Available balance doesn't match actual balance
Hello, I have a cash on hand category that is larger than the cash I actually have on hand. I must have made a mistake when I input a transaction at some point. When I try to manually remove the amount to make it match I am left with a surplus in my "to be budgeted" is there any way I can reconcile this?
Thx
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There are two common ways to handle cash, but you seem to be doing a mix of the two (which doesn't work out very well):
- Create a cash/wallet account. You would not have a "Cash on hand" category. Instead, you categorize purchases to the relevant categories like Fast Food, Gas, Groceries, etc. Cash is simply a payment method, exactly like a debit card, writing a check, or swiping a credit card. This is the most flexible, as you don't record purchases until you actually know when and what category will be impacted.
- Do not have a cash/wallet account. You would have a Cash category (more precisely, "Pending Cash Withdrawal") that records an expense when you withdraw money, reducing that cash category. All subsequent cash purchases are "off-book" (not recorded in YNAB).
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dakinemaui thank you. I understand where I went wrong but how do I fix the budget? If I delete the category and keep a cash acct. I'll have an excess in to be budgeted.
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Spring Green Koala There is nothing wrong with the budget. Every category in the budget will be backed by cash in a budget account (checking/savings/wallet). You can shift funds between all of those with no impact to the intended purpose (category) of that same amount of money. Money is "fungible", meaning "interchangeable".
The Relationship Between Your Budget & Your Accounts
