YNAB You Need A Budget

[netlawyer]

+1 on being able to snap a photo in the YNAB app.

-1 (DO NOT WANT) on using YNAB for long term storage of images. I have a paperwork workflow for receipts/bills and other important papers so would not want to clutter up the clean functionality of the YNAB app with something like this. Plus using YNAB as an Evernote/Yep/Paperless/... replacement (I have a Mac and use Yep for document management) seem too far afield from the core purpose of the app, which is to support implementation of the YNAB method. I believe a photo capture function in YNAB could include a preference to save the photo to the Camera Roll, which would allow the user to sync the photo to iPhoto or other file management program. I know the USAA App does not store photos of checks to the Camera Roll when using the Mobile Deposit feature, so I believe this can be toggled.

-1 (DO NOT WANT) on asking the YNAB app to extract data from receipts. I have used other programs that purport to do this using a high quality scanner (ScanSnap) and the results are hit and miss. I would not want to spend the time hunting down and correcting the mistakes when my balances don't match.

How I would implement is:

.5 Preference setting to automatically save photos to Camera Roll or not (this would allow you to later put them in Evernote or your document manager of choice without having to snap twice).
1. Make a transaction.
2. Open YNAB App
3. Hit "Add Transaction" button
4. See current Transaction Entry screen with an additional "camera icon" button.

5. At that point, the user could:
a. Enter the data manually, hit save.
b. Take a photo of the receipt or something else (maybe the thing I bought?), hit save.
c. Enter the data manually AND take a photo, hit save.

6. When syncing with YNAB, when you hit the sync button, transactions with ANY data sync as normal, any transaction with a photo ONLY is not synced.

7. User is presented with message - "You have X unsynced photo transactions"
User can review each unsynced transaction (photo only) and enter manually into YNAB, then checking a "SAVE TO CAMERA ROLL" or "DELETE" button until all transactions are cleared.

8. User is presented with message - "You have X unreviewed photos"
User can then review each remaining photo (NOTE: data has already been sent to YNAB under 6.), save all or none to Cameral Roll or delete all or none. This is the opportunity to check the synced data against the receipt if you've entered data and took a photo.

My personal workflow under this implementation would be:
- SETTING: Don't automatically save photos to Camera Roll. (I don't want photos of receipts in my Photo Stream. I will snap again to Evernote if I actually want to save an image of the receipt.)
- Make transaction
- Open YNAB App
- Hit "Add Transaction" button
- Snap a photo of receipt, hit SAVE
- Lock phone and put it back in my pocket.
- I would have the app sync all transactions with data, then manually enter any transactions that are photo only. Review remaining photos to see if I want to keep them or send them to my Camera Roll to save in Evernote.

Essentially, it turns the YNAB app into a virtual receipt wallet where you can store receipts until you "clean out your pockets" by inputting the data on the receipts into your YNAB desktop application. I use the YNAB app primarily for cash transactions (since I know that I can catch up with debit/credit cards online later that night) and I don't take the time to fill in all the details needed for the transaction screen if I am with other people/folks are behind me in line/I am in a hurry... so as often as not, I end up stuffing the receipt in my wallet with my change and manually entering the data later anyway.

I do sync my budget and balances with the app regularly and I use that as a way to make decisions on purchases, but don't use the "Add Transaction" function on my iPhone like I should.

Sorry for the long post, but I just started using YNAB at the beginning of the month and already love it - I am just not managing my transactions on the go as well as I would like.

[murloc13]

I would love to be able to attach the PDF of cancelled cheques to the corresponding transaction for tax purposes.

[litterbug]

I agree that keeping photos of receipts would be very useful, but back to Jesse's question: why do we need photos in YNAB? What purpose would that serve?

The purpose of entering a transaction is to track your spending, not to provide documentation to the tax man or protect the product warrantee. All this would accomplish is to weigh down the program and generate complaints about how slow it is to sync YNAB data along with all of the attached images.

[netlawyer]

@litterbug

Completely agree. Under my scenario above, the photo would serve as a "quick entry" for the transaction. Use of any photos for tax or warranty purposes would need to be done in another program.

One thought for the folks who want this additional information would be to add an optional checkbox column for tax related transactions. This is a typical field for money management software.

Even with the current version of YNAB, users can always enter keywords in the Notes field as well = "warranty-EN" could mean the warranty information for this transaction is in Evernote or "tax-med" = transaction is a qualifying medical expense for tax purposes. I prefer to leave this up to the user rather than have YNAB dictate to me how to manage the "extra" (i.e., not related to the 4 rules) information I might want to tie to transactions.

[nigel.hughes]

+1 for being able to attach photos of receipts to transactions

[Verschof]

Another +1 here.

[stjohn911]

I agree, it would make it an integrated part of my bookkeeping routine on the road if I could immediately snap a photo of receipt and save it with transaction...