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Henrik Zetterberg posted:Do you carry a balance month to month? No way, I try and pay off credit card balances as soon as I have them. I hate having a balance on my card.
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Mar 26, 2020 22:38
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Pollyanna posted:No way, I try and pay off credit card balances as soon as I have them. I hate having a balance on my card. Then you should just do what Henrik said because it will make everything so much simpler. It's technically true that the money hasn't left you yet and you need to save for the cc bill to go out but gently caress that, just take it off the budget now.
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Mar 26, 2020 23:23
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So I finally finished a full month of YNAB and  (true expenses in pink)    My biggest medical bills were bloodwork lab payments and CPAP supplies. And that green one is Medicines at $155, half of which is an emergency uninsured asthma inhaler refill because COVID-19 fucks up your lungs. At least I won't need to refill that for...well, hopefully ever.I mean, it's not exactly representative of my monthly spending because we're experiencing a pandemic. But it's loving amazing to see how much I spend per month, and how much of my expenses are rent and medical bills 'n poo poo. It's a bit lopsided since I haven't moved money to my savings account for IRA, taxable retirement, etc. Also I'm saving up for a new office chair cause my current one sucks, and I need to repair my front bumper cover for my car. I don't think I've quite figured out how to use YNAB yet. But holy poo poo, this spending is kind of out of control. Should I be linking my savings account to YNAB? Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Apr 1, 2020 |
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Apr 1, 2020 23:10
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I have my savings account as an off budget account as I only have it to transfer money when I have to dip into the emergency fund. Otherwise it’s just there.
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Apr 1, 2020 23:39
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You can do that but it should be on budget because it's money you have set aside for a purpose.
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Apr 2, 2020 00:07
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Pollyanna posted:I'm having a lot of trouble understanding how YNAB implements credit cards. When you get a transaction that goes to your card, does that mean I have to add funds to both the credit card AND the category? It also for some reason thinks I still have a -$308.47 balance on it even though I already paid it off. You buy something for $50 with the CC. You tell it that you spent $50 on whatever category using the CC account. YNAB charges $50 to the category, shows -$50 on the CC and then transfers $50 to your "available for payment" line for the CC. Whenever you make a payment to the CC you record a transfer from your bank account to the CC and YNAB deducts that from your "available to make a payment" line for the CC while adjusting the CC to $0. E: To answer directly: You don't need to add funds to both. You add funds to the category (presumably at the start of the month) and then YNAB handles the transfers internally automatically. If YNAB thinks you have a balance when you don't then either you need to reconcile your CC transactions in YNAB with reality or you need to record the act of paying off the CC as a transaction. doingitwrong fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Apr 2, 2020 |
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Apr 2, 2020 00:17
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I'm self employed and mostly keep my business expenses separate from my regular expenses. I have separate bank accounts, and my business accounts are not on my regular YNAB. When my business "pays" me money, I mark it as "Business Income" on YNAB and set it to Inflow: To be Budgeted. I'm less clear on what to do when I "contribute" money to my business to cover unexpected expenses or new projects. Over the years I've alternated between having a "Business Contributions" category or just setting those expenses as a negative Inflow. On the one hand it's useful to have a simple red number to gauge how much I've contributed, on the other hand I end up having an artificially high Inflow. Was just wondering if other people here are in the same situation and have any insights.
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Apr 3, 2020 18:22
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Handle it the same way you'd handle any bill. Set up a budget entry called 'Transfer to Company' or whatever. Budget money to that category. Transfer the money. Mark the withdrawal as being against that budget entry.
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Apr 3, 2020 18:31
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If it's all off-budget then it's super simple and just another outgoing expense. Don't try and break the system by carrying negative balance categories or whatever. Do it normally/correctly and if you want visibility just generate a report for the category based on whatever time period. e: I'm currently a contractor and keep the contract account on-budget with the rest of it. When an invoice is paid it gets split up into categories and the final value is "actual income" for the rest of the budget. 
Xik fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Apr 3, 2020 |
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Apr 3, 2020 21:19
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Went to bite the bullet and try out NYAB because android has started throwing warnings that the classic app is too old, and my credit card won't import. That really seems to be the big selling point of the new version and I can't use it for half my cards. Hopefully there are some other features worth the recurring fee. I'm surprisingly hesitant and bitter about being forced to switch over to the new version.
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Apr 15, 2020 02:23
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You can open a ticket, they helped me a few times, they might have to switch you to a different import provider.
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Apr 15, 2020 03:27
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FWIW I've got a Google phone with the latest Android version and I don't get any kind of error messages when opening the YNAB Android app.
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Apr 15, 2020 03:28
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FateFree posted:You can open a ticket, they helped me a few times, they might have to switch you to a different import provider. I just went with manual upload and I'm ok with that. Wow, they removed so many features. I can't reconcile to a specific date. You can't autofill a category with last months amount. I keep balancing my credit cards, then balancing everything below it, which throws them out of whack and there seems to be no easy way to correct it besides doing it manually? If the android app is still stable, I think I'm going back to classic. E: Not being able to right click on line items was killing me. Later Edit: The bank that won't auto import into NYNAB but will manually import, won't manually import into old YNAB. I just can't win. Demon_Corsair fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Apr 15, 2020 |
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Apr 15, 2020 03:42
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Demon_Corsair posted:You can't autofill a category with last months amount. I've got no help for the rest of your complaints but if you're on the new mobile app, you want the lightning bolt in the top right (ed: bonus note from double-checking: you can scroll that panel of options, there's averages as well). If you're on the website, the checkboxes are always visible if you want to do entire groups at once, and quick budget options are on the right panel. Double-edit: If you're in the mobile app you can literally just tap a category and there's a "quick budget" panel, but it wouldn't be very quick if you're doing them one by one that way. uvar fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Apr 15, 2020 |
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Apr 15, 2020 03:52
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I see why everyone hates on credit cards in New YNAB. What am I doing wrong here. 1. I set the previous month's balance as the starting amount. 2) I imported my transactions which included the payment for the starting amount. 3) I tagged all the transactions to my categories. Now both credit cards have nonsensical amounts in their line items in the budget. One is positive and one is negative. Should I have not set the previous balance and just reconciled afterwards? E: If I remove the starting amount and add it as a reconciliation transaction I get a different wrong number in my budget. Demon_Corsair fucked around with this message at 06:37 on Apr 15, 2020 |
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Apr 15, 2020 06:33
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Demon_Corsair posted:I see why everyone hates on credit cards in New YNAB. What am I doing wrong here. Honestly, I just gave up since I pay my cards off every month. I tried to appreciate the accuracy of the new handling method but the execution was just a pain in the neck imo. Maybe it's a behaviour altering technique, making credit cards such a pain to deal with that people stop using them until they can just switch them to checking account status? Anyway, maybe you started wrong... try putting all of your transactins in and then adjusting the starting balance to whatever makes the numbers line up to your current balance. Then see what happens at the end of the month when you pay the bill.
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Apr 15, 2020 08:22
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If you don't want to figure it out just click reconcile and follow the instructions, it will create a tx to bring everything to the right number.
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Apr 15, 2020 10:47
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Adding a previous balance and then trying to import transactions seems like the wrong way to go. It's better to just set the current balance and go from there. If it's still wrong, you should try posting actual numbers and transactions so we can tell exactly what's going on.
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Apr 15, 2020 12:07
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Always set up your credit cards as checking!
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Apr 15, 2020 13:09
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TraderStav posted:Always set up your credit cards as checking!
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Apr 15, 2020 15:10
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uXs posted:Adding a previous balance and then trying to import transactions seems like the wrong way to go. It's better to just set the current balance and go from there. If I don't have the starting balance then my account ends up positive, since the previous balance I paid off is more then that month's spend. And it has the benefit of making the budget line item even more out of whack. And removing the starting balance from my other account has taken it from $400 positive to $200 negative. Which doesn't line up to anything. I know I should just make them checking accounts, but now I want to understand how they work since it makes no sense.
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Apr 15, 2020 15:20
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Demon_Corsair posted:If I don't have the starting balance then my account ends up positive, since the previous balance I paid off is more then that month's spend. And it has the benefit of making the budget line item even more out of whack. And removing the starting balance from my other account has taken it from $400 positive to $200 negative. Which doesn't line up to anything. Don't bother, it's well-intentioned but just doesn't work in practice. It doesn't take into account other things that occur in credit card accounts (refunds/credits/etc.) properly.
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Apr 15, 2020 17:43
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The starting balance is what the balance is on the exact day you added the card to ynab, you can erase the cards and re create them right now using today's balance.
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Apr 15, 2020 17:44
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TraderStav posted:Always set up your credit cards as checking! I don't get what problems people have with credit cards. I've always set things up the way that YNAB wants them and have never had a problem 
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Apr 15, 2020 18:01
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Demon_Corsair posted:If I don't have the starting balance then my account ends up positive, since the previous balance I paid off is more then that month's spend. And it has the benefit of making the budget line item even more out of whack. And removing the starting balance from my other account has taken it from $400 positive to $200 negative. Which doesn't line up to anything. Say you start a new YNAB budget. (You can/should actually do this to follow along.) Add a checking account with 1000 in it. Add a credit card with -200 balance. This will give you 1000 in TBB, because you have 1000 'in hand' (= your checking account) to play with. If you want to pay your balance, you need to do 2 things: - Budget for it - Add the transaction So, add 200 to 'Budgeted' in your credit card payments category. Paying off old credit card debt should be the ONLY time you ever need to manually add something to your credit card budget. Since part of your 1000 is now budgeted towards your CC debt, you will then have 800 left in TBB. Budget this down to zero as normal. Then later, when the money to pay your CC debt actually leaves your checking account, add the transaction as a transfer to your credit card. This will clear your outstanding CC balance. Now, for future CC purchases: Say you have budgeted 200 for, um, face masks. You order some online, for 150, on your credit card. So in your credit card account, you add a transaction for 150, on the face mask category. A few things will happen: -The face mask category will now have only 50 available. -Your credit card balance will become -150. -The 'payment' column for your credit card will automatically have 150 added. The meaning behind this is that the 150 for face masks has now become 150 to pay for the credit card debt created by ordering the masks. Later on, again, when the money to pay for your CC balance leaves your checking account, add it as a transfer from checking to CC. This is just a movement of money between accounts and doesn't affect your budget. And that's it. As long as everything you buy with your CC is properly budgeted for beforehand, you will never have to budget your CC payments directly, everything is automatically moved from the category 'available' to the CC 'payment' column.
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Apr 15, 2020 18:02
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So I adjusted my budget to cover those mystery amounts for the first month (I'm backdating the budget to January) and then plugged in my transactions for Feb. Still get about -$2k across both accounts. Both are paid off in full every month and all transactions are categorized. This was never a problem in old YNAB. What internal math do the credit card accounts do to come up with these numbers?
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Apr 15, 2020 18:48
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TraderStav posted:Always set up your credit cards as checking!
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Apr 15, 2020 18:57
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Yea, that seems like the best option. At this point I don't think new YNAB adds enough value to bother switching away from the old one where credit cards just work. Demon_Corsair fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Apr 15, 2020 |
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Apr 15, 2020 19:06
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Demon_Corsair posted:I know. But at this point I want to know how the goofy math works. I want to know how with 2 different cards, both with balances that are paid off and all transactions covered by categories one card ends up at positive 450 and the other is negative 1800. Do your actual bank statements say '0' and '0' for both credit cards?
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Apr 15, 2020 19:10
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Demon_Corsair posted:Yea, that seems like the best option. I like nYNAB from its ease of use on all platforms without Dropbox wonkiness. I also don't use any of the bank connect features. It serves my purposes, but also grandfathered in at $50/year versus whatever it is at now.
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Apr 15, 2020 19:22
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Demon_Corsair posted:Yea, that seems like the best option. Credit cards do just work if you set them up properly. From a quick skim I think the process that uXs laid out is correct.
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Apr 15, 2020 19:26
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With new YNAB, how do you handle getting paid to next months budget? Are you just supposed to keep that floating in your To be budgeted" amount?
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Apr 15, 2020 19:50
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When are you getting paid exactly?
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Apr 15, 2020 19:53
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Demon_Corsair posted:With new YNAB, how do you handle getting paid to next months budget? Are you just supposed to keep that floating in your To be budgeted" amount? You just go budget next month, it’s been simplified to “income”
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Apr 15, 2020 20:01
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uXs posted:When are you getting paid exactly? I get paid on the 15th and 30th. And with old YNAB I was able to say that was for next months budget. So today's pay cheque would be available for May's budget but not April.
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Apr 15, 2020 20:01
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All of your income is budgetable now or in the future, it's just one single bucket. You can use the auto-fill budget using amounts from last month to keep a month ahead of things so it gets budgeted although it doesn't really tell you if you go over "budget" if you still have money in the income bucket. Rule 4 is now called Age of Money.
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Apr 15, 2020 20:13
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Demon_Corsair posted:I get paid on the 15th and 30th. And with old YNAB I was able to say that was for next months budget. So today's pay cheque would be available for May's budget but not April. You can add the transaction as normal, then go to May, and budget it there. If you then go back to April you'll see that it didn't add your 'May' money to April. Alternatively, if you don't want to make your budget for May when it's still the middle of April, you can first budget everything from your middle of the month paycheck into a 'holding' category. Then when the end-of-month check arrives, remove everything from holding again, and then do your budgeting for May.
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Apr 15, 2020 20:21
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I have a Next Months Income Holding Area category. I also have another holding area for windfalls that I haven't set goals for (bonus/taxes/trumpbux) that I distribute as I identify goals.
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Apr 15, 2020 20:24
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uXs posted:You can add the transaction as normal, then go to May, and budget it there. If you then go back to April you'll see that it didn't add your 'May' money to April. I will probably just go with the second option, and just have a category that has 1 months pay in it as a "float". I know that as long as that to budget number isn't 0 I will allocate it. I have been using YNAB for too long not to.
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Apr 15, 2020 20:25
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Demon_Corsair posted:I will probably just go with the second option, and just have a category that has 1 months pay in it as a "float". I know that as long as that to budget number isn't 0 I will allocate it. I have been using YNAB for too long not to. Anytime my To Be Budgeted is NOT zero I am panicky. Get those funds a job STAT! Even if it's hold on for a little bit until next month.
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Apr 15, 2020 20:27
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