
How can I force an update of my accounts?
Maybe I'm confused about how YNAB works (I'm a new user), but it seems that it works best when the spending data is being managed in real-time to give clear visibility to budget status. That's where I'm having an issue. It seems that there's some lag - maybe a couple of days - in terms of how accurate the YNAB transaction feed is. From what I was able to glean, it seems like YNAB updates only every 12 hours. I haven't been able to figure out how to force an update and get my most current transactions - for example, charges I made that day. Since I use my debit card/apple pay for almost everything, I usually have a lot of transactions and I find it hard to reconcile my accounts unless I don't touch my card for a couple of days (which is not practical). So my question is: can I force an update that will capture all the most current transactions from my bank? If the answer is no, do you have it on your product roadmap to enable this? I have tried a bunch of other budgeting and banking tools that can support this functionality.
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Powder Blue Inspector said:
MY issue is: how do I force an update of *cleared* transactions?You can't. I believe YNAB updates them twice a day on a schedule.
I usually have a lot of transactions and I find it hard to reconcile my accounts unless I don't touch my card for a couple of days (which is not practical).
You can reconcile at any time. No need to wait. But you might need to fill in cleared transactions from the account website manually that haven't direct imported yet. Or alternatively, if the website features a running balance, reconcile to your last cleared balance transaction in YNAB.
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Hey Powder Blue Inspector ! Welcome to You Need A Budget.
Our system checks for newly cleared transactions every night during a nightly refresh, and it also checks again when you log in, if it has been more than 8 hours since your last import. So, it is normal for transactions to sometimes not be immediately available to import, because the system may not have refreshed since those transactions cleared.
Your financial institution may hold a transaction as “pending” for a day or two, but once they are cleared/posted, they should be available to import in YNAB within 24 hours. In the web app, you’ll see a notification dot next to accounts that have transactions to import (or approve/categorize).Awareness of spending is a big part of why YNAB works and we're totally unique in that our method leans more heavily on active engagement. Entering transactions (try the mobile app) is a great way to keep things up to date. That way the power of your budget is in your hands instead of the banks’ schedule!
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Powder Blue Inspector said:
Lastly, I understand your point when you say that you rely on active user engagement. But this is technology in the 21st century, and to 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 mean, technology should make our lives less complicated, not more. I think it makes sense to pass the feedback to your product team that enabling a more real-time data model makes sense for users.I’m a big fan of technology. That being said, just because the technology exists doesn’t mean that the newest is always in the best interests of everyone. YNAB has a different philosophy regarding budgeting and being ‘intimately’ involved In the process. Part of that process entails entering transactions, either manually (the preferred YNAB method) or by linking your bank accounts. Prior to my YNAB experience, I always believed that more automated always meant better. I’ve since changed my mind. I try to manually enter all my transactions and then wait for the download to confirm them once they’ve cleared. Manually entering the transactions has made me acutely aware of what I spend, as I’m spending it, something I hadn’t given much thought to pre YNAB.
IMHO, having my transactions automated doesn’t make my life less complicated. Yes, it takes a few minutes to enter the transactions manually, but for me, and I suspect for many other YNABers, the process has a positive effect and is well worth the time.
I guess another way of saying it is that YNAB isn’t really about the latest and greatest in technology. I might be wrong but my sense is that their priorities lie in a different direction. Different strokes .................
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I'm trying to understand YNAB and it's philosophy and market niche, and how to make it work on a day to day basis (even after trying to make it work like it SEEMS it's supposed to work, for days...)
If we are all manually inputting data...what makes YNAB better than a plain spreadsheet or even paper and pencil? I'm sure I'm missing something but it SEEMS that if a person wanted to be "totally hands-on", etc, then again, what does YNAB offer that a spreadsheet or paper/pencil does not? Thanks...
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I've been using YNAB extensively since mid-2017, and I almost never enter things in manually. YNAB is generally really good about pulling data in. It seems to update a couple of times a day, usually I get a "imports available" notice in the morning. Each financial institution seems to take different amount of time to make them available, but never faster than a couple of days. The times I do make a manual entry is if I need something to appear in the budget immediately, and when I do, it always matches when the import comes in. Hope this helps. YNAB ROCKS!
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The other way to force a download is to do a file import. Open your budget and the ledger for the account you want, connect to your bank, export your transactions and drag the file to YNAB. It's more work than import via linked account but less than manual entry (if you don't do it at time of purchase).
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Nicole the desire to force a sync of cleared transactions would be nice (I'd pay more for it, especially if y'all are incurring a fee). When I'm traveling I generally have a lot of small transactions from a lot of sources quickly and I can't always get to my mobile app. I like to reconcile as soon as I see things clear and having to wait for a sync can be rather onerous.
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YNAB, please change your import function, to put imports in the hands of users. I'm not sure why you can't do this. Mint and Personal Capital do this. It's such a pain to have wait for your system to update and import. Sometimes the system will not import for 24 hours. You keep saying to manually import my transactions, but I don't want to. Why do you insist on conformity. I love your service except for this feature, but it's getting old having to deal with this.
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I agree with everything stated above. But this feature has seemed to be even more apparently needed since the switch to Plaid given the fact that most of my accounts only update once every 2 or 3 days now. Before I was able to get updates every 8 hours, but since the Plaid switch, I've been lucky to get once-a-day imports on most of my accounts. I also can't see a pattern to why certain accounts will update and others won't, even when I log off and on, refresh the browser, etc.
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I just found this thread after looking into this issue. I am fairly new to the product. I saw a charge come through for the Gap card my wife uses. Transaction was from 5/8. So I looked into how up to date some of my other accounts are. Everything else seemed good except my Amazon account. It hasn’t updated in 8 days. I have been putting all the transactions in, but I would expect updates to download much more often.
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Today, 8 of 18 accounts over 8 hours up to 1 day. But, more troubling is the balances of our retirement accounts aren't updating. We have 2 IRAs and a 401k. None of the balances have updated since the original account connection 4 days ago. Now I realize there has only been one business day since then but if it update 9 hours ago (this morning) why don't any of them have yesterday's balance. The good news is all the other accounts have the correct balance. I really like this software and am hoping for reliability.
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I already do that in Excel with all kinds of analysis, I'm looking for real time data. I'm simply reacting to statements that say the accounts update every 8 hours. I have incredible Excel sheets that I improved every week for a year for budgeting, retirement accounts and credit scores. I'm tired of manual entry and am seeking automation. It's the future. That said, I've tried several products and I really like YNAB's approach. Obviously YNAB owes me nothing so if it doesn't work for me I will move on or stick with Excel. I will say however, I'm amazed that Intuit's free software Mint reliably updates all 19 of my accounts daily (includes Capital One) and even posts the value of my home and two cars which of course is important to posting your net worth. Intuit's Quicken is terribly unreliable and their support is even worse. So, I'm not trying to be difficult I just want YNAB to say it's not reliably updated every 8 hours or support it. But, I have no interest in manual entry so if that's the product, it's not for me.
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Here's the problem with the stance YNAB has taken as a company: it casts a shadow of doubt over the data. You can't trust the sacred "To be Budgeted" balance. Even if you are a person who religiously enters transactions manually, there are times when you are under pressure (time or circumstances, etc.) and miss doing it.
Don't download the transactions for us. Give us a button to push. We will gladly wait 2-3 minutes for the download to finish, THEN we know we have it all - and we can trust what we have. I am transitioning from Quicken, and I always begin my session by downloading the transactions. As a result, I always know I have to work with.
I vote that you give us the update button to push. Let us decide when to do it. It will not take more computer resources. I do not update every day. You waste lots of computer resources by updating every account every night. Consider how great the savings would be if we only update once or twice a week!!!
C Whiting
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Apparently you can't trust the connection info. My 3 retirement account all say they are updated but as you can read above they never will after the first balance pull. I can live with that and update it once a month manually but the software saying they are updated is wrong. I mean you really can't get your net worth without them. I also added 2 cars and my home just to have accurate net worth.
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I get, and like many, am totally annoyed with the autoimporting frequency and issues... I have opened several support tickets over the last couple of years, and while the support folks have always been attentive and professional - the root remains...
My current issue is really a branch; if I manually download transactions, the matching algorithm rarely works once the auto-transactions download! Means I'm spending extra time finding duplicates and deleting. I'd love a way..button..etc that would let me select and match two transactions...or for the YNAB folks to take another run at improvements to the matching algorithm...
Thanks!