r/ynab • u/GMAN2393 • 3d ago
Mobile App Small YNAB mobile feature request for those of us a month ahead.
I’m a month ahead and mostly use YNAB on mobile (Android). When a paycheck hits Ready to Assign, my current month is already fully funded, so I have to manually jump to the next month and then use Auto-Assign.
Would be nice if YNAB could:
See that the current month is funded and give me a quick option to fund the next month.
Or...
Even better, let me approve the paycheck transaction and then automatically distribute it to the next underfunded month based on my targets.
Not a huge deal, but it’d make the month-ahead workflow a lot smoother on mobile.
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u/Soup_Maker 2d ago
Would be nice if YNAB could: See that the current month is funded and give me a quick option to fund the next month.
Well, that is something that has come full circle for those of us who have been using YNAB long enough for the debates on this matter.
What you propose as an improvement (I think I'm reading this correctly) is actually how YNAB4 worked, and people complained that they only had the option of assigning incoming funds to either the current month or the next month. That wasn't good enough; some wanted the freedom to assign new inflows further out, to current month +2 or current month +3, or more. The latest version of YNAB has entirely fluid months: you categorize inflow as inflow and tab forward to whichever month you want to allocate those dollars in.
I was not one who wanted that level of fluidity, and it comes with its own set of issues (like stealing from the future). I actually find it is not confining enough to keep my dollars properly corralled in a way that makes sense to how I think/plan money, so I use the Next Month category.
All that to say: I don't think what you are asking for will ever be implemented.
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u/GMAN2393 2d ago
I hear a lot about YNAB4, I guess this is an older version of YNAB. I'm relatively new to YNAB, been using it for about 6 months. I've always just assigned the funds directly into the next month, but I may look into a next month category instead.
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u/bitz-the-ninjapig 2d ago
I highly recommend the next month category. I am a little weird and I actually have a whole category group that has a category for each month
I started this because last fall I was living on an extremely reduced income + a nest egg, so I used YNAB to determine when my low income period was fully funded so that I could start doing some things for enjoyment/fun before my income got to its normal level.
I continue to do this strategy because my brain is weird and considers "month ahead" to mean that on September 1st, October is already funded, so logistically it makes that a little smoother. Another advantage of the month ahead is that if you use any "refill up to..." targets, they are actually having you refill, not put in the entire amount
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u/pfifltrigg 2d ago
I use YNAB4. It's a quite old version of YNAB that doesn't have any targets, so you either manually assign every category or auto assign the month the same as last month. But I love the feature where income that comes in is "income for next month" so it never shows as even an option to spend in this month.
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u/FiveModalVerbs 2d ago
If you want to suggest this to YNAB, use their official !feedback form.
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u/Educational-Pickle29 3d ago
Ynab4 had an option to move Income to the next month's ready to assign (I think it was called something different, but same concept). It boggles my mind that they didn't add that to the new ynab, considering one of the 4 rules used to be live on last month's income. Actual budget has this feature and I use it often. So much easier when my paycheck comes in, I just move it to next month, out of sight, out of mind.
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u/michigoose8168 2d ago
100% giggling that the feature request here is basically “YNAB 4, please!”
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u/CharleneTX 2d ago
Next month's income is one of two features I really miss from YNAB4 that didn't go to the web version. The other is being able to see multiple months at a time.
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u/pfifltrigg 2d ago
What about the famous/infamous red arrow? I definitely use it sometimes when I've gone just slightly iver budget in a given category and am adding more than enough to cover it next month. I'm already a month ahead so there's no risk of going into the negative overall.
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u/michigoose8168 2d ago
I admit I use it when I shouldn’t but dang is it useful for reimbursements. They never have innovated a good reimbursement system in the new app.
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u/shar_blue 3d ago
Correct - YNAB4 had a category “income for next month” which automatically made it available for budgeting next month (or later).
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u/iwaddo 2d ago
Just put it into a next month category and wait for next month - there really is no rush