YNAB You Need A Budget

[Taytay]

I'm trying to see how widely used this particular feature is, so if you could let me know if you use it, (and feel free to say why), I'd love to hear from you!

[hoppie]

I voted 'no' as I don't import anything at all! Like some other dinosaurs out there I prefer to be more in touch with my spending, so love the time I spend with YNAB entering the details. Once I have entered all my receipts, I then log onto the bank and do a reconciliation 'on the fly' to ensure all details are current and that's exactly how I like it

[Taytay]

Heheh - cool! Thanks for the feedback! You're certainly not alone in your desire to manually enter everything, and that's why we try so hard to make that an easy process!

Best regards,

Taylor

[WairereRose]

I am a no as well. I don't import much, preferring to enter manually, but when I did try it for a while, I used the quicken format.

[Mudie]

Nope, importing is not for me thanks. That said, I did dabble with it way back when around the time that I was using a separate app to manage my accounts with since it had the ability to export in csv. Now that YNAB has accounts though I'm all set.

Steve

[Sairey724Gamp]

I never import at all, and never plan to.

Sairey

[Patzer]

Many months and many software releases ago, I tested importing CSV. It was mostly a curiosity-driven thing, where I spent a while figuring out what CSV format was required.

About the same time, I experimented with importing QIF, on the theory that I could enter transactions once, into Quicken, then export a QIF file to import to YNAB. That turned out to be more work than just entering the transactions twice.

Where things stand now, I'm not interested in importing transactions. I enter transactions daily or as often as I have them if I'm not spending something every day. For the small quantities that are entered at any given time, working with imports is more hassle than it's worth. And I'm not willing to delay putting transactions in for more than a day just to bulk up and be worth importing. I want that near real time information on the budget screen.

I also agree with the arguments about entering transactions making the spending real and helping to control spending.

Patzer

[mgobluefan]

I voted no. I import using the Money format right now only because I still use Quicken and want YNAB to automatically look for the Money import file.

I find it interesting/surprising the number of people that do not import. I think importing is a great feature and probably would not use YNAB if I couldn't import.

Anyway, that's my long-winded way of saying I don't use the CSV import feature.

[karenj2]

I use the QFX file format... (At least I think that's what it is.)

[zetta]

YES!!! PLEASE don't remove it!

With my Bank of America credit card, the website allows downloads to a QIF or Microsoft Money format only after the month closes. In order to use YNAB in a timely fashion, I periodically (weekly or biweekly) cut and paste from the web page to excel, then import using a CSV file.

If you take the CSV feature away, I will either stop using YNAB (I'm not willing to do manual entry) or try to switch a different credit card. BofA is a major credit card provider, though.

If you enable the ability to Direct Connect to the BofA website, I believe I'll be able to download mid-month, so that is another alternative.

I hope you don't take away CSV without providing Direct Connect.

[Sock]

Yes. I can only import my primary checking (Fidelity) via csv. It's a pain since I have to re-arrange the csv file before import.

[Mudie]

It's a pain since I have to re-arrange the csv file before import.

Do you do it manually via a text editor or some other tool? The reason I ask is to take the opportunity to let you know about CSVed, a freeware utility that I used back when I was playing around with importing. It has a lot of features and is very handy to use once you get the hang of it.



Just an FYI that may help ease your pain.

Steve

[pksublime]

I don't use it, but it's good to leave it in the program because most of the time you can somehow create a .csv relatively easily as discussed above. It's important to keep when dealing with finacials that are uncooperative.

[Patzer]

I don't use it, but it's good to leave it in the program because most of the time you can somehow create a .csv relatively easily as discussed above. It's important to keep when dealing with finacials that are uncooperative.

Don't know if this is already addressed, but the biggest hassle I remember from testing the csv import was figuring out what order the fields should be in. If you're going to have csv import for those times when nothing else can be created, it would be nice to have an easily found help screen that tells the user what fields are expected and what order they should be in.

Patzer

[Taytay]

When you import, it usually detects if they're wrong and gives you the opportunity to save a sample CSV file so that you can go in and edit it....