YNAB You Need A Budget

[chrish]

What if the file could be stored somewhere like on dropbox, then the website could ask for credentials and forward them along to dropbox to get to the file. This would probably be more complicated than your solution though.

[Mudie]

I've discovered a slick php script that can effectively password protect your budget data online using the code jetshred has here so the only thing you would need to get this up and running is webspace that you can upload (ftp) the file to.

I'll write up a detailed step-by-step later and post it for anyone that's interested.

[bowhuntr09]

got mine all working with the demo file and password-protect. Thanks Jetshred & Mudie!

Mudie I would love to know how to set up the icon on my curve!

[Mudie]

Sure!

• Go to http://m.jonathanhfisher.co.uk/webshortcuts/ on your Curve and install the "shortcut hub utility" as well as "web shortcut 1".
• In the "assets" folder of your YNAB 3 installation you will find a file called "Ynab3Icon-32.png". It's the 32x32 icon that I used and you will need to upload it to a spot on your website. You may want to rename it to "ynab.png" to keep it simple.
• Fire up the "shortcut hub utility" on your Curve and you will see where to type in the URL of your installation of the Mobile Budget Viewer.
• Then on the next line down you type in the URL of the PNG icon that you uploaded.
• Save the changes
• Hide the "shortcut hub utility" as you won't need it again unless you intend to make more web icons. (if you do you will need to get "web shortcut 2", "web shortcut 3" etc.)
• Click on your "YNAB" icon to be taken directly to your Mobile Budget Viewer page!

The first time you go it will grab the YNAB icon and then it will remain present from thereon out. However, I have noticed that it goes missing if I pull the battery but it's no biggie as the tiny "web shortcut 1" icon remains visible and the icon reappears the next time I go to the page. It's worth mentioning that while I had zero troubles getting it to work on my Curve I have yet to get it to behave on my wife's Curve. I'm not sure why as we have identical phones and can only guess that the theme that she's using is the issue. You'll note on the page where you get the utility that he mentions "if the application seems to be taking forever to download an image you've probably made a typo." which it what happens on my wife's phone but I've checked it over and over with no luck. I even dumped it out of her phone and reinstalled but it still refuses to work for her. Overall though it's not a deal breaker as she has simply bookmarked our budget page.

[bowhuntr09]

Thanks! That works great! Who needs an iphone or droid, this is all I need! Thanks again everyone!

[MALMomma]

I'll continue to dream for an Android app, as I have been since the Pro days.... No webspace here to upload to, either.

Some day, I'm sure, especially now that there are more than just us G1 peeps with Android.

[shepherd94]

Would there be a way to do this using MobileMe? I'm pretty excited about the possibility.

Thanks,
Matt

[jdhume]

This thread has been great... and gave me an itch I had to scratch with my BlackBerry. So I am in the early stages of writing a BB-specific app for budgets. Right now it works in a similar manner to jetshred's web page... the idea is you store the CSV export file on a web server, tell the app where it's located (an http/https URL for now but could be expanded to include FTP, a local file or a secured web site) and then it downloads and displays the data.

It's not ready to post for beta testing (no config menu, hardcoded CSV URL, etc.), but here are some screenshots from the 9700 simulator using jetshred's sampe budget file (it also works well in the Storm simulator landscape mode):

9700-01.JPG (32.52 KiB) Viewed 799 times

9700-02.JPG (43.9 KiB) Viewed 799 times

9700-03.JPG (43.08 KiB) Viewed 799 times

Let me know what you think! I can start a new thread if necessary. This one has been specific to jetshred's web version... don't want to be rude or clutter the conversation.

Thanks,
John

[quintoc72]

Okay, I'm totally not a programmer/software developer, but I'm wondering how much more work would it take to allow any of the apps being mentioned to make changes to the file as opposed to just viewing it? In other words, to record transactions and then pull that file off the website onto the desktop and import it? Now that I've said that, I realize it would take uploading a .csv of the accounts, and not just the budget info. Would that be too much? As was mentioned by Jesse in the posts on the iphone app: It's a great psychological win to record transactions as they're incurred.
Well, may be too much, but one can hope....

[quintoc72]

Sorry, forgot to add my name to my last post, and to say to John - definitely interested in checking out what you're working on, too.
Joy to you,
Kevin

[lilqhgal]

*waiving hands wildly* ME TOO ME TOO!

I have an iPhone and have been DYING to have some sort of viewing/editing app. (Cant wait for the acutal YNAB app to come out!) I've used many solutions that were just so-so, from other iphone bank/register style apps that didn't sync, to emailing myself when I spend something so I don't forget to enter it in YNAB at home. Nothing is really working great, as I really don't know how much I have left budgeted.

I'd like to password protect my space but not sure how that other plugin mentioned in this thread worked. I'm wondering, also, if this can be used like someone else mentioned to actually edit the file, and if so, what other app would I need on my phone? an excel editor of some kind I'd assume...

Oh and one actual real question: Do I need to keep the file name of the csv export the same as the one in the zip file? Or can it be MyAwesomeBudget.csv or whatever? Thanks!!!

[moneyma]

Hi Everyone - I'm new to YNAB (and for the most part, Budgeting, itself). I tried envelope-budgeting for a few months last year (with pen & paper, etc.) and it worked wonders, but I didn't have any software to support it (I didn't know there was any), so when the holidays came, I got bored and I turned my focus to other priorities. But, I'm back in the game! Anyway, I've been looking for the best Budgeting software for my style and I keep coming back to YNAB; however, the lack of on-line and mobile accessibility (editable or not) has kept me from signing up 100%. I was so happy to see these posts and I even tried the jetshred demo site on my device. I have a Nokia E71, which is a Symbian, or S60 device. I was under the impression that it was (not that long ago) a very popular device/OS, but it seems like we get overlooked when it comes to new apps, unless they're java- or universally web-based I think even Nokia is moving toward maemo devices for their smartphones (I read on this forum that the N900 may be able to run YNAB, natively).

I don't have any screenshot software, so all I can do is describe what I see. In the S60/E71's native browser, the "Family Budget" that shows up generally looks like the other screenshots here, but the NAMES of the categories are missing, and when I hover over the very nice-looking and well-formatted $ remaining, $ budgeted, $ spent text, it (& the pie chart beside it) go blank, only showing the "link boundary" where a hyper-link is, I suppose. And, none of the categories have a red background (not sure if they are supposed to).

However, when I open the demo in Opera Mini 5 beta 2, the sleeker-looking "March Budget" looks much better and more like the other screenshots here, with the double lines, the left-justified category names, and even the red-highlighted Pets:Vet category (which is also the only category displaying a broken image sourcelink). Please know that this post is not in any way meant to criticize, and please excuse my limited understanding of developer-vocabulary or process. I am extremely happy to see users have taken the initiative and created an app like this one (I wish I had the knowledge to do that!). I'm hoping that I can be a voice for the S60 folks (if there are any) and give useful feedback in that platform. In addition, I sometimes dig out my old Palm TX (generally stands the test test of time), so if I an be helpful there, I'd be happy to help. Wow - I feel like I need to get some new devices - I better start budgeting for an upgrade!

maria
(sorry for the long post, I've bolded the important stuff)

[jdhume]

Okay, I'm totally not a programmer/software developer, but I'm wondering how much more work would it take to allow any of the apps being mentioned to make changes to the file as opposed to just viewing it? In other words, to record transactions and then pull that file off the website onto the desktop and import it? Now that I've said that, I realize it would take uploading a .csv of the accounts, and not just the budget info. Would that be too much? As was mentioned by Jesse in the posts on the iphone app: It's a great psychological win to record transactions as they're incurred.
Well, may be too much, but one can hope....

I have thought about this a little and would love to implement it eventually... but it's not the easiest thing to do (in my mind). Each approach I think about has pros and cons. One relatively simple approach (that could work for either web- or phone-based apps) would be to add a form that would allow you to input the necessary details for a transaction, then save it to a CSV file either located on the web server or your phone. Then later on your PC, retrieve the file (from the web or phone) and import it into YNAB. Once imported, the CSV would be cleared (only unimported transactions would exist in it).

This is a fairly simple concept and might work well for a lot of users, but would still be a manual effort to import and keep synchronized. Plus, I am not 100% sure of the CSV import capabilities of YNAB... as an example, my test CSV imported all transactions into a single account even though the account name was a column in the CSV (this could also be user error - ID10T/PEBKAC). To work around this, you could create a separate staging account in YNAB called "Mobile Imports" to capture all imported transactions and then manually move them to their appropriate accounts. Lastly, this approach would not require any transfer of existing register transactions from YNAB to the web or phone... so from your phone you would only be able to see transactions entered from the phone that are awaiting import into YNAB.

I haven't put much more thought into this concept, so I'm sure others could come up with other/better ideas or variations on my suggestions. It will be a while before I get around to adding a feature like this, so I'd welcome any and all ideas in the meantime.

Hi Everyone...

There is a Java standard that I think most all phones adhere to... so it should be possible to write an app that works on your phone and other platforms as well. However, the common Java standard seems to be fairly watered-down vs. the device-specific Java APIs. Right now, my app is using some Java code that only works on BlackBerry (for a better UI experience). At some point I could potentially port my app to a more basic (yet still useful) version that would be universal. Jetshred may be able to update his web-based application to support your phone as well (however, I haven't looked at his code nor do I know much about mobile HTML standards to speak too confidently here).

[shepherd94]

Would there be a way to do this using MobileMe? I'm pretty excited about the possibility.

Thanks,
Matt

Sooo...anyone want to take a stab at this?

I really would like to see if this can be done without having to purchase a domain strictly for this purpose. Not to mention having to configure an Apache web server on my home machine!

Thanks,
Matt

[clenaghen]

Would there be a way to do this using MobileMe? I'm pretty excited about the possibility.

Thanks,
Matt

Sooo...anyone want to take a stab at this?

I really would like to see if this can be done without having to purchase a domain strictly for this purpose. Not to mention having to configure an Apache web server on my home machine!

Thanks,
Matt

No, it does not look like MobileMe supports PHP. I tried it out, then did some research and it appears that PHP is not supported. Bummer. Would have been a nice interim fix until the iPhone app comes out.