is added-- not in any of my own transactions, at least, unless I've misread something.

As far as manual entries, though: you can do a manual entry, then when you later import transactions and shore up your budget, it will automatically link transactions should the imported data closely match your manual inputs (with final approval by you, of course).

So I upgraded my Mac to Mojave yesterday and now see this information:

Apple has announced they will stop supporting 32-bit apps like YNAB 4 Classic in the future. MacOS Mojave (releasing in 2018) will be the last version of their OS to support these apps, including YNAB 4.

What does this mean for you exactly? YNAB 4 Classic should continue functioning for now, and will likely continue to work in the Mojave (10.14) OS for the foreseeable future. Updates after that will most likely not allow YNAB 4 to function, although we haven't been able to test that yet.

We’ve been happy to offer support for YNAB 4 Classic for over two years since our web launch, including an update in mid-2017 that allowed cloud sync to continue working. This change by Apple is not something we are able to work around or prevent, and YNAB 4 will not be updated to a 64-bit app (the new standard for Mac apps).

As a YNAB 4 user, you have a couple of options when Apple removes 32-bit support:

You can choose not to update your macOS (at least temporarily) and continue to use YNAB 4.
You can check out the web app—and give it a whirl for 34 days for free to see if it’s right for you.
If you would like to upgrade or learn more, this article goes over the new features, differences between the versions, and also links to step-by-step instructions on how to migrate your budget.

I really, really don't want to pay a subscription for something that otherwise works fine for me in this old version. It's still works today but I'm annoyed. Budgeting software seems particularly stupid to pay a monthly fee for if I can buy it once (which I did). I'd happily even pay full price again but $84 a year is more than I paid for it once, all those years ago.

am I mistaken, it's $50 a year? Although I think I was grandfathered in before the price increase.

I agree with you but seems to be the way they are all moving.

I haven't started clicking but their pricing page says "Billed annually at $83.99"

I agree and am not sure what we will do once the next OS is released. I don’t really have any appetite for their web subscription at their pricing.

I honestly loved good budget better but thye don't offer automatic downloads. I'd pay their sub model.

I'll stick to the former, subscription free, model.

Rise from your grave!

I'm setting out fin goals for 2019 and thought I'd see where others are at on this?