What?! There’s a new version of YNAB coming? Yes. It’s YNAB 4, and it’s awesome. If you missed the announcement, you can catch it here. We talk about pricing, availability, etc.
We’ve improved the Register in more ways than I’ve just mentioned here, but I wanted to go through some of the main changes.
We were able to give each individual transaction significant vertical breathing room, increasing the height of each transaction by 35% while only sacrificing the number of viewable transactions on the screen by 20%. We don’t see the loss of those viewable transactions as a real loss at all. There’s very little use case for being able to see six more transactions in a list, but there’s a huge use case for increasing the legibility by upping the vertical spacing and the font size.
Header
Side-by-side comparison
So where did the other 15% of the vertical win come from?
- We removed the “Account Actions” button in YNAB 3 and made account manipulation (Name, On/Off Budget) only manageable from the sidebar on right-click. It’s not an oft-used feature and didn’t deserve the prominence it was getting.
- The account title is no longer top-left. The selection on the left in the sidebar does a good job of telling you where you “are” in the software.
- The transactions edit dropdown was moved to the top-left spot.
- The date filter was moved to be left of the search field.
- The column chooser was given its own spot as a column header.
- The Select All, Select None options were removed (the checkbox in the header has the same functionality, so those links were redundant).
Footer
We gave the footer a much more active role in YNAB 4, where you can now initiate the reconciliation process, or open the Schedule Transactions window.
The “window” in the footer is particularly useful. When one, or no transactions are selected, it gives you account information:
If you select a few transactions, it provides contextual information:
The Scheduled Transactions window can now be completely hidden from view with the click of a button:
Notice that the icon is “smart” and tells us how many scheduled transactions we have upcoming.
You can still resize the scheduled transactions window once it’s open to suit your needs.
Filtering/Searching
When searching, or using the date filter, we’ve made it very obvious when you’re searching, and when not:
In the screenshot above, we’re viewing transactions in our sample file from “This Month” only.
The search should be very familiar to you:
And the results:
Oh, and if you didn’t notice it from the screenshot above, we’ve made a much more obvious, nicer-looking Add New Transaction button.
Transactions
Transfers to credit cards are a bit easier to spot, with a special icon just for those dastardly little devils:
The cleared column has been moved to the far right, right next to the transaction amount. This closer proximity will help you reconcile faster.
And look, the flag colors are in the order of the rainbow:
Everything’s right in the world.
You’ll still be able to jet around the YNAB Register like always. You’ll just enjoy it a lot more with increased legibility, and a few new features that I still haven’t mentioned (like sending future-dated transactions right to the Scheduler with a click). This is just part of YNAB 4, and we’re certain you’ll enjoy the changes.
Looking mighty good there! These Register screenshots remind me how I miss a 2-date Register, one for when the physical transaction actually occurred and another for when to register it on the Budget. For those instances where I pay a next month’s bill on the current month, instead of waiting for next month to pay it so that it doesn’t fall into the current month’s budget.
I would like to know if a feature that I miss a lot is coming this release: ending dates for scheduled recurring transactions.
Sorry Leonardo, that one didn’t make it in :(
Damn… hope it will make it in a futher update (not upgrade…).
Too bad. I’d like to see that as well!
Reconciliation looks like the biggest win here. I really disliked having to go back and forth to clear transactions. Good change moving the cleared transaction column.
Can you search across accounts now? If I know I paid the Soccer league, but don’t remember if I used my checking account, or one of 3 different credit cards, I’d like to search for “Soccer League”, and have it find all transactions, in any account, with that payee.
Yep. I’ll highlight the All Accounts view in a post tomorrow.
Wonderful. I struggled with that search also.
Excellent. Universal search and cloud sync for all devices were THE two big features I had to have to consider upgrading. Thanks!
When do the updates take effect?
Hi Allison, updates to..the mobile apps? Or what exactly?
Jesse – please tell me that we now have the ability to view only un-reconciled/un-cleared transactions. I realize I can type in the filter in v3, but it’s not persistent. I’ve seen many other requests for it so I know I’m not alone. The environment would be SO much cleaner if a user could “hide” reconciled/cleared transactions.
Sometimes a picture’s worth a 1000 words: http://screencast.com/t/1d1QkumLhBnZ I believe this is what you’re looking for? (Though honestly, I thought this was available in YNAB 3 as well.)
Thanks, Jesse. I know in v3 we could type in is:Uncleared in the search bar, but it’s not persistent. So, hopefully I can choose to have it always show uncreconciled transactions only each time I open the app. Ideally, once you reconcile (love the new reconciliation by the way), those reconciled transactions can be hidden from view by default.
Jesse – looking closer at your screenshot, I’m afraid the feature I’m after isn’t in v3 or v4. Simply put, when I launch YNAB, I’d like to be presented with only my unreconciled transactions, by default, all the time. Once I reconcile using the new reconciliation process, I want those transactions to be flagged as reconciled (which I now know they are with the new process) and then allow my default view to only show unreconciled. To me, reconciled transactions are done with. Gone. Shouldn’t ever need to see them again unless I’m researching or looking for something specific.
Any changes to batch operations? For example, changing the date on multiple transactions at once?
How about categories list? Still the same old same? I noticed in YNAB 3 that when tabbing through a payee that automatically fills the category field, the category dropdown listbox did not narrow down the list to show that category so I could see the remaining money in that budget category. I hope this was addressed in version 4.
Hi Robert, I believe both changes you mentioned weren’t made for YNAB 4. Sorry to have to deliver bad news.
Looking forward to the updated version! My very small issue is with the checkboxes on the left if the register views. Highlighting the transactions serves as a selector, and the tick boxes feel a bit like training wheels on a racing bike. Keep up the good work!
Yeah the checkboxes we really like for having people deal with bulk edits that perhaps don’t get the whole hold-down-ctrl to select multiple (like my Dad, Mom..etc.) Bulk edits play quite a role in the software (bulk accept, bulk clear, bulk categorize, etc.) that we wanted to make it obvious for those still using training wheels ;)
I totally get that. I was just hoping we would have the ability to hide that column. Gotta lose the training wheels if we want to go fast! :-D
good work !
Are you doing anything with the auto sorting by date so that when you put in a transaction it get put in the right place by its date. Would be really useful especially when entering unentered transactions when reconciling. You currently have to resort each entry to get it in the right place, unless I’m missing an option somewhere.
We now auto-sort. We also highlight the just-added transaction so you don’t “lose it” visually.
It sucks to have to upgrade for $40 to get bug fixes to the terrible sorting in YNAB3 :(
There’s a lot more than just a sorting fix in there! Some actually didn’t view it as a bug, either. They liked that we didn’t move the transaction after they entered it. We just can now move the transaction more elegantly so we are hoping for a win-win there.
More specifically: changing your filter did not apply the current sort to it. Reported early on in YNAB 3 (Case #5017 and Case #9490). Are we YNAB 3 users going to see any further fixes now that YNAB 4 has been announced? Still trying to justify spending $40 on an upgrade that (I agree) improves many aspects, but also forces some other changes that may/may not suit all users (e.g. flag color order)
Hmmm… I find it’s been simple to auto-sort by date in YNAB3 even when I add a transaction out of date order. I just click on the Date header and presto, it sorts the dates. So it’s not automatic, but it’s very quick.
Or even quicker, press F5.
Like the ‘removed the “Account Actions”
Like the new ‘transactions edit ‘ placemnent
Love the rainbow flag colors!
But I’m not sure I see where the account title? Couldn’t see it in the screen shot.
The sidebar serves the purpose of account title. Thanks for letting us know what you like :)
Are we going to be able to reorder entries in the register? It’s a small thing but its easier to compare YNAB with my statement when the entries are in the same order.
For instance, I may have 6 transactions that happened on 5/20/2012, when I sort by date they are all grouped together chronologically, but I have no way of ordering the individual entries for that day. So if I didn’t enter them in the correct order the first time, I’d have to delete the entries and reenter them in the same order as the statement.
Hi David,
That functionality is not there, no. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on that.
Great updates, can’t wait to get my hands on the new version. Maybe in the next update you can allow users to change the title of the colored flags so that each color can have a different meaning that the user defines. Just a thought.
I think a quick win in a future update would be to give the ability to give the flags a meaningful description. This way, I wouldn’t have to keep a post-it next to my monitor telling me what each flag’s color means.
Totally agree there.
With YNAB 4 *almost* out, I’m really excited to keep delivering features like that in the future. As free updates :)
Do the scheduled transactions still behave the same way? In other words, was the strictly a visual change?
There may be a way to do this and I have simply not learned it, but I wish the scheduled transactions would not automatically go into the register; I would love it if I had a bit of option before they were added to the register. We have some transactions that do not change from month to month (like our monthly Netflix bill and our World Vision donations that are withdrawn automatically) and the current settings work fine with those, but we have other bills we like to list in the scheduled transaction list that change from month to month (like the water bill, the electricity bill, etc). I like those included in the list but they change from month to month and would like them to get edited before they are added to the register.
Any chance of this ability ever coming to pass?
they would either “pop-up” reminder or a view scheduled transaction box with an OK/Enter button or Edit button when I open
It would be great if the reoccurring transactions had an option of “manual” or “auto” when you set them up. E.g. Auto ones, would automatically occur in the register as they do now on their set dates. Where as manual ones would require you to right click on the transaction to add it to the register (as you can currently do with future dated reoccurring transactions)- it could also ask you to verify the date and amount at the same time.
This is incredible. These changes are fantastic for usability (I hate to say it but I occasionally forget I have a search active), and I spend close to 80% of my time in YNAB on the register screen.
Great job!
Will we be able do complex searches such as finding all the records which have either red flags *OR* green flags?
We’re still limited to AND in the search. Dang. I’ve noted that for something we can look at for 4.x
This all looks great! Just finished tweaking July’s budget to allow for the upgrade!
Question…..and I really, REALLY, hope the answer is yes, will the new version allow for people to split transactions? This is a huge asset for budgeting and keeping categories organised.
The desktop software and iPhone app allow for split transactions. The only platform that doesn’t is the mobile Android app.
Great news! My inner nerd is rejoicing!
Is it in the works for the Android app? I miss this feature when I’m entering data into my phone!
We’ll get it into Android now that Cloud Sync is implemented there. Android’s basically free to get to feature parity and we’re excited about it.
Is there a way to disable check #?
Some countries abandoned check a few decades ago
Yep. Top-right of the column headers in any Register, you can select the columns you’d like to see. You can do this on a per-account basis (this hasn’t changed from YNAB 3).
I have hidden this column in YNAB 3 and Jesse mentioned that the “column chooser” is now more prominent, so my only guess is that the ability to hide the “check #” column will still be there.
Dang. Sorry Jesse.
Moving the cleared button right next to the amount is a very great move. I’m so excited about this.
This upgrade looks absolutely fantastic!!! Can’t wait for next week!!! Quick question… Anything on TAGS in YNAB 4???
While the base of YNAB lies in the budgeting and the philosophy, the real action takes place where the transactions go. It’s a very important screen to my budgets.
I think you’ve done a great job on search results.
I have a request: why give the credit cards an icon and not all the accounts? You could implement a possibility to give icons to your different accounts. It would make all transfers clearer in stead of just the ones to credit cards. A transfer to a cash account would have a wallet, savings a pig money box or something. It would be really cool if you could choose the icon for the account yourself from a list of icons YNAB provides.
I could give my shared-with-my-better-half account a heart or something! It sounds half done if you only give credit cards this cool looking icon. I don’t even use a credit card, so I will never see the icon! Please consider to implement this in some future update.
Hoping the Split Transaction bug I run into is fixed? I’m on a netbook so my vertical space is limited, and splitting a transaction into many different categories (from WalMart, for example) would cause the actual transaction to “bump” out of my visual range and I’d have to scroll to look for it, even while it was open.
*crosses fingers*
Will a negative Balance in a running total in a checking account show up in red as a warning?
All negative balances will be in red, which hopefully is warning enough. We don’t pop up any message or anything like that.
red is good enough….
Its looks awesome, can’t wait! But as a newbie who literally purchased YNAB less than a week ago – here’s my only question…
How will the upgrade to YNAB 4 work, exactly? (ie do I get an email saying here’s your new code for YNAB4, go download and enjoy! or will it come up as an update on my YNAB3?)
Just a little confused on how exactly you’ll know who qualifies for the free upgrade and who doesn’t. :)
We’ll send you an email with the download link and your YNAB 4 activation key :) You’ll see it Tuesday.
Looks like he new one has a lot of great things and banks for always trying to please us needy customers. does you need a budget have a place were you can now list random stuff for reference as you go updating the budget monthly. Example though I have been using ynab since fall 2008 I still have an excell spread sheet were I keep a list of family bdays since I realize not every month do I need to budget for the same number of bdays. Here I also keep a list of all my payments since not all of them are monthly I also have one more page that keeps all my passwords so if I have to log onto an account to verify something while doing my budget I have everything in one place. Any chance that a notes area like this will be available in ynab. Also the auto sincing looks great I k ow this is probably the number 1 reason my husband and I fall off the budget wagon is because we dont want to spend precious time turning on the computer just to zinc the phones up after a long day. Keep up he great work :)
For birthdays, you could use the new Notes field that’s in each month that’s in YNAB 4, and write people’s birthdays in their respective months. You could also do that with payments. I’d probably just put the birthdays as a list in the note field for the “Gifts” or “Birthdays” category.
I definitely wouldn’t keep a list of passwords written down…anywhere. I’d use something like 1Password (mandatory for the YNAB team) or Keypass.
Clear next to amount in the register Yay! Are we able to manually reorder columns?
No manual reorder of columns…
I have been using ynab for a long time, it is a awsome program. I’m really glad that you keep improving it. I havn’t asked many question about using this program because it is so easy to use.
G. Long
Why didn’t you think of the correct accounting sort,i.e., date/check # versus the current sort date/amount? I have asked this for the last year and all Angela does is make some smart comment.
Hi Richard,
As you know, we’ve left the sort order as is for YNAB 4 (we just couldn’t get everything into one release and we really want to get this out the door!). We are looking into ways to address the sort order in the future, but I don’t know what form or timeframe it might take :) I’m sorry it’s not the answer you’re looking for!
Jesse and Crew,
Congrats on getting YNAB 4 out the door to us! I can’t wait to really dig into it.
I wanted to beg and plead for a small, but monumental change be made to YNAB 4. Lots about the design is “new” and will take some getting used to, but one thing in desperate need of change and that is the color of the category divers in the Budget view. They are way too light. The light blue is almost indistinguishable, and it begins to look like one long list instead of different categories. Though it probably shouldn’t be, this is highly stress-inducing. YNAB has always been peace-inducing, so this is a bummer. I need to see things nicely broken up and a darker blue would do just that!
Please add an update that allows me to choose another color, or if you could just darken it, I would be deeply grateful.
Thanks!
Love love love the ability to reconcile! To go along with that, a nice feature would be a checkbox that allows you to only show unreconciled transactions. Not in the filter, since that would require you to filter it every time, but a setting that allows you to toggle between all transactions or unreconciled only. Thanks for everything. So cool to use a product where you are so in touch with your customers.
That’s a request we’re starting to hear. We’d have to look at the best way to implement, but it’s not a bad idea.
This is exactly what I was trying to request above (see my question on 6/22). Thanks, Maria. Once again, it only makes sense that once transactions are reconciled, they should disappear until I need to search them later. After using the app for a year or two, why should I have to scroll through (or even see) all those reconciled transactions.
Thanks, Jesse.
Pretty much like the new register, except for one thing, and it’s almost a deal-breaker.
I don’t think it’s my machines, or my installations, but if I navigate away from a register, either to another register or another part of YNAB4, when I come back, the register has scrolled up several transactions, requiring using the scroll bar (almost invisible in this color scheme) in order to get back to where I was. YNAB3 jumped a 1 or 2 transactions, but 9 or 10 is just too much!
Could this be fixed? Or the scroll tab color be changed at least? Preferably both.
Also, when I reduce/restore the window in budget mode, the month orientation changes. Is that normal?
Love, love, love the new sync feature! Works flawlessly! Sure wish my spreadsheet app did that!
We are going to get that fixed. I can’t believe we didn’t catch it in internal testing actually, because it is quite annoying!
Thanks, Jesse. As always, I know this is a WIP, with future improvements in the offing.
I’d like to see a little more attention given to legibility as opposed to “coolness” as well. As you may know, about 10% of males are color-blind, and I for one find the low-contrast color schemes in vogue since Windows Vista to be very difficult to use. For instance, to my eye there is no difference between positive and negative in the Category Balance column, other than the tiny minus sign. The drop arrow in YNAB 3 gave an instant clue. Maybe that could come back? And I don’t even want to talk about scroll bars! Maybe a user-option or user-modifiable color schemes could be implemented.
The new flag colors are great, though. Well saturated primary colors are best.
One other thing? Any possibility of more and clearer date options, such as dd-mmm-yy or some such to end the confusion of those of us European-style users who don’t know whether 4/7/2012 means July 4th or 7 April. Wouldn’t want to fire my cannon on the wrong day!
All in all, though, a big step forward. Just bought my ticket, and I’d have paid that much just for the cloud sync. Wish other programs worked that smoothly, especially with Android