How do you "Sweep" under spent categories at the end of the month?
I have seen several people talk about sweeping categories. I understand the concept of sweeping the category, but I am brand new YNAB.
How do you actually "sweep" the category from one to another in the software? Do you just reduce the Budgeted amount by the under spent amount in that category and increase Budgeted amount to the category you want to move it to?
Also what happens if I don't sweep the under spent budgeted amount as it goes to the next month? For example if I have an auto repair category, where I am budgeting (setting aside) $50 per month but don't spend anything in January. When February comes, I will have another $50 budgeted to the category. How do I know/see that there is now $100 set aside for future auto repairs? Will the $50 rolled over from January automatically make the February Budgeted amount show $100 (Jan $50 + Feb $50)?
I hope this makes sense. Thanks for the help!
Jeremy
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JeremyB said:
Will the $50 rolled over from January automatically make the February Budgeted amount show $100 (Jan $50 + Feb $50)?Yes, when you don't use (all of) the money and you add another $50 to the same category than the Available column will show the (leftover) amount from the previous month plus the new amount from the current month - in your case, Available would show $100.
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JeremyB said:
How do you actually "sweep" the category from one to another in the software?Just click on the $ Amount in the Available column. This opens a popup window with a textbox Move: and dropdown box To: In the textbox you type in the amount you want to move (or leave it with the full amount if you want to move everything) and chose the account/category from the dropdown box that should receive the money. This way YNAB automatically reduces the current category and adds the money to the new category.
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GalleYNAB thank you for the clarification, I appreciate it. When you move the money from the Available column, does the Budgeted column remain the same, or does it change by the amount you sweep?
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JeremyB
JeremyB said:
When you move the money from the Available column, does the Budgeted column remain the same, or does it change by the amount you sweep?The amount budgeted for this month is reduced by the amount you move out of the category.
If you have a monthly contribution goal on the category, it can turn orange when you remove funds, notifying you that you have not met your goal for that category.
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HappyDance Perfect, thanks for clarifying!
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JeremyB
If you are sweeping to zero, there's a quick budget tool on the left hand side that can assist. Select the categories you want to sweep, then click on Set Available Amounts to 0.00
This will remove the remainder in each category selected back to TBB, after which you can allocate it to other priority categories.
I found sweeping handy in the early days of budgeting, when I had way more goals than I had money. I'm now transitioning to a budget-what-I-spent-last-month phase on all the categories I used to sweep. It kind of does the same thing, only the savings happens in the next month's budget.
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HappyDance That's helpful. Thanks!
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JeremyB said:
When you move the money from the Available column, does the Budgeted column remain the sameDon't be afraid to try these things out to become comfortable with the tool. The Undo button will put things back the way they were before.
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dakinemaui Good point. I was originally thinking in terms of, "what happens when the month changes", and since this is my first partial month some things I can't see until that happens. But you are right, moving available money is something I can play around with to see right now. Thanks.
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JeremyB Most of the budget is not tied to the passage of time in the real world. Scroll to next months area and bam, it's next month.
The ONLY exception is the Spending type Goal. I really wish they had implemented that the same way, as it currently makes planning for next month difficult.
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JeremyB Click forward to February now. What you see now is what you well see on February 1!!
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The Move Money Tool (clicking on the Available) works well when there's a single category to sweep, but doesn't scale well to multiple. For that, I like to empty all the categories (Quick Budget) and then increase the budget value of the destination (inline calculator).
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HappyDance said:
there's a quick budget tool on the left hand sideHmm. Mine is on my other left: the right. :)
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JoeDid
hahahahaha That's what happens when I haven't had my cup of coffee yet. 😄
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