Powder Blue Inspector Not mocking, being totally sincere: you're gonna have to look for something else. YNAB is designed for manual entry with direct import being a safety net at best to aid in reconciliation (that's the official stance of the company). The expectation is that you will manually enter transactions as you go and then use either direct import or file based import as a back-up.

Transactions that are cleared (truly cleared, not pending and not post dated) at the bank come in usually first thing in the morning, and then about 8 hours later. Sometimes delayed. You cannot force it to happen. You can also pull a file from your bank and import the file, which is actually a pretty quick alternative.

If you want YNAB to bring all your transactions in for you, you're gonna be disappointed in the speed and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Tobias "YNAB is designed for manual entry with direct import being a safety net at best"

This is not the impression I get from either support or their training material. Are you with YNAB?

Vermont Mom No, anyone who is official YNAB support will have that in their display name.

To be fair, you're responding to a post from almost a year ago before pending transactions started coming through direct import. At the time, what you quoted was a word-for-word response that support would say often when questions about the speed of importing came up.

And for what it's worth, I still agree with the point. Manual entry with import backup is, in my opinion, the best way to use YNAB.

Tobias Manual (immediate and ongoing by habit) is best. But I would not call import "backup". No one in support ever tried to convince me that import was not useful or reliable.

Vermont Mom Backup as in to catch transactions you may have missed through manual entry. And the reliability of import 100% depends on your bank. It is very much a YMMV type of feature. Seems to be getting better, but at the time of this original post it was probably at its worst and relying on it 100% would lead to budgets being potentially inaccurate for periods of time while waiting for transactions to come over.

Tobias I just want to argue the other side.  I have been using and enjoying YNAB for about 2.5 years, and I have never once manually entered a transaction.  YNAB reliably imports all of my transactions the morning after it appears on my credit union's website.  If you're a wild and rapid spender, this one-day lag might be a problem for you.  But if you're like the rest of us, this is not a problem, and it saves the time and headache of manually entering every. single. transaction.

Sky Blue Nomad I honestly have no idea what you're even trying to say here. What opinion do ya'll think I have here? Use the program the way it works for you. There is a way I believe is the best way to use it. I have an opinion. I don't even know if my opinion differs from yours because I have no idea what you're trying to argue here.

Tobias I wasn't trying to offend.  You had responded (albeit a year ago) that the OP would have to find a different software if they didn't want to manually enter transactions and that the direct import is a safety net "at best".  I was simply saying that I'm a perfectly happy YNAB user that never manually enters and that the import function is consistent and reliable.  I wanted to "argue" this side just in case there are others, like the OP and myself, that would not use YNAB if they had to manually enter transactions in order to effectively use the software.

Powder Blue Inspector I recommend you use one of those other apps that does what you want.  YNAB is not going to do it .  

Hi Powder Blue Inspector !

We say within 24 hours because cleared transactions should import during the nightly refresh or the next time you log in (if it's been more than 8 hours since your last import). So, let's say the nightly refresh takes place at 5am, but your bank doesn't clear transactions until weekdays at 8am, those transactions should import anytime you log in after 1pm. Hiccups with direct import aren't uncommon, unfortunately, so we always leave space for delays or errors.

As for using MFA, some accounts are still able to automatically update. For those that need further authentication, you'll be prompted to re-authenticate your account when you login and transactions will import after that.

There will always be somewhat of a delay because we don't import pending transactions, which doesn't allow for real-time imports. And, since most banks only clear transactions once a day, increasing the import schedule isn't likely to bring in more transactions. We know this is can take some getting used to, but we hope you'll give it a fair try!

Powder Blue Inspector "justify how your product works by saying that users *should* be engaged enough to actually manually enter their transactions seems short-sighted and not scalable in the market"

I feel you. For ME, since the delay on a transaction from the bank occurs anyway, I decided to get ok with the delay in ynab having transactions for import since I want real time understanding of my spending anyway. What I mean by this. Let's say I order from amazon. I have spent x dollars on household stuff. If I don't enter that transaction immediately, it may not import for 1 to 2 days due to delay with bank. (Side note about amazon, I find it WAY easier to enter transactions right away since from MY perspective clicking BUY once yields possible multiple xactions in the register if there are different sellers). If I wait until the xaction shows up in my register, I will long since forgotten what was what. Yes, even after a day.) So in that 1 or 2 days, I do not have the info I need to decide if I still have money in that category. I find opening my phone and adding a transaction as I go to be vastly easier. In fact, this "engagement" is very helpful to me. 

That is ME. And the reason I choose this is that I really don't like the other tools which may (or do) have immediate import. Quicken, for instance, is by far my least favorite budgeting tool. EveryDollar was ok. But not as good. So for me, the ease of use of YNAB is preferable to the other products I have tried.

So I think it is a matter of what product is right for you? 

KnitPurlKnit I agree, it's all about balance, like much of life.  Sorry, but technology will never uncomplicate our lives.  That only sounds great in theory.  It's just a tool.  When I was in college I learned to use the little paper register that came with my first checkbook.  Didn't quite get the reconciliation part yet, but at least jotted down each check.  Then I discovered I could type it in something called Quicken instead (you mean it's not just made for old men on underpowered grey computers??).  I still have that entire transaction history, all typed in myself.  I do plenty of auto importing, and plenty of manual adjustments because I'm a big fan of ACCURACY and CONTROL.  I find I can only attain both those things using a blend of technology and human labor.  There's a synergistic effect which far surpasses what either can do alone.

wsalopek YNAB literally started as a spreadsheet. What you see now is just an evolution of that spreadsheet. And the spreadsheet was just a version of envelope budgeting which has existed for decades.

So yes, you could do all of this manually and if that works for you, go for it.

jenmas So in your opinion, what about YNAB is better than spreadsheets and envelopes?  That's the opinion/advice I need.  Thanks...

wsalopek It’s better because I don’t have time to build a spreadsheet that will handle my 3 checking 3 savings, 4 CD, 3 cash, 5 credit card, and 1 IBond accounts all on budget plus my 67+ categories. With geo tagging in the mobile app so I don’t have to type in payees when I’m on the go. That handles my 30+ scheduled transactions. That locks transactions after reconciliation so I don’t have to deal with them. Now in fairness, I am grandfathered into an older lower price and that definitely makes a difference. 

Hi Gold Sloth !

Thank you for sharing your feedback here! :)

Currently, we check for cleared transactions every morning and when you log in (if it's been more than 8 hours since the last import). We don't have an on demand option for a number of reasons - most banks only clear transactions once a day, so checking multiple times a day wouldn't bring in more transactions. Banks also tend to lock accounts if they receive too many requests. Our current schedule is meant to balance out not making bank requests too often while still catching cleared transactions without too much of a delay. 

We know direct import isn't perfect and we're working on ways to improve here. We appreciate you sharing your thoughts!

Faness While I see that "checking too often" can be problematic, certainly no practical user is going to hit "refresh" over and over and over and over and over...I just want to hit refresh maybe once or twice per day...so I can work on my budget RIGHT THEN...instead of having to remember to keep checking the website till finally (and seemingly randomly) transactions are ready to import.

Hi Lavender Pony !

I completely understand what you mean. Todd, our CPO, went over this particular issue and our hope for improvement in this forum thread. We do want to improve getting those transactions to you when you want them, but it's going to be a continuous journey and not something we expect to have an immediate fix for. 

Purple Cup This is the most obnoxious thing I've ever read. That's not how "service" works.

Gold Stallion Well said!
I hope the devs at YNAB actually listen to their PAYING users, otherwise, I'm staying with Mint.

Hi Gold Stallion !

Todd, our CPO, touched on this topic briefly in our Changes to Direct Import thread. This isn't something currently on our roadmap, but it could still take place in the future and you can submit a Feature Request to let our Product Team know you'd like to see it! :)

Cyan Saxophone I’ve been experiencing the same issues. It worked fine when I started in February, if occasionally a little delayed. Suddenly, I started having issues with my Discover accounts (2 of my 4 accounts) to the point that I just unlinked them and haven’t tried again in awhile. Every time I tried to link those accounts, I got fraud alerts and would have to work it out with Discover. Not worth the hassle. Now my other two accounts (Chase and BBVA) are so, so slow to update. I just checked my budget and FINALLY had more than a dozen transactions pending approval. It was all my transactions from May 14 to today. Luckily I put everything in manually, but, if I didn’t, my budget would have been off by nearly 20% of my net worth. I don’t mind putting everything in manually, but I do expect it to sync up AT LEAST once a day. Otherwise, why bother with linking accounts?

EP Precisely! I have linked accounts from a majority of the major banks and credit card issuers in both the US and Canada and all are having problems. I'm having the regular connection issues with Capital One and Discover, but never had more than a 10-hour wait to update or import CLEARED transactions from my bank accounts. I add them manually, but I am not understanding why it all of a sudden is taking 3-6 times longer than the normal "every 8 hours" timeline that is supposed to be in place for direct imports. The only thing I am seeing is that is seemed to begin slowing down immensely soon after the Plaid switch, but has only gotten worse and slower as time goes on and not better.

For example, I currently 24 have linked accounts that have not direct imported in the last 24 hours with 13 of those having not direct imported in the last 2+ days. I have accounts from issuers (e.g. AMEX) that updated 4 hours ago and other accounts from the same issuer that have updated in over four days. The accounts are under the same login with AMEX but only one of the accounts transactions have imported? This has nothing to do with pending and cleared transactions either, it is all about the little checkmark next to each account and the popup that tells me the connection status and "last updated" timeframe.

It just isn't making sense anymore. It used to be refresh after 8 hours and another update will come in. Now it's, refresh after 8 hours and pray something updates...when it doesn't refresh again...and keep trying until something refreshes randomly. I don't know what is going on but this has been an unbelievably annoying shift in functionality and predictability.

I don't know if anyone else is experiencing this newfound inconsistent and overbearing delay?

Hi Cyan Saxophone and EP !

Sorry for the troubles! If you report a Bank Importing Issue, our Direct Import Team can take a closer look at the delays you're seeing. I just checked my personal accounts and the longest delay I'm seeing is 13 hours ago, but that's from an account that updated yesterday evening and should update sometime today.

Faness thanks for the response! I reported my issue with BBVA. To be fair, I only have transactions 2-3 times/month on my Chase account, so I can't say whether or not that's having consistent issues - didn't report it, will monitor it more closely. I do know my last transaction took 5 days to show up in YNAB, but I'm not certain exactly how frequently that happens. I'll keep closer tabs on it in the future. I didn't bother reporting my Discover issues, as that seems to be pretty widespread/well-known, from what I can tell. 

I really hope this is prioritized. While I will probably continue to manually input transactions until I'm too old to see the computer screen, I am a very forgetful person and like to build fail-safes into my life. If I depend on YNAB as a fail-safe, I really need it to work consistently!

Cyan Saxophone holy smokes. Accounts on the SAME log-in aren't working at the same time? That's so frustrating! All my transactions are cleared, as well, but they take 3-5 days to show up in YNAB at this point... I read through a few other threads on this topic, including the explanation from YNAB as to why direct import takes longer than it used to. I totally understand the need to deal with issues on the bank's side, the need to space out imports a bit so as not to overload servers, the delay that (sometimes?) occurs over weekends - but 5 days is beyond any of that, as are the issues you're having across multiple banks/credit card issuers. Same with the long-lasting Discover issues. I love YNAB, despite this, but if it's going to be a feature I ever use, I need it to work consistently and accurately. If it's not reliable, I might as well unlink my accounts, so I don't get used to having a fail-safe that I can't rely on.

Forest Green Koala Can you report a Bank Importing Issue for that Chase account? Our team would be happy to look into those missing transactions. Some banks may hold transactions for a few days (like over the weekend), but once they're posted—I'd expect them within 24 hours.

Hi Slate Blue Yearling !

While manually refreshing accounts isn't an option, accounts should automatically update each morning, or when you log into your account (if it has been more than 8 hours since the last refresh). If you're seeing a delay longer than that, please report a Bank Importing Issue so our Direct Import Team can take a closer look at what's going on with your accounts. :)

Slate Blue Yearling I have 8 linked accounts and they're all under 7 hours. Every time I look, they're always less than 8 hours.

Slate Blue Yearling FYI, it's not recommended to use direct import for retirement accounts. It does not work very well. Instead, most of us update the balance once a month or at your desired schedule.

Slate Blue Yearling With investment accounts, we expect the starting balance to be pulled in—but transactions in the retirement accounts won't import beyond that. These accounts typically have a cash position, and the data is reported differently than a checking account. Transactions that are reported to us are the last transaction to hit that cash position. A quick example:

Let's say you make a 401k contribution, that amount is first used to purchase cash in your 401k account, and then that cash position is sold (an outflow) to buy funds. Your bank reports that cash outflow transaction to us, when of course you’d expect to see an inflow.

We are looking to make improvements here for the future! I like to handle Tracking Accounts by creating a Scheduled Transaction to show regular contributions or payments, then update the account balance like this monthly. I hope you'll give it a try!

Slate Blue Yearling YNAB is a budgeting app first and foremost. Like I said, direct import doesn't work well with retirement accounts so you'll have to look elsewhere. Have you tried Personal Capital?

I'm surprised that you are amazed by Intuit's ability to direct import. They've been doing direct import for how long? 30 years? More? They have the connections and work directly with a lot of banks while YNAB is new to the direct import game and works with a few 3rd party direct importers.

Of course, you get what you pay for with Mint. They sell your information.

Tan Horse i would like to be able to pull transactions when i want but i can fully 100% trust my sacred "To be Budgeted" balance 

Herman I can even tell you what mine is 99% of the time without even looking: $0.

Hey Tan Horse ! While we do check for transactions at certain intervals, clicking or tapping the import banner is a manual trigger for that automatic process. You have the control of when those transactions are visible in your register. 

I hope you'll take a moment to submit your suggestions to our product team with a Feature Request, if you haven't already!

Nicole This is not accurate.  Clicking the import banner only pulls the transactions already imported into the register. Unless you have changed something, it does not trigger the import. 

Nicole Nicole that is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE.

- Bill

Herman Lavender Pony There are two parts:

• The automatic intervals where we check for transactions—overnight, and again when you log in, if it has been more than 8 hours since the last import.
• The trigger to make transactions visible in the register is clicking the import banner.

This thread is mainly requesting on-demand imports, but interpreted the message above that Tan Horse was concerned that transactions appeared in the register automatically. If I misunderstood Tan Horse , please let me know! 

Cornflower Blue Banjo We're happy to check on that Capital One connection! When you have a chance, can you report a Bank Importing Issue here? Our importing team will investigate. 🙂

Slate Blue Yearling yeah it worked until the switch to plaid, which broke it

Note that I have "unliked" and "relinked" and no update occur (checking for the past 10 days now); this is a little ridiculous I must say

Gray Disk Thanks for writing in via email! It looks like one of my colleagues had a few questions about those connections. Go ahead and reply there, so they can get the ball rolling!

Purple Flute Are you using a combination of File-Based and Direct Import? If you compare the dates in the downloaded file to the ones imported from your bank, are they the same—or different? 

Nicole Correct — I use file-based and direct import — all transaction have cleared, but the date often appears differently by a day or two. 
cibc in Canada. 
 

Hi Purple Flute !

You can manually match an imported transaction (via Direct Import or File-Based Importing) with an entered transaction. That goes for a single imported transaction (usually cleared, with a green "C") with a single manually entered transaction (usually with a gray "C").

If you use File Based Importing and Direct Import, any previously imported transactions should be skipped. However, if the dates are different that can cause duplicates. It sounds like the transaction files provided by your bank might use the transaction date (the day the transaction takes place) while direct import uses the posting date (the day the transaction clears your bank). Unfortunately, there isn't a way to change which date is used by the selected import method, but if you think something else is going on there, let us know and we can take a closer look! :)