You need a budget (YNAB) advice thread

tizerbelle

I also forecast - currently my budget runs to November 2016!

I haven't input any income/transactions just budgeted the categories in each month to a typical monthly salary. This reflects my best case scenario - how if everything goes to plan (yes, its a big if) - at that point I will have funds saved to meet my debts (they're all on long term 0% credit cards) plus a £6,000 emergency fund.

Last month, the budget ran till Dec 2016 but when I got paid I had a little overtime in there and I'd spent a lot less in groceries in Feb than budgeted so I was able to wam some figures and it pulled the target date forward into Nov 2016.

If something changes in the budget, then I just work my way through the relevant months to make the necessary changes all the way through - for example I had budgeted council tax for 2015/16 based on a 2% increase. We've just found out it's being frozen, so I've been through and reduced the amount budgeted for each month and added that to the relevant saving category.

I really can't operate on just seeing the state of play for this month - I have to be able to see the longer term plan, I need to know where I'm headed and how any changes will impact that goal - good or bad.

kiss_me_now9

So today a new conundrum has arisen - my bank account and my YNAB account are about £500 apart. I have no idea how or why... my savings account is £30 out as well.

Sky_

kiss_me_now9 wrote: »

So today a new conundrum has arisen - my bank account and my YNAB account are about £500 apart. I have no idea how or why... my savings account is £30 out as well.

Which bit of YNAB is out, the cleared balance or the uncleared one? That's usually been the problem when my accounts have been wrong.


Also check if you have any transactions of those amounts. Or of half of those amounts, that have been added in out rather than in, or vice versa.

andyfromotley

Reconciled again last night. Need to be ruthless about inputting expenditure!!!

Bublin1

andyfromotley wrote: »

Reconciled again last night. Need to be ruthless about inputting expenditure!!!

Yes, you do need to be ruthless .


I reconcile every time a transaction clears in my bank account...clearly I have nothing better to do . However I still have 55p too much in my bank account (that's my little starter buffer!!!!)

kiss_me_now9

Sky_ wrote: »

Which bit of YNAB is out, the cleared balance or the uncleared one? That's usually been the problem when my accounts have been wrong.


Also check if you have any transactions of those amounts. Or of half of those amounts, that have been added in out rather than in, or vice versa.

Uhm, actually looking at it all of the numbers on YNAB are wrong.

My bank account on YNAB is £500 less than my actual bank account. My savings account on YNAB is £30 less than my actual savings account.
The cleared balance is about £100 under my actual bank account.
The uncleared balance is about £500 under my actual bank account.

Oh heck

Pixie5740

kiss_me_now9 wrote: »

Uhm, actually looking at it all of the numbers on YNAB are wrong.

My bank account on YNAB is £500 less than my actual bank account. My savings account on YNAB is £30 less than my actual savings account.
The cleared balance is about £100 under my actual bank account.
The uncleared balance is about £500 under my actual bank account.

Oh heck

Have you imported your transactions from your bank account into YNAB? If so does every imported transaction have a match and are there any transactions only showing in YNAB?

At certain times of the month my cleared YNAB and bank account balances are a little bit off as I have a lot of direct debits waiting to go or a few debit card transaction waiting to come through.

Sky_

kiss_me_now9 wrote: »

Uhm, actually looking at it all of the numbers on YNAB are wrong.

My bank account on YNAB is £500 less than my actual bank account. My savings account on YNAB is £30 less than my actual savings account.
The cleared balance is about £100 under my actual bank account.
The uncleared balance is about £500 under my actual bank account.

Oh heck

I've 'started from scratch' (under 'file' menu) a few times for this reason (it saves your scheduled transactions and account names and can be undone/reversed). It would have been possible to balance it all but I decided it was too much hassle and too time consuming. I'm not recommending that you do that, but it is an option.


The easiest other option I know of is to 'unclear' all the recent transactions and check each one against your bank account before clicking 'clear' against it on YNAB.


Someone else may know of a better solution. Good luck. x

koselur

kiss_me_now9 wrote: »

Uhm, actually looking at it all of the numbers on YNAB are wrong.

My bank account on YNAB is £500 less than my actual bank account. My savings account on YNAB is £30 less than my actual savings account.
The cleared balance is about £100 under my actual bank account.
The uncleared balance is about £500 under my actual bank account.

Oh heck

Was your starting balance correct? Mine was out since I started with a month's salary rather than what was in my account - took me a while to figure this out (especially since I live in my overdraft so everything is minus numbers which confuses me A LOT)

You may have to submit to the tedious task of checking all transactions against your statement :mad:

Bublin1

koselur wrote: »

Was your starting balance correct? Mine was out since I started with a month's salary rather than what was in my account - took me a while to figure this out (especially since I live in my overdraft so everything is minus numbers which confuses me A LOT)

You may have to submit to the tedious task of checking all transactions against your statement :mad:

I agree, you'll have to go back through your bank statements.
This is why I am on YNAB almost every day...if I get a payment or make a payment...I log in.