YNAB You Need A Budget

[patrickprimo]

With the YNAB 3 UI, it would be nice to be able to add a note to the account list on the left side of the screen. For instance, I track my Health Savings Account in YNAB, but I do not categorize any of the funds in this account as income. It is completely off-budget. I do, however, make payments (transfers) to other accounts like a credit card to reimburse the credit card for any medical expenses. These transfers happen off-budget, as that's the way I wish to operate the software for the HSA account. I would like to create a note on the HSA account to track how much of the HSA funds are eligible for transfer to my other accounts (to keep in line with IRS guidelines in case I ever get audited, I'd have a journal of sorts).

Also, I like to store usernames and passwords for online account log-ins. I tend to forget these things.

Long story short, can we have the ability to add notes to accounts, please?

[pgauntlett]

+1
Has been on my mind too.

[lautzu]

Completely agree. Going to send this along as a bug report see if we can get it added. (at least at some point...)

[patrickprimo]

Nothing yet... hopefully account notes will be in the next update.

Let me clarify why this is important:

As I previously explained, I'm making payments from my Health Savings Account to my Discover to reimburse myself for a large health expense (Invisalign). Discover will be paid off in full next month (my only credit card - woohoo!), and all reimbursement notes are tied to the Discover line within the budget. To finish reimbursing myself, I am going to write myself checks as my employer deposits HSA funds, and these checks will then be deposited into my checking account instead of direct payments to Discover. To continue my HSA journal, I'd need to figure something out with the way YNAB3 is currently configured unless I can simply move my Discover HSA related notes to a note window tied directly to the Discover account button. This would simplify everything nicely.

Of course, I don't know what goes in to making this happen. I could only assume, but I think many out there in the YNAB-o-sphere would appreciate this new feature.

Who's with me?

[Athelas]

A lot of bank accounts (especially interest bearing accounts) have minimum balance requirements.

I would use this feature to have a handy place to enter those minimum balance requirements to avoid charges for going below the minimum.

[xraymd]

Greetings, Athelas, why not just rename your bank account to something like

Savings at BigOlBank (min $1000)

instead of

Savings at BigOlBank --

in other words, put the required minimum right in there as part of the bank account name and you would not have to worry about forgetting or needing to wait for an account note feature!

xraymd

[patrickprimo]

xraymd - That would solve Athelas' issue but not mine. Here is what I track in the credit card note field regarding my HSA account (it requires a note field). This info needs to tie directly to the HSA account because its funds are used for more than just reimbursing my credit card:

1/13/10 payment from HSA amount $115.40
$1105.46 left to reimburse

12/28/09 payment from HSA amount $115.15
$1220.86 left to reimburse

12/22/09 payment from HSA amount $112.61
$1336.01 left to reimburse

12/2/09 payment from HSA amount $115.38
$1448.62 left to reimburse

11/18/09 payment from HSA amount $116
$1564 left to reimburse

11/xx/09: $2600 was paid to Discover from HSA.
$1680.00 remaining can be paid from HSA account for Invisalign

Make sense?

[Athelas]

Greetings, Athelas, why not just rename your bank account to something like

Savings at BigOlBank (min $1000)

instead of

Savings at BigOlBank --


xraymd

I could do that, but most of the time it would be just take up extra screen space.

Please understand: I an not calmoring for the function But if it were there, I would use it.

[patrickprimo]

Boy oh boy, I sure am calmoring

[mteverest]

+1

I remember hoping I could do this when I wanted to save my color legend somewhere inside YNAB. I ended up entering post-dated flagged transactions instead.

mt

[dalkinn]

Interesting that you would use it for that purpose. I guess that goes to show how handy it would be for a variety of uses. I would love such a feature to save my account numbers in. I used the account information in MS Money for that so each time I logged into my different accounts I would have it there. Now I have to keep it in a separate file or open up Money to check. We already have an account information window in YNAB, perhaps just add a text box to it for now?

[patrickprimo]

Hopefully next update...

[ckuptime]

Athelas

I have an account (Savings) that I have to keep a minimum of 100.00. Whithin the register at the top of the screen, there is "Account Actions". Select "Set/Adjust working ballance" and change your ballance to what you can use instead of all of it. This is what I have done to my savings, so I don't "realize" what I can't use anyway.

Just a thought.

[blarg]

I'd like to use account notes to store BSB/Account Number for each. These numbers can be used here to direct deposit into anyone's account, so it would just be handy to have them there. Of course I could name the account: First Home Saver (BSB: 123-456 Num: 123456789012) but that takes up quite a bit of space.

[chrish]

You can put a $0 transaction in the register with any information, just make the date the first or way in the future so you can easily find it.