New YNAB

[Bytowner]

Haven't seen this mentioned. YNAB launched their new product today. Unfortunately they've gone to a subscription-based model, with monthly or annual rates.

They say YNAB 4 will be supported for a year, and obviously they can't take it off your computer, so you'll be able to use it as long as you have a compatible system.

They've also made the odd decision to add in direct importing from banks, which, for me, the lack of was actually a distinct advantage to Mint.

Anyhow disappointing news from my perspective, seems our a serious cash grab from a company preaching financial discipline.

[protostache]

Haven't seen this mentioned. YNAB launched their new product today. Unfortunately they've gone to a subscription-based model, with monthly or annual rates.

They say YNAB 4 will be supported for a year, and obviously they can't take it off your computer, so you'll be able to use it as long as you have a compatible system.

They've also made the odd decision to add in direct importing from banks, which, for me, the lack of was actually a distinct advantage to Mint.

Anyhow disappointing news from my perspective, seems our a serious cash grab from a company preaching financial discipline.

As a person who has developed my own (unsuccessful) SaaS and worked on numerous other (extremely successful) SaaS systems, I have some thoughts on this. First, try to understand that selling downloadable software is an incredibly difficult business. Prices have been driven through the floor by the app stores, to the point that customers demand $2.99 apps without understanding how much work continuously goes into them.

By switching to a SaaS model YNAB gains a sustainable, expandable, continuous torrent of cash. They'll be able use that cash to continuously update the software in small, easy to understand increments instead of doing big-bang updates once every year or two. They'll be able to offer broader compatibility, since the only thing customers will need is a web browser. They'll be able to get away from the terrible Adobe Flex development environment once and for all, which made feature development (and hiring developers) more difficult and time consuming than what you can do with a hosted SaaS platform.

Customers will see a better product, improved more often, for less money than they would have spent on a license of YNAB4 ($50/year vs $60/license). If YNAB doesn't allow you to save yourself an incremental $50/year then either you're doing something wrong or your needs are greater than what they provide.

[r3dt4rget]

At first I was really excited to see a new version of YNAB. I've wanted a web based interface since I bought YNAB4 more than a year ago. I desired the ability to modify my budget online from anywhere. There is a mobile app, but it has limited functionality. I tried the new YNAB yesterday and I am thoroughly disappointed. If you love YNAB4 you will hate the new YNAB. I cannot find a reason someone would pay $5/month or $50/year for something with less features than Mint's free version. nYNAB has basically become Mint and all the other personal finance programs out there. What set YNAB apart before this version is now gone.

[Mmm_Donuts]

At first I was really excited to see a new version of YNAB. I've wanted a web based interface since I bought YNAB4 more than a year ago. I desired the ability to modify my budget online from anywhere. There is a mobile app, but it has limited functionality. I tried the new YNAB yesterday and I am thoroughly disappointed. If you love YNAB4 you will hate the new YNAB. I cannot find a reason someone would pay $5/month or $50/year for something with less features than Mint's free version. nYNAB has basically become Mint and all the other personal finance programs out there. What set YNAB apart before this version is now gone.

That is thoroughly disappointing! What I loved about ynab was the lack of automation. I liked having to consciously enter all my numbers. In their instruction videos, they made it seem like that was a key component to how the process works, because it makes you more conscious of your spending.

I'm also disappointed because the main sell of the software was that it would be available and workable forever after purchase. I remember that was part of their sell, too.

Guess I'll be going back to using Excel spreadsheets.

Eta: is the "planning ahead" component still there?

[Thegoblinchief]

I spent the morning setting mine up. The subscription alone is going to be quite polarizing. There's a few other changes but I don't understand the "it's just become Mint" comment. The layout is quite similar with one exception: On my computer it only shows 1 month at a time, where I prefer being able to see at least the current (ending) month and the next month when discussing the budget with my wife.

Reports are missing currently, but coming. Manual import from .qfx files is coming.

Lots of minor fixes are great: scheduling transactions, having an undo button, etc.

Direct importing (like Mint or PC) is not required but especially for my investment accounts, if it works as advertised, will easily save me the few dollars' worth of time a month a sub costs.

I'm gonna run the trial the full 34 days to see how well the importing works in practice. I also want to see if the developers can fix the currently broken import for my main (local) bank account before paying any $ but I'm probably sold.

[Thegoblinchief]

At first I was really excited to see a new version of YNAB. I've wanted a web based interface since I bought YNAB4 more than a year ago. I desired the ability to modify my budget online from anywhere. There is a mobile app, but it has limited functionality. I tried the new YNAB yesterday and I am thoroughly disappointed. If you love YNAB4 you will hate the new YNAB. I cannot find a reason someone would pay $5/month or $50/year for something with less features than Mint's free version. nYNAB has basically become Mint and all the other personal finance programs out there. What set YNAB apart before this version is now gone.

That is thoroughly disappointing! What I loved about ynab was the lack of automation. I liked having to consciously enter all my numbers. In their instruction videos, they made it seem like that was a key component to how the process works, because it makes you more conscious of your spending.

I'm also disappointed because the main sell of the software was that it would be available and workable forever after purchase. I remember that was part of their sell, too.

Guess I'll be going back to using Excel spreadsheets.

Eta: is the "planning ahead" component still there?

All accounts can be left as manual entry. They don't force the Mint stuff.

Planning ahead is definitely still a component, and if you read the full "transition from YNAB 4" documentation it actually gains features.

Also, YNAB 4 is still getting ACTIVE support for a full year. Beyond that, they can't guarantee OS compatibility, but legacy Windows programs are typically pretty easy to keep running for many many years. It's not like the old YNAB magically turns off and you can still download the client, etc.

Heck, to the best of their ability they still support YNAB 3 support requests.

[smalllife]

I'm 50/50 on the new version - I like the changes to the platform but not a huge fan of the subscription fee.

I'll keep YNAB4 until something happens to it and then upgrade - why pay $50 a year before I have to, right?  It's definitely worth the money in the still-have-a-mortgage/stache building stage but for now YNAB4 works for us.   Now, I may upgrade when my laptop dies as right now YNAB is the only personal reason to have a laptop .... but that bridge hasn't come yet.

[Zaga]

I don't like the subscription plan at all, the current YNAB works just the way I like it now. 

I'm remembering that I used Quicken 2003 right up until the end of 2011, so if YNAB will hold on for several years then I'll happily stick with it.

[mlejw6]

They do offer a discount for current YNAB4 users. If you sign up for new YNAB within a year certain time period (not sure what) after release, you are eligible for 10% off your yearly subscription. Forever.

I don't know if we'll go to the new YNAB. We are happy with YNAB4. It's all up to my husband. I'll use anything, but if he doesn't like it, he won't use it. And, we need something that he will use.

[supernovajm]

I'm sticking with YNAB4 for now. I don't need new features, and I'm sure the desktop app will be usable for a long time, but I'm concerned about the mobile app. I doubt that it will remain functional for more than 2-3 years after losing support (unless i never upgrade/update my phone again). Mobile apps seem to break all the time due to OS updates.

I can only hope that someone creates and maintains a third party mobile interface

[kudy]

I enrolled in the "free trial" yesterday, and decided to immediately forego the trial and start paying for the service - I wanted my immediate spend of $45 for a year's subscription to be a vote of confidence for their awesome work so far (I spend more than $45 per month on silly things like restaurants). I believe worrying about the $3.75/month fee would put me squarely across the line from "frugal" to "cheap".

I have used YNAB4 for 3 years (~$1.50/month) and gotten so much more value out of it. I am sure it's helped me gain insight and save many more dollars than I've spent on it, and will continue to do so in the future.

YNAB's mission and software is something I believe in (it's helped me sway a number of friends and family toward financial stability), and I am extremely happy to pay them monthly for continually improving software. If something brings a lot of value to my life, why not pay the developers for their vision and hard work? (I also subscribe to a SaaS meal planning application, which is great)

As others have pointed out, they haven't completed all features in nYNAB, but I'd rather start using it now than waiting around forever for every little thing to be done. The new "goals" feature is great. Some of the minor fixes and improvements are very nice. Being able to share my login and share budgets with my SO without the hassle of dropbox is great, and will help us to continue to work as one toward shared goals. I have opted to continue to enter all of my transactions manually (it's still possible - no one is forcing automation here), and my SO is trying out the auto-import feature.

I love the new metric "age of money" - it will be a really fun number to see go up over time (and is a great way to measure financial stability for those getting out of the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle).

[coffeefueled]

Im also a long time YNAB 4 user. I'm not sure how I feel about the subscription. At first glance it doesn't seem very frugal. I'm trying the 34 day trial and will see if it seems worth crossing over instead of sticking with YNAB 4.

[Optimiser]

I love YNAB4. Some of the features of the new YNAB sound useful, but as someone who is always trying to optimize my budget and cut monthly costs, I hate the subscription model.  I will probably be sticking with YNAB4 for at least a year, and probably a lot longer.

[SomedayStache]

The YNAB forums are very complainy pants right now.  There's so much negativity that I can't get a sense of how much is just reluctance to change and how much is the new software really sucking.

The YNAB blog released an interesting nugget regarding folks who already own YNAB and locking in that lifetime discount.
http://www.youneedabudget.com/blog/post/the-new-ynab-is-here
"Some of you YNAB 4 users have wanted more time to lock in the lifetime 10% discount, especially as it relates to waiting for some favorite features (reports, the blessed calculator) to make it into the new YNAB. We don't want you to feel any anxiety about locking in that lifetime discount. As of today, if you sign up for the new YNAB with the same email address you used when you purchased YNAB 4, you'll get the discount. You won't need to subscribe. Just set up that trial. If you come back two weeks or two months from now and choose to subscribe, you'll get that 10% lifetime discount."

So it sounds like I could lock in a lifetime discount just by starting a free trial?  This is great.  I can continue to use YNAB4 as long as feasible and then switch over.  Does everyone else read it this way?

[r3dt4rget]

As a person who has developed my own (unsuccessful) SaaS and worked on numerous other (extremely successful) SaaS systems, I have some thoughts on this. First, try to understand that selling downloadable software is an incredibly difficult business. Prices have been driven through the floor by the app stores, to the point that customers demand $2.99 apps without understanding how much work continuously goes into them.

By switching to a SaaS model YNAB gains a sustainable, expandable, continuous torrent of cash. They'll be able use that cash to continuously update the software in small, easy to understand increments instead of doing big-bang updates once every year or two. They'll be able to offer broader compatibility, since the only thing customers will need is a web browser. They'll be able to get away from the terrible Adobe Flex development environment once and for all, which made feature development (and hiring developers) more difficult and time consuming than what you can do with a hosted SaaS platform.

Customers will see a better product, improved more often, for less money than they would have spent on a license of YNAB4 ($50/year vs $60/license). If YNAB doesn't allow you to save yourself an incremental $50/year then either you're doing something wrong or your needs are greater than what they provide.

The problem here, and the shady part of all this, is the release of this new model and product without it being finished. There is no value in the new product. Think about this from a business perspective. If you ran a business and the software company you use released a new version, you won't upgrade unless:

1. You have to (current product support ends or will end soon)
2. You gain significant features that are desirable
3. Somehow this new version will increase profits/productivity over time
4. There are no alternatives available or cheaper that achieve the same funtions

Now run that through with the new YNAB if you already have YNAB4. Do you upgrade? Hell no. You can upgrade for non-logical reasons, but please don't use those to defend this product release.

[protostache]

As a person who has developed my own (unsuccessful) SaaS and worked on numerous other (extremely successful) SaaS systems, I have some thoughts on this. First, try to understand that selling downloadable software is an incredibly difficult business. Prices have been driven through the floor by the app stores, to the point that customers demand $2.99 apps without understanding how much work continuously goes into them.

By switching to a SaaS model YNAB gains a sustainable, expandable, continuous torrent of cash. They'll be able use that cash to continuously update the software in small, easy to understand increments instead of doing big-bang updates once every year or two. They'll be able to offer broader compatibility, since the only thing customers will need is a web browser. They'll be able to get away from the terrible Adobe Flex development environment once and for all, which made feature development (and hiring developers) more difficult and time consuming than what you can do with a hosted SaaS platform.

Customers will see a better product, improved more often, for less money than they would have spent on a license of YNAB4 ($50/year vs $60/license). If YNAB doesn't allow you to save yourself an incremental $50/year then either you're doing something wrong or your needs are greater than what they provide.

The problem here, and the shady part of all this, is the release of this new model and product without it being finished. There is no value in the new product. Think about this from a business perspective. If you ran a business and the software company you use released a new version, you won't upgrade unless:

1. You have to (current product support ends or will end soon)
2. You gain significant features that are desirable
3. Somehow this new version will increase profits/productivity over time
4. There are no alternatives available or cheaper that achieve the same funtions

Now run that through with the new YNAB if you already have YNAB4. Do you upgrade? Hell no. You can upgrade for non-logical reasons, but please don't use those to defend this product release.

Great points. I was unaware that nYNAB isn't feature complete. You're right, I wouldn't upgrade unless one or more of your points was true. That said, if I were Jesse I would be heavily discounting the number of people that upgrade from YNAB4 to nYNAB in any case. As you point out, existing customers have little incentive (at least right now) to upgrade.

YNAB is banking on being able to expand their customer base at a faster pace than they've been able to in the past because the sticker price is lower, all while simultaneously rolling out incremental new releases on a faster schedule with better metrics and customer feedback. The permanent 10% discount for existing customers should go a long way to convert people once it reaches feature parity.

I think it's a win for YNAB and for customers, even if this initial release isn't quite on par with YNAB4. They maintain much of their goodwill with existing customers (few have discussed leaving the software entirely, as far as I can tell), the software starts off good and continuously gets better for new customers, and YNAB gets real recurring revenue which will fuel growth and feature development.

My prediction: this whole upgrade tempest is going to blow over in six months when there are more people who have only ever used nYNAB than there are who have used YNAB4.

[Bytowner]

Migrated over for the trial. It was either buggy as hell or too clever for me. Either way, I'll stick with YNAB4 for now and let them get their act together.

[thisisjames]

Migrated over for the trial. It was either buggy as hell or too clever for me. Either way, I'll stick with YNAB4 for now and let them get their act together.

I had the same experience.  I don't have too many qualms about switching over to thoe SaaS model, but I'm going to wait a few months at the least for them to iron out problems.

[h82goslw]

I took the free webinar last night, seems like a good product but as someone who has never budgeted before, I have nothing to compare it to.
Wish I had bought YNAB4 so I wouldn't be forced into a subscription.   

Aside from an excel spreadsheet, what other options do I have to start tracking a budget? 

[Genevieve]

I am super excited about the new YNAB. I tried YNAB before, and I just wasn't motivated to do the whole Dropbox thing and to manually import my transactions when Mint worked so well.

I get the ease of use of Mint, with the advanced budgeting of YNAB. Sounds awesome to me.

There are a lot of advantages for companies to use a SaaS model. They can provide better support. They can push out small updates. It simplifies their business model and makes it easier to concentrate on the product as a company.

Paying $45 a year for a service that helps me manage my money better is worth it. Surely YNAB will help me save way more than $3.75 a month.

[smalllife]

I tried the demo but the migrate function was down. Love the goals! I'm going to wait until reporting is up (that net worth graph is a huge motivator for me, especially since the all accounts total is gone). I'm curious to see how they handle the red arrow requests as we use that for my husband's fun money when he spends off a joint card instead off his off budget account.

[Thegoblinchief]

I tried the demo but the migrate function was down. Love the goals! I'm going to wait until reporting is up (that net worth graph is a huge motivator for me, especially since the all accounts total is gone). I'm curious to see how they handle the red arrow requests as we use that for my husband's fun money when he spends off a joint card instead off his off budget account.

They've taken the red arrow to the right that subtracts from next month's category balance out of the new YNAB. The rationale behind the decision is explained (I think) in the transitioning from YNAB 4 post on the site. Either that or the Handbook post.

[turketron]

They've taken the red arrow to the right that subtracts from next month's category balance out of the new YNAB. The rationale behind the decision is explained (I think) in the transitioning from YNAB 4 post on the site. Either that or the Handbook post.

This is actually one of the main reasons I'm hesitant to switch, actually. I use this "feature" for tracking my reimbursements, primarily for work but I also buy stuff for my family frequently with Amazon Prime. I know this was never an intended way to use YNAB and it goes against the basic rules they want you to follow, but it works great for me as it is.

I am interested in the new Goals feature, though. At this point I don't plan to switch, but we'll see what the feedback is over the next few months and maybe I'll reevaluate, and if necessary find some other way to track my reimbursements outside of YNAB.

[Optimiser]

They've taken the red arrow to the right that subtracts from next month's category balance out of the new YNAB. The rationale behind the decision is explained (I think) in the transitioning from YNAB 4 post on the site. Either that or the Handbook post.

I use this "feature" for tracking my reimbursements, primarily for work

Me too. It works great for that.

[smalllife]

I tried the demo but the migrate function was down. Love the goals! I'm going to wait until reporting is up (that net worth graph is a huge motivator for me, especially since the all accounts total is gone). I'm curious to see how they handle the red arrow requests as we use that for my husband's fun money when he spends off a joint card instead off his off budget account.

They've taken the red arrow to the right that subtracts from next month's category balance out of the new YNAB. The rationale behind the decision is explained (I think) in the transitioning from YNAB 4 post on the site. Either that or the Handbook post.

I understand their motivation and I can't fault them for it, but it does help with rebursement situations and not having to move "true expense" overage to cover for a month.  We found a way around it and can adapt, but I still want my net worth report!

[cavewoman]

I'm so friggin excited!  Another Chromebook user.  I've lusted after YNAB ... watched all the old classes ... tried to buy an old desktop but then couldn't get Windows installed ... cried myself to sleep over not having YNAB ... But now! Ta-DA!

When I saw this thread last night I told my boyfriend "GASP!  YNAB is a web platform!  That means I can use it!" and without saying anything, he handed me the chromebook.  :)  He knows. 

The only thing I'm a leeeetle sad about is no more free activation keys for taking classes?  I just took one and there was no drawing at the end.

I did, however, lock in the lifetime 10% discount just by starting my trial.  I thought that was for existing YNABers only, but there ya go.

I've never been so excited to spend money so I can really get going with this.  Thankfully I hadn't started my new Steno pad budget for 2016 yet... now I can use that notebook for something else! 

[Nothlit]

I tried the demo but the migrate function was down. Love the goals! I'm going to wait until reporting is up (that net worth graph is a huge motivator for me, especially since the all accounts total is gone). I'm curious to see how they handle the red arrow requests as we use that for my husband's fun money when he spends off a joint card instead off his off budget account.

They've taken the red arrow to the right that subtracts from next month's category balance out of the new YNAB. The rationale behind the decision is explained (I think) in the transitioning from YNAB 4 post on the site. Either that or the Handbook post.

I understand their motivation and I can't fault them for it, but it does help with rebursement situations and not having to move "true expense" overage to cover for a month.  We found a way around it and can adapt, but I still want my net worth report!

I didn't realize this feature was gone from the new YNAB. If so, that's a big deal for me. I have two reimbursable categories, one for work-related and one for personal-related (i.e., friends, family) expenses. I often spend several hundred dollars on a work trip, all of which gets reimbursed, but the reimbursement sometimes crosses the calendar month boundary. I will be unhappy if I'm forced to budget for those as if they were my own expenses, when they're not really.

[MayDay]

I'm still happily using YNAB3 over here, so obviously I don't feel the need for the lastest and greatest.

Actually, the whole reason we bought YNAB at all was that it was software on our computer and nothing was ever going over the internet or getting saved on some company's cloud.  H would have kittens if I tried to convince him to switch to something like Mint.

We find YNAB way way simpler than our former solution of various Excel spreadsheets.  YNAB is far superior.  If YNAB3 ever completely dies, hopefully H will either have calmed down, or there will be some other desktop-based option.  But the way computing is going, I doubt it.  It will probably be back to excel for us. 

[turketron]

Honestly, I don't like any workaround as they all have some downsides- it worked perfectly as it was, for me at least. Maybe just use a separate credit card that's not on-budget and track it separately?

[Thegoblinchief]

You could also try emailing the dev team and see if they have any ideas besides 'just stick with YNAB 4'. Using the red arrow to handle reimbursements was specifically suggested in the YNAB 4 documentation so that's a use case they have to have considered when designing the new software.

[elaine amj]

I'm not sure what to do either. i just started YNAB4 in October and still trying to get into the rhythm of using it. I am having a lot of trouble limiting my spending to the category budgets. We are in savings mode and have plenty of buffer. So mentally, I am having a tough time saying "no, I can't buy that pretty top on a killer sale because my clothes category is empty." Instead I say, "hmm...all my discretionary categories are empty. Oh well, I'll just get it anyway and move the money from our extra savings line. Or "borrow" from next month's budget".

Not sure I should pay for nYNAB yet - although I love the idea of a web version. Annoying having to wait to get back to one specific laptop to work on my budget. I believe the new app has more features due to the subscription model as well?

I doubt we would ever use the auto-import option. DH is way too paranoid. So even in nYNAB, I would continue to do the tedious manual importing - which literally takes me hours as we have over a dozen accounts to check as we have multiple credit cards (since we churn them).

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

Sticking with YNAB4 until I no longer can.  It does everything I need it to, and has a bunch of stuff I don't use (reports).  I don't really need new features ever again.  Seems like new features are just bloatware.

[maco]

I tried the demo but the migrate function was down. Love the goals! I'm going to wait until reporting is up (that net worth graph is a huge motivator for me, especially since the all accounts total is gone). I'm curious to see how they handle the red arrow requests as we use that for my husband's fun money when he spends off a joint card instead off his off budget account.

They've taken the red arrow to the right that subtracts from next month's category balance out of the new YNAB. The rationale behind the decision is explained (I think) in the transitioning from YNAB 4 post on the site. Either that or the Handbook post.

I understand their motivation and I can't fault them for it, but it does help with rebursement situations and not having to move "true expense" overage to cover for a month.  We found a way around it and can adapt, but I still want my net worth report!

What's your workaround? Reimbursement was what we used the arrows for too.

[maco]

Not sure I should pay for nYNAB yet - although I love the idea of a web version. Annoying having to wait to get back to one specific laptop to work on my budget. I believe the new app has more features due to the subscription model as well?

Do you have a smart phone or tablet? The mobile apps are free and sync with your desktop via Dropbox.

[smalllife]

I tried the demo but the migrate function was down. Love the goals! I'm going to wait until reporting is up (that net worth graph is a huge motivator for me, especially since the all accounts total is gone). I'm curious to see how they handle the red arrow requests as we use that for my husband's fun money when he spends off a joint card instead off his off budget account.

They've taken the red arrow to the right that subtracts from next month's category balance out of the new YNAB. The rationale behind the decision is explained (I think) in the transitioning from YNAB 4 post on the site. Either that or the Handbook post.

I understand their motivation and I can't fault them for it, but it does help with rebursement situations and not having to move "true expense" overage to cover for a month.  We found a way around it and can adapt, but I still want my net worth report!

What's your workaround? Reimbursement was what we used the arrows for too.

Well, we used the red arrow for my husband's fun money which is normally on an off-budget account so I don't have to see the little purchases.  If he bought anything using on-budget joint cards (online purchases) we would go red until he took out cash from his bank account to even it out.  Our work around is to put his fun money on budget  :-(   

You can leave the category red, but your next month will be out of balance.  You can manually budget a negative amount to accomplish the same goal but without seeing multiple months at once it's a bit harder.

[elaine amj]

Not sure I should pay for nYNAB yet - although I love the idea of a web version. Annoying having to wait to get back to one specific laptop to work on my budget. I believe the new app has more features due to the subscription model as well?

Do you have a smart phone or tablet? The mobile apps are free and sync with your desktop via Dropbox.

That's what I do. I believe I read that the new app was supposed to have more features (maybe even shifting money between categories?) than the current stripped down version. I ran into an issue when January 1 arrived while on vacation - I can no longer see December's numbers and don't know the total I spent on my Christmas trip - I am going to have to log in to my home laptop to see the numbers and make any necessary edits. Mildly annoying. No idea if the new app will solve that - but the subscription model will no longer handcuff them to limiting the app to ensure it can only be useful to those who own the YNAB software

[LadyStache in Baja]

Just started the free trial.  Been using ynab4 for a year now, totally love it.  Then I got a Chromebook and it was so sad booting up the old laptop if I wanted to change something I couldnt do through the app.

The new version has some significant changes.  It has a better credit card system.  Also when you overspend in one category, it makes it super easy to cover that by choosing another category to pull the money from.  I think it's worth it.  Also Goals, also the new "age of money" instead of a buffer.  They say they wanted to rethink ynab, build it from the ground up, and I think they achieved that.  They still need to figure out a better reimbursements system though.  Although now i suppose you could set that up as a separate fake credit card account.

Just the fact that its web-available makes it worth it to me.

Re: subscription.  Totally fair.  $3/month for awesome software.

[Thegoblinchief]

On the topic of reimbursements this method I found on the YNAB forum seems to be best:

1. Create a "dummy" account called "reimburseables" off-budget ('tracking' in the nYNAB parlance)

2. Log spending as a transfer to that account from the account you spent with (usually a cc).

3. Log the reimbursement a transfer from that account to the account you received the reimbursement in (usually checking).

4. If the dummy account has a negative balance you've not been made whole yet.

Hope that helps!

[elaine amj]

On the topic of reimbursements this method I found on the YNAB forum seems to be best:

1. Create a "dummy" account called "reimburseables" off-budget ('tracking' in the nYNAB parlance)

2. Log spending as a transfer to that account from the account you spent with (usually a cc).

3. Log the reimbursement a transfer from that account to the account you received the reimbursement in (usually checking).

4. If the dummy account has a negative balance you've not been made whole yet.

Hope that helps!

That makes sense. I use my reimbursements category a lot and was wondering how it would work for nYNAB.

[r3dt4rget]

I'm not sure what to do either. i just started YNAB4 in October and still trying to get into the rhythm of using it. I am having a lot of trouble limiting my spending to the category budgets. We are in savings mode and have plenty of buffer. So mentally, I am having a tough time saying "no, I can't buy that pretty top on a killer sale because my clothes category is empty." Instead I say, "hmm...all my discretionary categories are empty. Oh well, I'll just get it anyway and move the money from our extra savings line. Or "borrow" from next month's budget".

Not sure I should pay for nYNAB yet - although I love the idea of a web version. Annoying having to wait to get back to one specific laptop to work on my budget. I believe the new app has more features due to the subscription model as well?

I doubt we would ever use the auto-import option. DH is way too paranoid. So even in nYNAB, I would continue to do the tedious manual importing - which literally takes me hours as we have over a dozen accounts to check as we have multiple credit cards (since we churn them).

I recently changed the way I use YNAB. Budgeting set amounts just doesn't work for me. Some months I will spend nothing on car repairs, but in another month I might spend $300. There is no way I am letting $300 just sit around in a category until it needs to be used. Or like in your case, I will still purchase movie tickets despite my budget for entertainment exhausted for the month. What I do now is just leave my money as "Available to Budget". I am fully buffered, so at the beginning of each month my ATB is last month's income. I budget out my regular expenses like bills, gas, etc. Then I use the rest to pay down debt or save. I always leave a little cushion to handle eating out, entertainment, shopping, etc. It's just easier to pay by priority than set a budget line by line. Pay bills, pay debts/save, then what is left over can be used for fun (or rolled over into next month).

[maco]

4. If the dummy account has a negative balance you've not been made whole yet.

Hope that helps!

Hmm surely the dummy account will show a positive balance until one gets reimbursed. The way I understand it you transfer money from say a checking account to the dummy tracking account so the money is removed from the budget, i.e. the dummy account shows a positive balance.

How about we just say a "non-zero balance"?

[smalllife]

We can start our trial over when full migrating is fixed, so that's good. Anyone know if the "desktop app" is going to be like a phone app but on a desktop, or a locally hosted program that is also accessible via web? I was really excited about the latter, but not sure if that's what they are doing.

[Thegoblinchief]

We can start our trial over when full migrating is fixed, so that's good. Anyone know if the "desktop app" is going to be like a phone app but on a desktop, or a locally hosted program that is also accessible via web? I was really excited about the latter, but not sure if that's what they are doing.

I don't think anyone knows but I wouldn't be surprised if it's essentially the web page, just run as a separate .exe as a sort of dummy browser. That is pure speculation.

[iTellStories]

YNAB's YouTube channel addressed the reimbursement questions today with their weekly video.  It can be found here.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an9Fp6N6iWM

[kaetana]

I'm really torn about whether to switch to nYNAB or stay with YNAB4.

Pros:
- Goals! I absolutely LOVE this feature. I really love seeing in percentages how close I am to a particular goal.
- I much prefer the web app option. I can access it anywhere without having to install an app first.
- I find that the sync happens across my mobile devices a lot faster than YNAB4's sync does via Dropbox.
- I like that taking money from another category to cover an overspending is easier to do.
- It's a great way to support a product that I really believe in, and I think this new business model will allow them to make YNAB even better.

Cons:
- I was happy with YNAB4.
- It's more expensive!
- No reports.
- No migration of old data.

For now, I've gone back to using YNAB4 while every now and then logging into nYNAB just to longingly look at it. I think that if they released data migration and reports, I would be sold!

[cavewoman]

I wouldn't be surprised if they release reports soon, there have already been like 3 updates just since I started using nYNAB.  And it seems that they are very aware that people want reports :)  I do, too, and I never used YNAB before!

[Fastfwd]

The draw for me to try new new YNAB was to move away fro mint and its many bugs in categorization or week longs outages in connection when banks change their websites. Also there is always the worry that if something bad happens the bank will blame my use of mint.

No QFX upload feature? That's the main draw to move away from mint to YNAB.

[Daisyedwards800]

I'm happy about this because I can't use the other version at work and I can with this version