How To Enter Transactions in YNAB
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- Timestamps -
0:00 Intro
1:04 How Ernie enters transactions
6:04 How Ben enters transactions
11:08 Reconciling your accounts in YNAB
12:51 Using scheduled transactions
15:15 Using file-based import
17:14 Using pending transactions
20:58 Outro
Links -
• Reconcile | Using Your YNAB Budget | Lesson 3.3 • Reconcile | Using Your...
• Drag and Drop Transactions | YNAB Quick Tip #40 • Drag and Drop Transact...
• Jesse's Experiment: Manual Entry Take Two / manual-entry-take-two
• Jesse's Experiment: A Report on Manual Entry / a-report-on-manual-entry
• Reconciling help article: docs.youneedabudget.com/artic...
• Pending Transactions: www.youneedabudget.com/pendin...
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My YNAB reminded me today: “Every time a budget is reconciled, an angel gets its wings”
I'm in the Netherlands so only manual transactions for me, but I love it. I feel so connected to my money and it's all conscious spending 😀
Manual mostly for me. A few I let the link to the bank do it.
I prefer manually entering them also
Same here! E acho que vc é brasileira. Saludos desde Chile.
Scheduled transactions work as great reminders! Especially for my electric bills which I ALWAYS forget to pay and get anxious about. The transaction waiting for approval reminds me to pay my bill.
I’ve been skeptical on scheduled transactions, but this may have just sold me. I have a handful of “manual” bills that I am often paying the day of if not a day late because I always forget them. Thanks!
I use scheduled transactions for all my monthly subscription fees for Netflix, Spotify, etc. but I also use them for monthly utility bills even if they vary from month to month. I just set an estimated amount then adjust it up or down as needed when the bill arrives. Scheduled transactions will appear in the budget so this feature alone is indispensable.
I am a manual entry gal! I've tried it both ways, and I just prefer to be more in control of the transactions. Loving these nerdy episodes!
I use colored flags on my scheduled transactions for variable bills like utilities and CC auto payments. Yellow flag means the amount is unknown, and when I get an email or text with the amount, I update the transaction amount and flag it with green.
I use scheduled transactions for all bills and subscriptions that are on autopay. I mostly enter other transactions manually and use direct import to clear everything. Reconcile approximately every week. Fun episode! I hope you are still doing one about your end of year process (fresh start, etc.).
I enter everything manually. Keeps me aware of every penny. I try to reconcile every 1-2 days. I get nervous when I don’t enter transactions once they occur. I love YNAB! It’s changed my life.
I love that you guys are doing this series. It’s so much fun to connect with like minded people. I’ve been using YNAB since ‘09. It’s been one of the key factors of our budgeting success.
I enter my stuff immediately. I dont wait around for a dot to appear. I fiddle with my budget every morning before work. Truth be told, Im a closet ynab nerd too.. Im a rough and tumble construction worker guy, who keeps his nerdiness secret because the guys I work with would harass and tease me about it.
You're in good company here! Nerds unite! (You can also consider joining one of our thriving fan-led communities if you're looking for more! facebook.com/groups/YNABFans
I enter all my transactions myself but I do have my bank linked. So I get to approve everything. I just like adding my spending right when I do it so I don't forget anything and don't have to wait on the LAG. Thank you both for the fun videos.
I learned something new! I had no idea that "enter now" thing existed. Thanks :)
Same!
I reconcile when my account starts to scroll off the screen. Slow accounts can be 2 or 3 months between reconciliations, main account can be every 1-2 weeks.
For a future nerd exploration: I have no idea how to use the right column “goal” buttons - except I do click the “underfunded” button to populate budget items - one at a time. I’ve seen you click an entire category and populate a bunch all at once. Would like to know more before I go headlong into using them and possibly screwing up my budget.
Also: the Reports. How do others use the reports? What useful info can be gleaned? I do like the graphics. And currently working to reduce my debt bar and raise my net worth. The graphic does help with the visualization that I am making progress!
I use Right column goal buttons for things like 6 months worth of car insurance, It breaks down the total amount needed by a certain date, into monthly payments. the goal button tells me how much is left before my goal is reached. example, I need 375.00 for car insurance, due 4-2021. I budget 34.00 a month starting sept 2020, iv saved 236.20 so far, with 138.00 left to save... Im 62% closer to my goal of 375.00.
Great suggestions! Thanks a bunch! 😁 ~BenB
I'm on team reconcile weekly too :) and do everything manually since neither my Swedish or my Norwegian banks do linking or export files in a format that works with YNAB :( it sounds so neat with the linking of imported and manual transactions *envy*
And I use the scheduled transactions for pretty much every bill and just adjust the amounts once the variable expenses bills come in. Helps with budgeting reasonable amounts :)
Hand enter at time of purchase, repeating entries stored in accounts, auto import from the bank. I catch about 3 entries each month that I did not enter myself. I love it!
Well done, Keith! Dang, you only miss 3 transactions a month? That's pretty darn good! 😁 ~BenB
I reconcile every time I get paid. Manual transactions for me. Keeps me accountable! YNAB is life changing!
Great info. 😻
Scheduled transactions could save some time! I’m not 100% sold, but I have enough information that I will test it out. Thank you!
Good idea to reconcile more frequently.
I live in Austria, so I enter manually, but I have no problem with it. The way YNAB works, it always finds the payee after typing the first two letters and then fills in the usual category, so it takes like 30 seconds.
And Ben, try the scheduled transactions - we have it for every single recurring transaction. You are right, sometimes they show up on weekends, but it's very fast to change the date to the next Monday. For example today on the 1st of January I had like 10 scheduled transactions in my budget and I moved them all in the app in like 1-2 minutes.
Here in Austria paying the bills is really simple. You get your salary usually the last or the first of the month and then all the Bill's are due in the first days of the month. It's a custom here to allow all the companies (rent, electricity, cable and so on) to take money from your account (basically like automated payments, except you don't have to set it up, you just send your IBAN and it changes whenever the amount changes and so on). I find it neat also for people who don't budget, because you get a salary, all your bills get payed soon after that and on the 5th you know, how much money you have left for the rest of the month. I like to think it's more difficult for people to fall into debt :-)
I don't know if anyone else noticed this but transferring money into different accounts is worded differently on mobile versus the computer. On the phone, it says "transfer", on the computer, it says "to/from". I thought y'all were going to talk about that. Love the app!
I do use scheduled transactions for monthly, non-fixed bills. Otherwise I would forget. Not a huge deal changing the amount once I get around to actually reading the bill. I can also see future transactions and deposits - while not accurate it gives me peace of mind to know I am not getting close to a $0 balance in the next 30 days...
So we actually recorded this episode about a month ago and sat on it while we waited for pending transactions to be released to everyone. So I was able to try scheduled transactions since then and ... I love them! Can't believe I never used them before! ~BenB
Pending has a few caveats: If you pay a tab at the bar/restaurant and put a tip on it the bank/CC only shows pending the original bill and not the bill+tip amount.
bar/restaurants??. You found one open??
That definitely can be tricky. One thing that I really like about how this feature is designed is you can wait to actually enter the pending transaction. So if you know the amount will update, you can hold off. That's also good for other situations where the amount might change, like Amazon charges. Or even when a transaction might fall off completely, like a hold from a hotel stay. ~BenB
Pending transactions are only about a week or so in for me. I'm still getting used to seeing transaction being linked, but not cleared. It's nice when I'm running errands and making a lot of purchases and they pull through pending of I forgot one!
Manual all the way.
Oohhh reconciling every day is where it’s at. I have 3 regular accounts I spend and transfer money from, and it’s just so much easier and takes less time in the long run. One of my accounts is direct import and the others are not, and I WISH they were supported.
Yaaasss! Daily reconcilers, unite! 😁
For those accounts that don't have direct import, have you tried using file-based import? It's one extra step, but I think it might still save you some time. ~BenB
docs.youneedabudget.com/article/173-file-based-import
@@YNABofficial I haven’t tried that. I’ll try that next time!
Adding pending transactions is exciting! Is USAA a bank that supports this action?
As far as how our family handles transactions, it varies a bit. It really depends on the situation, person entering or importing, and seasons of our life. I try to reconcile at least once a week. My husband is a manual entry guy. He makes very few purchases. But sometimes accuracy in the cents department is lacking, causing hiccups. I tend to direct import, as I am not a fan of shopping but am also the main purchaser of what we need, and so try to limit all my major grocery/supply shopping to once a month, and hit 3-7 stores as quickly as possible and get the heck out of there. And since I split category a lot of those transactions, I tend to wait until reconcile day and then approve with my receipts in hand. Another reason I tend to rely on direct import is because of auto bill pay and amazon purchases (who split charges on orders at times). Then I can review the orders at the time of importing and then separate charges, and categorize more thoroughly.
I find it funny y’all think you are such nerds/geeks. I guess I am too because of love it!
It's difficult to say without looking into your account more, because we have multiple import partners that support pending transactions for different banks, but pending transactions are out to everyone now. So if you can get it, you should have it now. If you have any questions, email help@ynab.com, and we'll take a look!
And good point about how waiting a little while can actually save you some stress. Those Amazon transactions are the bane of my existence. 😂 ~BenB
I don't have an American bank, so I enter all my transactions manually (direct accountability ;)). I schedule a sit-down moment with YNAB once a week but I open it up at least thee times a week to put in transactions (thank god for mostly using debit cards so that I can check my bank app for the transactions :D)
Can't you download your statements from your bank in spreadsheet files & then file based import into YNAB???
Great. More features I'm paying for that don't work in most countries, including mine
Oh man, I only ever hit the Reconcile button for my student loans when I'm accounting for interest. And I only do that 2/year. I reconcile my regular accounts every other week, but never hit the button. Is there a real benefit other than clearing up your transactions list?
Hey Jessica! Great question, it's pretty much just a surefire way to deal in the most up-to-date version of your money. People definitely have different reconciliation habits, but I will say that our long-time teachers all swear by a regular reconciliation routine as a habit of many successful budgeters!
Are you going to work on expanding direct import to outside US/Canada. Might’ve been nice if it was expanded before you improved it for people who already had it.
Hey there Joanna! We're sorry you're frustrated! We love our global customers and we haven't forgotten you even if the progress seems slower than you'd like. You can always check out what's coming Up Next for YNAB: www.youneedabudget.com/up-next/
You aren't alone! I wish I could get ynab4 since I don't need the import feature. I always use the export bank file because direct import doesn't work with my credit union.
I would like to reconcile more often but not being able to do it on the mobile app is a problem for me. Is it coming to mobile some day?
Yes, it's definitely something we're hoping to add. We are working on some design changes for the mobile app that will need to come first. But once that's released, we'll be able to move on to some other improvements like reconciling on mobile. ~BenB
Manual Entry: On one day with more than one entry, how do you keep them in order? When you click SAVE, they travel out of order for the day. How do you fix this???
I don't think there's a way to sort by order in which they happened. What kind of trouble are you anticipating by not being able to order transactions like this? ~Ernie
If I have 5 or more transactions for one day, I have to do a search on that day. YNAB help fixed this before years ago but I forget the fix for this. I need my transactions to show up in the order by which I enter them and not shuffled around for each given day.@@YNABofficial
@@YNABofficial Transactions are not in order that I am entering them. When I click on SAVE after I enter them, my transactions TRAVEL going willy nilly out of order for that day. The problem is if I make a deposit early in the morning with outgoing transactions later in the day, it appears as if there are no funds to cover them because deposits travel to the end of the day as transactions automatically.
I am the opposite of you guys.
I avoid entering transactions if at all possible. I don't want to spend time entering something (even if its just a fraction of a minute) unless I have a good reason.
The only ones I manually enter are the ones that are variable spending categories that I think I will spend out of again soon. For example, I manually enter items in my Gift category because I am likely to buy multiple gifts in short period. But for something like fuel, I am not likely to fill up my tank multiple days in a row, and even if I do (I do own multiple cars) I am usually not overbudget on it so its not likely I have to borrow. Same for something like groceries, as I probably wont buy them again for another week. I definitely would not manually enter transactions for something like a fixed bill because its planned and consistent.
I also try to only reconcile once a month, unless I have a big purchase I am about to make and I want to double check that my my budget has no errors before I spend a couple grand, lol.
That's okay, Travis! Sounds like it's working well for you! ~BenB