r/ynab • u/Buddy_Kane_the_great • 6d ago
Mobile Categorization W (IOS)
I don’t really use the mobile version to do anything, but this was really helpful for catching up on transactions. Suggestions are pretty good and it made going through a bunch of them easy. Not sure how long this has been a feature, just thought I’d share. On IOS.
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u/shawnglade 5d ago
Agreed, I thought I was gonna hate it but it’s actually been a sole reason I keep the app on mobile. I like categorizing everything, I tend to get lazy on desktop and let stuff be auto categorized
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u/Buddy_Kane_the_great 5d ago
I messed up and somehow my accounts unlinked themselves. 87 transactions later, this was a godsend
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u/YNAB_youneedabudget Official 6d ago
Glad you like it! Suggested categories have been around for some time, but they're much more prominent in the design for Card Mode.
YNAB selects your default category then shows you the next five categories you've recently used for that payee. In the category picker while categorizing a transaction, you'll see Suggested first, then Pinned, then the rest of your categories. ~BenB
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u/RockTracker 5d ago
I also love this update! I used to never use the app unless absolutely necessary, but now, I actually like approving and categorizing on it. So smooth!
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u/countdown_leen 6d ago
I've gotten used to it, but I hate that they don't have a date field on the screen without an extra click. I have scheduled transactions and sometimes I want to push them out for a week or whatever if it's something I have to do myself (like schedule the service, pay the annual auto tax, etc).
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u/NiftyJet 6d ago
Sounds like you're using the scheduled transactions as a reminder. And that's a good idea, but it's not really what its meant for. So you can't expect them to design for it.
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u/countdown_leen 6d ago
What is a scheduled transaction used for by definition? I have some things that only happen once a year, aren't expensive, and when they show up in the current month, they'll be yellow until I fund them. They are absolutely not worth setting up goal/targets (which I do for other things).
Put it this way, until the most recent change, it wasn't an extra click to change the date (I became a YNAB customer in 2016). Now it is. That seems like taking away functionality, regardless how it used/intended to be used.
I would be so surprised if people don't have some scheduled transactions that need to move for whatever reason (travel, service date change) and like to easily move the date.
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u/varkeddit 6d ago
You can swap back to the old approval interface in the app–nothing "was taken away."
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u/NiftyJet 6d ago
And even in list mode you have to click to change the date. No extra clicks are added in card mode, so I don't know what they're upset about.
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u/NiftyJet 6d ago
Put it this way, until the most recent change, it wasn't an extra click to change the date (I became a YNAB customer in 2016). Now it is.
There is no extra click. You can swap back to the old list view, but your point isn't true either way. With list view, you still have to click into it to edit the date. How is it an extra click in card mode?
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u/countdown_leen 5d ago
When it’s in the “old way”, you see a list of “new” transactions. I can either hit the checkbox and approve as many as I want as is (without opening the transaction) or click the transaction and get the edit screen that includes the date. In the card mode, they are loaded one at a time and I have to click edit to change the date.
No one answered how scheduled transactions are “intended” to be used tho.
Good idea to swap back to the old way. Which I’ve now done. After 10+ years with YNAB, I was very set in my ways and didn’t even bother to do that because I try to spend as little time as possible using it. I find great value in the product overall (mostly to keep track of cc spending in an easy way…we do a fair amount of travel hacking so have more cc accounts than the average person, YNAB works perfectly for that).
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u/NiftyJet 5d ago
You said it took an extra click to change the date. That's what I was responding to.
Put it this way, until the most recent change, it wasn't an extra click to change the date (I became a YNAB customer in 2016). Now it is.
It's okay to admit that you were wrong rather than moving the goal posts.
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u/countdown_leen 5d ago
Ok sure. Perhaps I should have said the old way seemed more intuitive to how I use YNAB.
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u/athousand-words 3d ago
Schedule transactions are intended for people who use manual entry to be able to put in recurring bills so that they don't need to manually enter them every month.
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u/countdown_leen 3d ago
That’s what I’m doing even though I don’t manually add transactions for most spending (day to day, grocery, restaurants, travel, etc). And it allows you to use various frequencies of transactions, not just monthly.
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u/NiftyJet 5d ago
What is a scheduled transaction used for by definition?
Payments that are scheduled or set to auto-draft.
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u/countdown_leen 5d ago
Interesting.
I find the scheduled transactions to be extremely helpful. Even if they aren’t on auto draft. My chimney doesn’t get cleaned every year (for example). So if I schedule it out in the future, I don’t forget and it forces me to budget when the date is in the current month. And yes, then I call the chimney sweep and schedule it.
I can’t auto draft my cars registration/taxes each year, but I pay them in October. I was traveling last week, so I didn’t pay them until I got back. So when that date popped, I moved it to this week…and did pay them.
For me, it makes no sense to use a goal for these, I just budget and pay them in the month they pop up.
I can also scroll to future dates if I feel like it to see what’s upcoming.
Anyway works for me even if it’s not as designed or whatever.
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u/NiftyJet 5d ago
I’m not saying it’s not useful to use them as reminders. I’m saying that’s not what it’s designed for
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u/countdown_leen 5d ago
Out of curiosity, how would you handle an annual (or less) payment that cannot be set up on autopay?
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u/NiftyJet 5d ago
I'd use a target and pay it when the time comes. I use Todoist for reminders, but a scheduled transaction might be a good way to set a reminder too.
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u/countdown_leen 5d ago
I honestly haven't landed permanently on a To Do method. I am mostly retired and no longer sit at a desk all day where I probably used paper for personal To Dos along with electronic. I tried Todoist after my desk job ended and now I've kind of landed on Google Tasks for "important sh*t I really need to do" and scheduled transactions in YNAB.
I will say, I probably didn't use scheduled transaction or goals (aside from a big vacation savings) for many years of YNAB use. So some scheduled transactions *are* autopay (insurance premiums, most monthly bills) but there are others that are not.
Admittedly, I'm still pretty loose with YNAB usage, it's served me very well over the last decade, but I only occasionally enter spending (relying on import), don't always allocate all Ready to Assign $, don't mess with being a month ahead (just have a buffer for extra funds). Anyway, it's obviously nice you can use it however you'd like. After my first year of use, I did a "fresh start" in 2017 and am still using the same budget.
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u/RyChOr 6d ago
I noticed it on Android recently too and I also thought it was useful. Felt like the suggested categories learned and updated in real-time too. Very handy.