Help with work expenses on YNAB

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi

I am fairly new to YNAB but its working well for me. I cant figure out the best way to account for work expenses though. On my old spreadsheets I would have just put the expenses in the same column as wages received.

Yesterday I bought something for work costing £16.44. I will get this back in my February wages (I get paid on 10th of the month). How should I account for it so I can balance the budget and reconcile the bank?

colsten

Record the payments you make as "Works expenses". When your expense claim gets paid, split it out from your wages and record it as "Expense claims paid" (or whatever names suit you). The two categories should eventually balance as zero.

nyermen

I can relate to this. What I do is what colsten has recommended.

A couple of comments on my approach:
- I have no allocated budget amount on the category. Ie. It will result in zero or a negative amount.

- I therefore change the "overspend treatment" (arrow appears when the category is in the negative) from it's default to "Subtract from category balance".

- This means that I always know what I'm owed even between months. Repayment (Income) I allocate directly to the category, so that it will update the amount still owed.

- I keep a second category I call "expenses float". This I keep allocated with equal / more than what I'm owed. This ensures I can't go overdrawn as long as it "nets" the negative owed expenses. It does means I keep some of my savings in an "On Budget" category which I can adjust against that float as needed.

Hope that's clear(ish)

Best Wishes,

Peter.