YNAB - application for deliberate financial life
Get Rich / / December 20, 2019
Micum Jesse (Jesse Mecham) and its management of the budget method familiar to us in 'The philosophy of doing YNAB budget». And today we'll talk about them created specifically for this system application.
On YNAB I came across when I was looking for an intelligent application of budgeting in exchange program Family 10, I enjoyed working with Windows.
I needed an application that:
- in the preparation of the budget shows how much funds left unallocated;
- It works correctly with debts (their payment can be made in the budget);
- on time and in the right place according residue or overspending of the budget;
- It has a version for OS X and iOS with a fast synchronization (YNAB also has apps for Android, Windows and Kindle Fire);
- It has a pleasant design;
- understandable and easy to use.
For those who are critical of the presence of multi-currency, YNAB will not work. The application works only with one currency.
It should say before we move on to the instruction that YNAB is not an ordinary program to account for personal finance. Accounting for income and expenses in this app - it is secondary.
The sole purpose of YNAB - work with a budget.
The budget in this app - the center around which everything else revolves.
But do not worry, take into account the costs be transactional reports and charts YNAB also able.
Basics YNAB app
At the beginning of the application you need to create a budget, give it a name, to allow synchronization (via Dropbox), select the type (family budget or small business) and to determine the format of the data.
You can also create multiple budgets, and switch between them. When the budget file is ready, you need to create an account (1) and category (2) in the main window:
To create a subcategory, you must move the cursor to the parent and click on the plus sign icon emerged.
The left sidebar is not very different in content and functionality from the control panel similar applications. In the top section (4) you can select the view of the budget (Budget), reports (Reports) or transactions for all accounts (All Accounts). Here you can see the overall balance of your accounts.
In the next block (5) shows the account, cash flow which is accounted for in your budget, as well as the overall balance on them.
It is important to understand what is needed bills are not included in the budget (6). If you deposit account, debt or bill-coin box in the budget, the application will take into account the rest of them in the planning that will make a lot of confusion in the work of the budget. account type, and its inclusion or non-inclusion in the budget is determined when it is created.
There is another type of accounts - closed (7). When you bought the car from the account "Piggy on the car," or brought the score to zero-duty, it is logical to send him to the closed, that it does not disturb you.
Block categories of expenditure and income (8) in his performance also differs from other similar applications. But here's the rest of the blocks - it is the place where magic happens YNAB.
magic YNAB
Tape (9) helps us to quickly navigate through the months. Displays the month highlighted in blue, and this month has a yellow triangle in the upper left corner. You can click on the last month and see the budget for the previous, current and future months. If you stretch a little wider the window, the number of displayed months increase.
block 10 presents us with a summary for each month:
- Not Budgeted in [previous month] - nezabyudzhetirovannaya amount of the last month, passed in showing.
- Overspent in [previous month] - Budget overruns in the past month, filling of the displayed.
- Income for [month] - Displays the month income.
- Budgeted in [month] - zabyudzhetirovanno the displayed month.
Have you noticed that YNAB very clearly shows the "under-expenditure" or budget overruns in the past month? It is also easy to overspend compensated applications from next month (if you stick to the fourth rule) or to the same spreads "underflows". This possibility makes the embodiment of the application of the third rule YNAB second case and does not limit the control the budget by one month.
If you need to know is the amount available for budgeting (Available to Budget), then click on it and the program will remove the unnecessary details.
block 11 - the place where the main work and analysis will occur.
Budgeted column shows the total amount zabyudzhetirovannuyu and amounts for each category. Change them can be right here by clicking the mouse on the number. In this case, the left side of the sheet will be an icon, so you can make any comments and notes, and the icon will appear to the right function call "quick budget" and a calculator.
Outflows is automatically populated based on your spending. Balance indicates overrun or residue on zabyudzhetirovannoy amount. I think you understand that the amounts in the blocks 4-6 and 10-11 speak about something different realities. The first group of blocks said, as you have funds in bank accounts and cash, and the second - free.
But in practice, it took me some time to me, making decisions, guided by the right block. In short, YNAB is trying to do everything possible to get you to zabyudzhetirovannomu treated as spent.
YNAB this compares favorably with other similar applications, the concept and design which makes it difficult and uncomfortable making a decision based on the budget.
Another feature of the app - it's the inability of income planning because YNAB philosophy recognizes only the section skins already killed and osvezhovannogo bear. To do this, there are two special built-in category Income [month] and Income [next month], that can not be planned. This is quite convenient, and reasonably justified, if you practice the fourth rule. A fourth rule itself - is a godsend for freelancers or people who have no clear rates.
But what about when we were on the way to implementation of this rule? The output is very simple:
- Create a category of "income" and you need subcategory.
- Drummed into them the amount with a minus (negative).
- Everything. You planned income, but the amount can easily be changed, if he is to others.
One of the reasons why YNAB for me - the best application of similar subjects, is a simple planning in the budget debt repayment. It would seem that everything is very simple: creating the account with a negative balance, and in the budget is planned to transfer to this account. But, to my surprise, no one to try the app but YNAB, had this simple solution.
The YNAB you will need to create a category "debt repayment" (or each debt separately) and plan on spending it. And in fact carry out a transaction with a budget account to the account of the debt-indicating this category. Granted, not perfect, but in other applications it was not even such a decision. And since we are already talking about transactions, look at how it's done.
Work with YNAB income and expenses
To create a transaction flow must click on the button Add a new transaction, to transfer from the account to the account - Make a transfer to the selected account window.
As you can see, the choice of categories of expenditure to the right of each of them shows the amount that, according to the budget drawn up by you, you can spend it. Choosing Split categories, you can create a "check" of several categories.
You can schedule a transaction for the future (Scheduled Transactions) or to perform group operations on already committed.
Applications for tablets have a functionality of desktop versions but the possibility of creating categories. Due to the fact that they are free, but it is very easy to use, could be dispensed only by them without buying a version for Mac or PC. But this restriction is not difficult to circumvent.
Desktop version YNAB It has a 34-day trial period with full fukntsionalnostyu. During this time, it is possible to create all the necessary categories, synchronize and safely use in future mobile version only.
I think that free to obtain such an elaborate system of keeping the budget and functional application to it - a true celebration of life. Those who are still willing to buy, I recommend not to hurry, because on Steam are often discounts.
In conclusion I would say that in the article format is difficult to describe all the features of YNAB philosophy and application. Therefore, if you have any questions or have personal experience, write in comments.
ynab for Windows and OS X