YNAB users

[DawnM]

I haven't used it in YEARS, but I am going to try again.  Some of our expenses have increased with the move to a new house, and I feel like I would like to get everything balanced well again.

But it is so different than it was years ago and it is driving me nuts.  Maybe I need to unlink it to my credit cards and bank account and manually put those in?

I am finding that I plug in my spending into the correct category and then the credit card dings the sale and that shows double spending.  The problem is, the credit card ding comes days later and I can't remember what I spent it on, so that would mean writing it down, and then entering it later, which is double the work.

How do you do all of that?  

[vmsurbat1]

In the current SAAS model of YNAB, credit cards are handled in an entirely different way and you MUST read/watch the videos (often multiple times) to understand what is happening.  Once you've watched the videos, any other questions are best asked in the new forums found here:

http://support.youneedabudget.com

Definitely read all the materials regarding credit card handling, but in a nutshell, the current YNAB program *automatically* moves money from the category ("Groceries") to the category "Credit Card payment" (assuming the Groceries category had money in it).  In essence, the program reserves the money for your credit card payment.  However, you must educate yourself on what happens if the category didn't have enough money in it (ie. you had $40 in groceries but spent $50), what happens if you have a refund, what happens when that refund comes a month or two later, what happens when you overspend out of single category but on two different credit cards, and more.

Note:  many people who are paid-in-full credit card users (not floating ANY debt ever on CC) set up their credit cards as checking accounts--then they work the same way as in the old YNAB.  But, really, this is only for those who can completely pay off their cc usage at any time and not effect any other part of their budget....

YNAB is a good program (although I like YNAB4 better), so I hope you figure out what you need to!

[Just Kate]

I love YNAB. It has completely changed my family’s financial situation in the almost 10 months that we’ve used it. That being said, credit cards can be tricky, but they make so much sense once you figure it out. 

Nick True is well known in the YNAB Facebook community. He makes videos and they are awesome. I’ve linked his YNAB credit card video, which really helped me. Take a look and see what you think. 

 

[DawnM]

42 minutes ago, Danae said:

 

Can you set up a credit card account as a checking account if you're connecting to your accounts? We didn't switch to new YNAB because I was disgusted with how they changed credit cards (among other things) but if I can set it up to work the old way that might tip me over the edge.

 

Yeah, I am still on the 30 day trial plan, so it remains to be seen as to how I like it.

[DawnM]

Ok, I will watch some of his videos, not sure I will be able to today, but I will see.

[ktgrok]

As long as when you enter the spending you put both the proper amount and which card you used, the computer should just match it automatically to your credit card transaction when that shows up. So you spend $12.36 on a lunch at Denny's using your American Express card. As soon as you finish eating you whip out your phone, open the app, and enter $12.36 in the category of "dining out" and make sure you indicate the proper account (in this case your American Express account). 

YNAB will take $12.36 out of your dining out category, and add $12.36 to your American Express category. When two days later that transaction is automatically imported into YNAB it will show up as a matching/linked transaction and you just "approve" it. 

So use the CATEGORY you spend the money ON - dining out - NOT your budget category for paying off that credit card. Then at the end of the month it will have totaled up all you spent in every category using that card, and you will see that total next to the credit card category and pay that amount - leaving you at a zero balance for the month. 

[vmsurbat1]

11 hours ago, Danae said:

 

Can you set up a credit card account as a checking account if you're connecting to your accounts? We didn't switch to new YNAB because I was disgusted with how they changed credit cards (among other things) but if I can set it up to work the old way that might tip me over the edge.

Yes, you can.  Search on the forum (linked above) for "Credit Card as checking account" and you'll find details of how to do it.  In the spirit of full disclosure,  I personally haven't switched over to the current version (probably for many of the same reasons you haven't!) but keep up on it because someday YNAB4 is going to stop working.....