YNAB You Need A Budget

[detnot]

Does anyone have suggestions of financial software that would compliment YNAB?

Everything I've read, both in these forums and several reviews, has me convinced that YNAB will help me get back on track after a financially devastating year. I am installing the trial version today and will most likely buy it before the end of the week.

But it looks like I'll still need a way to print detailed year-end reports for my accountant. I'm self-employed, with income coming from a few categories, each with different sources. For a long time, I used Quicken to create the reports, but I'd like to look at something that's Mac-friendly. I don't want to have to duplicate a lot of effort in re-categorizing entries downloaded from my bank, either. I don't know if that means I'd download into, say YNAB, categorize all the entries, and then export to--what?--iBank? MoneyWell?

Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions.

[lautzu]

I used iBank for a while, I would say it is a decent application (except for its budgeting feature, of course). The reports aren't as "built in" as they are in Quicken, but they are fairly customize-able.

[reyesfamily01]

This is a good question. I was thinking the same thing. I am thinking of telling my Mother in Law about YNAB 3. She has been a Quicken user as long as I have known her which is about 10 years now. I wonder if she starts using YNAB 3 will she finally get rid of Quicken?

The more I think about it the more I think she should switch to it. I don't want to push her just show her another option. I think it will be hard because she is set in her ways and she's happy using Quicken.

[detnot]

After going over several programs the last few days, I'm still not sure what to do. I've pretty much eliminated iBank because it's just so aesthetically clumsy and I can't get past that. iFinance is interesting but detailed reports won't be available for a few months. Still looking at MoneyWell and I just ran across SEE Finance. I just don't see yet that anything can beat Quicken's customizable reports.

I'm actually wondering if my workflow might look like this for a while:
- Account information flows into Mint.com where it's distributed into the correct categories through rules I set up.
- Export as CSV.
- Import CSV into YNAB for budgeting
- Import CSV into Numbers for reporting.

Does that make sense or has anyone used something similar?

[sylents]

Similar to the position I'm in. I've spent the last week setting up rules in Mint.com, which rename all my typical transactions and has a great bunch of "Pre-Categorizations" like knowing every fast food place. I'm a big fan of having everything automatic and am not ready to hand-enter and approve every single dime yet. But I feel YNAB is the way to go for me anyway and would like to but it.


So my question, similar, is: can I just export from Mint (which automatically reconciles to my satisfaction and pulls data from all my accounts, including expenditures from credit cards) the CSV and import to YNAB? I like the rules I've spent a week setting up, etc. I can see just where the spending has gone for the last three months.

(So far YNAB is not recognizing the CSV I've exported but that seems to be a technical issue.)

[JeffS]

When I 1st purchased YNAB in December 2009, I thought I would need to continue using Quicken. But after using YNAB for less than one month, I found I was reviewing the budget not the reports of the other software. I discontinued using Quicken in December since I seen the entire positive results and benefits of YNAB (great forum, excellent tutorials, YNAB coaching, Blog, & now “Whiteboard Wednesday”) compare to the other software. In YNAB3, I did set up categories for my taxes that I can easily export this information in Excel and have reports I need.

YNAB is based on sound principal of the 4 rules that is foundation to achieve superior financial results.
PS Read all the success stories in the forum and blog.

YNAB - “The Best Money Management Software on the Planet”

[WairereRose]

After going over several programs the last few days, I'm still not sure what to do. I've pretty much eliminated iBank because it's just so aesthetically clumsy and I can't get past that. iFinance is interesting but detailed reports won't be available for a few months. Still looking at MoneyWell and I just ran across SEE Finance. I just don't see yet that anything can beat Quicken's customizable reports.

I'm actually wondering if my workflow might look like this for a while:
- Account information flows into Mint.com where it's distributed into the correct categories through rules I set up.
- Export as CSV.
- Import CSV into YNAB for budgeting
- Import CSV into Numbers for reporting.

Does that make sense or has anyone used something similar?

For your accountant, you may need to keep using this for a time. YNAB is really designed for the personal user not the business user. I have a paper journal for the business and enter the summary information to a spreadsheet for my accountant. The only other thing that might work for you is to set up a separate budget file for the business so that the reports are business specific. You could see if they are detailed enough for that, but I haven't looked at the recent improvements in reports for some time so am not sure if they are up to that yet.

[thomasjr]

I have been using moneywell, and although its budgeting feature is atrocious, you can customize reports to fit your needs. It is a bit counterintuitive, but it works. You select the accounts, categories, date range in the main window, then run a report baesd on that--you end up with category summary reports, category detail reports, income and expense reports, taxable expense reports, etc. Give it a try, just ignore the budgeting features and the funding budgets concept unless it works for you. It didn't for me.

But as all hope, I look forward to being able to customize reports in YNAB so I can chuck the rest.

[infoman]

Well if you have multiple online accounts, brokerage, credit, bank that require automation, Quicken is in a league of it's own supporting most every major financial institution. Overly complex for the avid user and personal finance. Moneydance does a nice job only. It really depends on what works for your needs. In some cases a pad and pencil work equally as well.

[bookman413]

Can't you just export your transaction data to a spreadsheet (.csv) format and give that to your accountant? Oops, just read one of your recent comments and looks like that's what you're already doing. Sort the transactions by category type and use automated subtotals, or use a PivotTable. If you want to go crazy , another way is to hand-code some conditional sum formulas on the report worksheet, for example to pull out only your business transactions or whatever. However the pivottables are much easier to use and give most if not all of the same potential functionality. I'm not sure which of these features ICal has but I'm sure it has all of them in some form or another.

One tip: Format the data worksheet to conditionally highlight any rows/entries that are uncategorized or missing other important data as RED so you can catch them.