YNAB You Need A Budget

[Jade E.]

I can personally tell you that First Tech Federal CU (all up and down the west coast), Rivermark CU (Oregon), Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase all show pending transactions for checking accounts in the US, and the latter 3 were all doing it before I stopped using big banks about 3 years ago...

[mozzie61]

The 'lock' state is just to note that a transaction won't show up in future reconciliations, it doesn't 'mean' anything different than cleared.

This is basically correct. Additionally in YNAB 4 the lock state protects the reconciled transaction with a pop up warning if you try to modify the date or amount, or accidentally select it for deletion. The payee and category remain unprotected because changing them may affect the budget but it does not affect the reconciled account balance or date.

If you're talking about your checking and savings account the only transactions shown are those that have already cleared the bank. For example, if you just put a check in the mail this morning to your landlord for rent it will have been recorded in your checking account and therefore is pending in your register but won't show in your bank account until it is cashed and clears the bank at which time it should be marked as cleared in your YNAB register. The bank should never show pending transactions

In Australia, and possibly other countries, the banks market a Debit account, which is a transaction type account that gives you the features of a Visa or Mastercard credit card account, but any transactions are only good to the value of what's in your account i.e. you only use money that is in yuor account, but you can elect to use Visa or MC at POS, online or wherever the cards are accepted. If you use the Credit Card option the transaction is immediately visible in your online statement, but it is in a pending state and shown in a separate transaction table (that's the case with my bank), with the total of pending transactions as a separate figure. These accounts can have cheque access too, but very few Aussies use cheques any more, and I can't recall the last time I wrote one out.

So when I log on to my banks web site I see:

Closing balance - this is all the transactions the bank knows about and has cleared the funds

Card authorisations - pending credit card type transactions with a total amount

Available balance - closing balance minus card authorisations

For reconciliation in YNAB 4 I use the Closing balance, and it works beautifully. Generally the bank Available balance equals the Working balance in YNAB, however as there can sometimes be a delay in auto debits clearing the bank, compared to when I have them scheduled in YNAB, in which case the Working balance does not match (but it is still the true reflection of what I have left).

Like Don it's taken me a lot longer to type this out than it does to reconcile when it's done daily or every few days, and there's a sense of new sense of satisfaction seeing all the locked transactions safely tucked away, most likely forever. Prior to YNAB 4 I used my own style of reconciliation which involved using the U/C column and flags to show where last reconciled. The wizard saves time because it only shows the unreconciled transactions (cleared or uncleared), and I don't have to worry about flagging, or getting mixed up by accidentally flagging a previously flagged or unflagged transaction (I've removed the Flag column for now as I have no other use for it).

[DonGately]

It's interesting how different banks seem to work. In over 40 years of having checking and bank accounts I've never used a bank that showed checks or other transactions to my checking or savings account unless they had actually cleared (I never use a debit card). I guess I learned something new today.

[mozzie61]

I just thought everyone got it this way

Kevman it looks like your bank account works similar to the Debit account in Oz that I just described - some transactions are effectively autorised immediately, but they remain in a pending state as they clear another payment system e.g. Visa or Mastercard.

I know there are some merchants, rental car companies in particular, who process what is effectively a double debit, where the transaction amount is immediately debited, and a hold for the same value goes against your account, thus reducing the available balance even further. Pre-YNAB days that would be a reason for me to use a credit card in those rare circumstances, now it doesn't really matter because even the double debit is not enough to take us close to the edge.

[Jade E.]

It's interesting how different banks seem to work. In over 40 years of having checking and bank accounts I've never used a bank that showed checks or other transactions to my checking or savings account unless they had actually cleared (I never use a debit card). I guess I learned something new today.

Yeah, checks are either cleared or haven't shown up yet. It's the debit ones that complicate things. If you pay for food at a restaurant with a debit card and write the tip on the receipt, a pending transaction for the food amount immediately shows up, then when the restaurant enters the final transaction (which they might only do once a week if they're busy), the pending transaction clears with the food + tip amount.

Similar thing when you get gas, if you pay at the pump with debit they will generally pre-authorize $50 or so, which shows up as a pending transaction, then gets converted to cleared with the full amount after you're done. Except on rare occasion when the 'real' transaction gets 'disconnected' from the pre-authorization, and it takes 2-3 days for the spurious pending charge to go away.

The worst is if a restaurant doesn't enter it's final transactions before the pending amount times out, then that money looks like it's back in your account. Which is why bank websites can't replace a tool like YNAB.

[litterbug]

Perhaps my credit union simply doesn't post debit transactions until they're no longer pending. Credit card transactions often take a long time because I use a lot of tiny vendors who only clear their card machines every week or so. Very occasionally the CU will show a placeholder transaction of $0.00, usually for some big purchase, but I've only seen that a few times.

But perhaps this is why I'm so used to their records having more of a lag than many people's banks do--they're not posting the transactions until they're complete.

Deposits, on the other hand, go through immediately, whether I do it at the bank or with mobile banking. Even large personal checks appear in my balance right away. In fact, before mobile deposits came around, I did what they call "deposit at home," which involved going online, entering the check number, payer, and amount, and then sticking the check in the mail. There was a $2,000 limit on how much could be out there at any particular time, but the deposit showed up when I entered it, which was long before it cleared the bank.

So I'm spoiled. What can I say? I <3 my CU.

[kevman479]

I don't have anything out right nowor I could show you. My bank not only does this with Debit cards but also with checks. It will show me the check number and the amount but nothing else, for a day or two. If I write a check to my gas station and they put it in their bank in will show as pending like I said.

Deposits are showing as pending put if something comes in that would overdraft my account without the deposit they will mark it as pending until the deposit clears and long as the pending balance is enough to cover the pending charges.

[Luna]

My credit union shows pending transactions.

[litterbug]

Neener neener neener--my CU likes me more than your CU likes you.

Sorry, I couldn't resist, and I knew you'd take it well. I hope.

[kevman479]

Yea but my bank can beat your CU up

[litterbug]

I don't have a bank--I have a wiry, agile credit union with a really good left jab!

[kevman479]

My bank may be old but it's not excatly in a wheelchair yet either LOL

[Luna]

My CU is better than your CU because it does show pending transactions, ha! Transparency rocks! Neener neener yourself ; )

[litterbug]

Thread hijack! Sorry, guys.

[kevman479]

Litterbug, your just saying that because there are now two of us that get the pending transactions!

Okay I'm sorry also