YNAB is confusing the heck out of me

[Green Tea]

Its not the principles and philosophy that is getting me, it is the actual mechanics of the program. I can not for the life of me actually figure out how to enter the basic information. Following the Getting Started thing, I have entered checking accounts, and under the automatic withdraw area I entered my budgeted amounts for monthly bills, but when I return to My Budget, the categories all say 0. I click the 0 to enter an amount....it isn't a hot link. How the heck do I actually enter the basics.


So far I am actually not impressed with the software. The ideas are good but the actual intuitiveness of the program is awful.

Please help.

 

[pryncess527]

Its not the principles and philosophy that is getting me, it is the actual mechanics of the program. I can not for the life of me actually figure out how to enter the basic information. Following the Getting Started thing, I have entered checking accounts, and under the automatic withdraw area I entered my budgeted amounts for monthly bills, but when I return to My Budget, the categories all say 0. I click the 0 to enter an amount....it isn't a hot link. How the heck do I actually enter the basics.

So far I am actually not impressed with the software. The ideas are good but the actual intuitiveness of the program is awful.

Please help.

Hmm, I'm not sure that I completely understand your issue, but I will try to help.

There are two parts to the budget. Entering your actual transactions in the checking account found under the budget accounts part. And then entering how much you plan to spend in the budget screen. It sounds like you might have entered your transactions but have not actually budgeted for your categories?

I might also suggest you try posting over on the forums, they are much more knowledgeable there then I am

http://forum.youneedabudget.com/discussions

 

[RitaE]

When you say the "Automatic Withdraw" area do you mean the Scheduled Transactions? If so, that is not your budget. That is just a place to enter regular recurring transactions and then the software will remind you to enter them in your ledger when they are due.

To enter your Budget Choose "Budget" on the far left. Then you need to set-up your various categories in the Column that says "Categories." Then you enter your budget amounts by clicking in the box under the "Budgeted" column and entering your amount.

Remember the YNAB software is designed that you are only supposed to budget for money that you have already received. There are several video tutorials on the website that explain different ways to handle this until you build an appropriate cushion or if you decide that you don't want to build up a cushion. You can find them here:

http://www.youneedabudget.com/support

 

[hollypoast]

Its not the principles and philosophy that is getting me, it is the actual mechanics of the program. I can not for the life of me actually figure out how to enter the basic information. Following the Getting Started thing, I have entered checking accounts, and under the automatic withdraw area I entered my budgeted amounts for monthly bills, but when I return to My Budget, the categories all say 0. I click the 0 to enter an amount....it isn't a hot link. How the heck do I actually enter the basics.

So far I am actually not impressed with the software. The ideas are good but the actual intuitiveness of the program is awful.

Please help.

Watching the videos really helped me. There is no way I would have figured it out from the simple walk through. Good luck.