Budget progress information piecharts
I suddenly noticed little piecharts on some of my budget rows, I'm struggling to see what they are telling me, I've tried to find a reference in the Release Notes but cannot see it, can someone please point me in the right direction?
Thank you for your help.
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I think maybe you're talking about the icons related to goals, that show up beside the Available amount? They should show how far you are in reaching the goal related to the category.
I don't see them mentioned in the release notes either, maybe because it's being rolled out slowly to all users? Mine appears a couple of days ago but I've seen people mention them over a week ago. I'm liking them quite a bit for the "Target balance"-type goals, not sure yet about "monthly" goals (maybe because I have so many of them!).
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Coral Hammerhead
I've always been concerned about how YNAB tells me how much I am doing against my budget and these new icons just bring my concern to the fore.
I have a category with a Category Target Balance of £30. At the start of each month I budget enough to ensure I start with £30 available. This month I only had to budget £23.97 as I had £6.03 left from June. I have spent £21.21 so my available balance is correctly showing £8.79 (£21.21 + £8.79 = £30.00).
However, the little icon is showing me about a 1/3 complete, I assume this is £8.79 ÷£30.00 = 29.3% and the message tells me 'If you budget £23.97 each month, you will reach your £30.00 goal in 1 month.'
I do not understand the message as I have met my goal which is to have £30 available and so far I am spending within my budget.
I'm interested in the views of others and how they use this information.
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Hi iwaddo !
Sorry for the confusion here! Coral Hammerhead is correct about how those icons work.
The Target Available Balance goal is active anytime a category balance falls below the amount entered - it's not just for the month, but to prompt you to get to that amount anytime you fall below it. The new icon will show a pie chart to indicate how close you are to reaching the target (about 1/3 in the example you gave). It will show full at the moments when you have the entire $30 in that category.
We're collecting feedback on this new feature in this thread. Please let me know if you have any questions! :)
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Faness
I've always struggled with this, the little icons just bring it to my attention.
If I budget an amount up to £30 against a target of £30 to create an available amount of £30 and so long as the spent plus available adds up to £30 why is there any warning at all?
The warning implies I should keep topping up the budget to £30 even though I budgeted the target amount and I am still spending within it. I'd expect this category to be green and a complete piechart.
What is YNAB expecting me to actually do in these circumstances,?
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iwaddo
As near as I can tell, all the orange categories and icons approach giving you information from a standpoint of, you are on track for a goal or you need to budget more to a category to be on track for a goal. As you have noted, this can be a bit less than helpful in some circumstances.
The goal of Budget £30 wants you to actually *budget* £30 in the month. It doesn't count leftover money, so YNAB throws off a warning that you're under goal because you only budgeted up to a total of £30 and counted on the money that rolled over.
One might think that this could be corrected by using a goal of a £30 target category balance. One would think incorrectly. If I use a target category balance, YNAB is happy on the first of the month when I fund the category; then as soon as I spend anything, it throws off an under-budgeted warning because the balance is now less than £30.
The underlying problem is not the warnings. They are functioning as designed. The underlying problem is that the built-in goals are pretty basic, and can't handle common category management techniques like, "Top this category up to £30 at the beginning of each month," or, "Budget no more than £30 to this category, but stop budgeting when the Available reaches £100."
So far, I'm living with irrelevant warnings about goals, because none of the built in goals capture how I need to manage my most important categories. If more clutter of warnings is programmed in, I would consider deleting all the program-supported goals and going back to managing my categories the same way I did in YNAB 4.
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iwaddo That goal is for a minimum category balance, of sorts. For instance, let's say you have an insurance deductible of $500. If you set the Target Available Balance goal for $500, it will let you know how close you are to reaching that amount and having it sit in that category. If you ever fall below that amount, the icon changes to tell you the progress of that goal.
Target Available Balance goals are based solely on the Available balance. It doesn't take into account the Budgeted amount or the Activity amount - just the Available balance.
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Faness I have resolved my problem with the icons and warnings by removing all occurrences of the Target Category Balance from my budget. I really cannot see the value they add, I cannot see an example whereby I always want to be reminded to top-up a category in my budget to maintain an always Available balance as it feels like a never ending pot of money which always fills up!
Thank you for your help.
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