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Coming from YNAB

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Colin Grant

05 Dec, 2024 01:47 PM

Just moved across from YNAB and am enjoying using Moneydance. The one thing I did like about YNAB is the ability to allocate funds to a specific purpose. So whilst, for example, I might have a bank balance of 5000 a certain portion, say 1000, is allocated to say "Wife's spending". That amount might well increase as more funds come in or reduce if spent. I guess it is a kind of co-mingling of funds in a single bank account. Is there a way of achieving this?

The only other small issue is - I wish bank sync was available for UK banks.

Thank you
Colin

1. 1 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 05 Dec, 2024 02:32 PM

   

   There is no UK bank sync (yet). However, most banks allow a OFX (preferred) or QIF download. MD imports these great..

   You can achieve allocation of funds.. Simplistically,

   Create a sub account (called "... savings") under the real bank account...
   Create asset account(s) called "Savings for xxxx".

   Then using auto reminders move money from the bank sub account to the asset account.. This tracks your savings in the asset account, and "hides" it from the bank account.. Reconciliations are still fine as you exclude sub accounts... Works well..

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2. 2 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 05 Dec, 2024 02:32 PM

   

   One day, someone might write an extension to do this!!!
   😉

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3. 3 Posted by Colin Grant on 05 Dec, 2024 03:11 PM

   
   
   

   Colin

   
   

   Sent from my iPhone

   
   

   On 5 Dec 2024, at 14:32, Stuart Beesley (Mr Toolbox) <[email blocked]> wrote:
   
   

    pre { width: 92%; margin: 10px 2%; padding: 5px 2%; background: rgb(239, 239, 239); border: 1px solid rgb(214, 214, 214); } blockquote { margin-left: 0px; padding-left: 1em; border-left-width: 5px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); }

   // Please reply above this line ================================================== From: Stuart Beesley (Mr Toolbox) One day, someone might write an extension to do this!!! 😉 On Thu, Dec 05 at 06:32 AM PST, Stuart Beesley (Mr Toolbox) wrote: There is no UK bank sync (yet). However, most banks allow a OFX (preferred) or QIF download. MD imports these great.. You can achieve allocation of funds.. Simplistically, Create a sub account (called "... savings") under the real bank account... Create asset account(s) called "Savings for xxxx". Then using auto reminders move money from the bank sub account to the asset account.. This tracks your savings in the asset account, and "hides" it from the bank account.. Reconciliations are still fine as you exclude sub accounts... Works well..

   Having trouble reading this? View this discussion online: Coming from YNAB. Reply with #ignore to stop receiving notifications for this discussion.

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4. Support Staff 4 Posted by Maddy on 05 Dec, 2024 03:50 PM

   

   @Stuart

   Colin said:

   Thank you for this. One question, how do you deal with spending from those savings and subsequent bank recs?

   @Colin You should post your reply on this thread otherwise other users won't be able to see it.

   --
   Maddy, Infinite Kind Support

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5. 5 Posted by Stuart Beesley ... on 05 Dec, 2024 05:27 PM

   

   OK.. I don't spend directly from the savings 'accounts'. I spend directly in the bank account as normal... and then I simply go to my asset account for the saving and reduce the balance there by the same amount... Hence, reconciliation are always OK.. You just need to ensure you don't take your (fake) savings accounts below zero..

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6. 6 Posted by Colin Grant on 05 Dec, 2024 05:47 PM

   

   Ah, thanks. I thought it might be that. That would certainly work quite well and is a simple approach. I shall try it. I also wondered if there was a way to do something via a budget - sort of budget the savings to an expense account for future spending or not. The downside I guess is that you are stuck using the same category for every line of spending unless one plays silly games transferring between budgets.

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7. 7 Posted by Colin GrNt on 06 Dec, 2024 11:36 AM

   

   Going back to child accounts, I read somewhere that it is possible to have a child and parent account combined for reconciliation purposes. Is this so and if so how is it achieved?

   Thank you

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8. 8 Posted by dwg on 06 Dec, 2024 12:45 PM

   

   By clicking on the Include Sub accounts checkbox when you select to perform a reconciliation.

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9. 9 Posted by Colin Grant on 06 Dec, 2024 08:36 PM

   

   Thank you. That is a very useful function. What I don't like though is if you reconcile without ticking the box the rec includes one side of the transfer to the sub account, which to me seems flawed logic.

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10. 10 Posted by dwg on 06 Dec, 2024 10:04 PM

    

    Without that setting being checked you are only reconciling the transactions in one account.

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11. 11 Posted by Colin Grant on 06 Dec, 2024 11:19 PM

    

    Indeed but the transactions relating to the transfer from parent to child will never reconcile as they do not pass through the real bank account.

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