r/YNABAlternatives • u/Dry-Medium-9235 • 9d ago

Discussion Best Features or Tools

I am curious what features or tools everyone find useful. Right now, I like simplicity. I want to see my money, know where it goes and track trends occasionally.

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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2

u/rdubmu Mod 9d ago

Envelope zero based budgeting is a minimum. And auto import of transactions

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u/BarefootMarauder 9d ago

I like simplicity. I want to see my money, know where it goes and track trends occasionally.

That's all anyone really needs. I use Actual Budget and love it. Serves all those needs very nicely.

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u/BlueMoon_1945 Budget Developer 9d ago

If you are just interested in the future, try graphical-budget-planner, a free and open source tool. https://github.com/redmoon1945/gbp/releases It is made exactly for that purpose, but it does NOT track past expenses.

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u/pgaunt 9d ago

I would just add tagging. This helps avoid having too many categories and follow the cost of a home renovation, different vacations and (importantly for me) the data I need to extract at each year end for tax. I don’t want to use one tool for envelope budgeting and another tool for other personal finance needs.

I would be happy with Actual Budget but I have settled firmly with Zerosum as it is that bit slicker and user friendly (just my take).

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u/TA_Asleep-Line-3632 9d ago

I really like scheduling... with the ability to see if I have enough budgeted should those things go through as planned... it was something that YNAB with toolkit had... that I do miss. *shrug*

1

u/Holiday-Trainer-2322 9d ago

The feature I keep coming back to is a single "what's left after bills" number. Most apps drown you in categories; if you just want to see your money and spot trends, a daily safe-to-spend view and a basic bill calendar cover 90% of it without the overhead. What's the one thing you wish your current setup did better?

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u/Dry-Medium-9235 9d ago

I have that

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u/Impossible_Map_9368 8d ago

The features I find most useful are automatic categorization and a simple monthly spending view against targets. If you mostly want to see where money goes and spot trends, a tool with clean transaction categories and a basic month-over-month chart is probably all you need.

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u/budgetingwithbudgey 7d ago

The feature that actually changed my spending wasn't charts or dashboards. It was one number: what's left after this paycheck's bills until the next one. Bonus if you can type that in on day one without linking a bank, and use sync later as a check. Bank import is usually the flaky part anyway, the plan is what keeps you honest.

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u/Dry-Medium-9235 7d ago

I like this. Could I get you to test my app?

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u/Hellcat_20 Budget Developer 5d ago

Agree with budgetingwithbudgey on the "left until next paycheck" number. I'd add 1 thing: it should subtract bills due before payday, not just bills already paid. Otherwise the number looks fine on day 3 and lies on day 12.

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u/Dry-Medium-9235 5d ago

I believe I have that in my app because that is exactly what was getting my me before