You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

hiddenshadow

You won't be able to run reports across all the data with a fresh start, but you can run the reports on the historical budget (and, eventually, your new fresh budget will have enough data to be valuable in itself).

PollyWollyDoodle

Thanks - I think this is one of those questions that sort of answered itself as I was writing it, but it's good to have confirmation.

In case this helps anyone else - I used November in my current budget to use the 'lightning bolt' quick budget to give average figures for the last year over all categories - doesn't matter because I won't be using those figures. Then I took a screenshot, and then I did a 'Fresh Start' to create a brand new budget. The old one is saved, and can be accessed and reports can be run, I've discovered.

I used the screenshot to enter budget figures for this month, a lot of things are fixed anyway but this helped with the few variables (and was a bit of an eye-opener in a couple of categories!).

I was still struggling because my savings are sitting in my current account, and so the total 'income for October' shown includes my buffer. I know that is a reality, they are available if needed, but I don't like having them included in the 'available to budget' so I created a virtual off-budget account and bunged a round figure in there. It means that when I do bank reconciliation I'll have to remember to add that figure back in again, and obviously if I draw on them then I'll have to adjust it, but I feel I'm getting a clearer picture without that sum. My aim now is to live within my means, and stop drawing on the savings - will have to see how the next few months go. Many thanks for the replies above.

hiddenshadow

You can also just create a category for them to live in. We have one within Rainy Day Funds called Banana Stand that holds our buffer. It gets it out of ATB but it's available to use if/when we want to (like this month when we shifted offset savings that no longer earn interest to the mortgage).

Makes bank reconciliation a lot easier if the numbers match without the mental math.

SueP19

I too have a "buffer fund" works really well as the bank figure remains the real figure :D

blisteringblue

Having another mooch at the nYNAB version. I know YNAB4 is good till the end of the year (and beyond if it doesn't break) but the urge to be up to date is pulling me in.

I liked to carry minus values forward though which is a bit of pain with the new YNAB underfunded way of working, but I think I understand it.

Will parallel run for a month as it is free before maybe taking a sub.

January2015

blisteringblue wrote: »

Having another mooch at the nYNAB version. I know YNAB4 is good till the end of the year (and beyond if it doesn't break) but the urge to be up to date is pulling me in.

I liked to carry minus values forward though which is a bit of pain with the new YNAB underfunded way of working, but I think I understand it.

Will parallel run for a month as it is free before maybe taking a sub.

Let us know how you get on. I lov YNAB4 and have just stuck with 'what works' for now, but think eventually I will need to take the plunge and at least look at nYNAB.

hiddenshadow

I'm still keeping an eye on their development process - they seem quite slow (to add functionality) and buggy (what they do add). Now that they've spent most of 2016 fixing bugs in nYnab, maybe that will change.

For now, YNAB4 works great for us.

katejo

hiddenshadow wrote: »

I'm still keeping an eye on their development process - they seem quite slow (to add functionality) and buggy (what they do add). Now that they've spent most of 2016 fixing bugs in nYnab, maybe that will change.

For now, YNAB4 works great for us.

i am still sticking firmly with ynab4. There are features which won't be reinstated on nYnab. These include walled months/sending pay to the next month and clearing advance payments from the available balance.

blisteringblue

katejo wrote: »

i am still sticking firmly with ynab4. There are features which won't be reinstated on nYnab. These include walled months/sending pay to the next month and clearing advance payments from the available balance.

I know what you mean, but just playing for an hour tonight though it is going to do what I want, and I even migrated my YNAB4 budget and the numbers look ok. Wasn't fancying a Fresh Start as they suggest.

It literally is just the underfunding that works against how I used YNAB4, and a quick flick through the months has corrected that.

The new Android App looks good though, quite similar the the classic app in look, but obviously straight to the YNAB cloud and not Dropbox.

There are some interesting debates around the dropbox API changing that got me thinking about updating so here we are.

hiddenshadow

katejo wrote: »

i am still sticking firmly with ynab4. There are features which won't be reinstated on nYnab. These include walled months/sending pay to the next month and clearing advance payments from the available balance.

I do think walled months and multi-month view will be my bugbears. I also use advanced payments as well but it looks like that will be irrelevant soon as there won't be any incentive to keep money in current accounts as their interest will be minimal. Still, I'm not sure I can give up multi-month view, even if I could get used to the workflow of non-walled months.

The dev team sounds like they're ramping up speed (...finally) on the new version, so I'm willing to watch (from afar ) and see what they come up with. If it's compelling, great, if not, YNAB4 it is.