
"Pending Transactions" import feature breaking my budget
I have not posted in quite a while, but this new Pending Transactions feature is breaking my reconciliation process. I just sent the message below to the help email, but thought I'd share here and see if anyone has a similar experience.
It appears to be a new feature, so if not familiar here's the help topic: https://www.youneedabudget.com/pending-transactions/
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I just started my daily morning check/import of my bank transaction in YNAB. I found the new “Pending Transactions” feature and it seems to have completely broken my reconciliation process.
I have already, for years even before YNAB, had the habit of recording my pending transactions for exactly the reasons you seemed to have implemented this “feature.” Then when I download new transactions, generally the new posted transactions will match my entered transactions, be marked as cleared, and I click reconcile and am finished. Then I compare any of the few remaining pending transactions in my bank window with YNAB and add any missing transactions. Occasionally 1 or 2 transactions get to posted before I enter them, and they get pulled in accordingly. These are easy to spot and recognize. Repeat the next day.
Now I see three things:
- Some items that are in my “posted” window but not in YNAB have imported as “pending transactions” even though they have posted.
- Items that I have recorded in YNAB but are still pending in my bank are marked as matched, even though they have not yet posted.
- NOTHING is marked as “cleared” automatically, the most important benefit of the transaction download process.
Combined this has changed at most a few minutes of my day and made it into a manual chore that I was using YNAB to eliminate. I now have to evaluate each transaction to determine which is posted or pending and determine it’s cleared status. This used to be automatic.
I was hopeful when the help document had a section on if I don’t like it, but it appears all I can do is hide that section. I want to actively turn it off so my bank transactions come in as they used to. If that feature exits I cannot find it.
Generally I’ve like YNAB since the move to web and have adapted to many of the changes, but this fundamentally changes how transaction import works to a point where it is all but useless to me. Is there any way to turn this feature OFF!
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Hi all! There is trend in the thread, and I wanted to post a few quick updates:
Pending Transactions (Direct Import issue)When duplicate transactions are importing as cleared in your register (with the same, or different dates), it's an import issue with the bank connection. This could happen before, but it sounds like some bank integrations need adjusting and are adding to the confusion. We can help!
If you're seeing duplicates, grab a quick example and our importing team will get it sorted out. You can report a Bank Importing Issue here and they'll follow up via email shortly.
Pending Transactions (the feature) will show pending transactions in an account if the financial institution provides them. More details on the in's & out's here!
If they're an option for your bank, the pending transactions appear in a separate section, like this:
Transactions in this section won't impact your register. When you choose Enter Now to add them, you'll see a clock icon and they'll be uncleared.
We're using a measured release to keep a close eye on things as a feature rolls out. As we have news, the thread in Announcements will be updated! And of course, our team wants to know your feedback. Send us an email, or submit here. Thanks all!
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1. You can match pending transactions to existing pending transactions.
2. The transactions which have posted will download again once they have posted.
3. A pending transaction is just that; pending. It won’t import as cleared. When the transaction posts AND YNAB picks it up, it will download again as cleared. -
And a thought on your process...using import is to prevent having to look at your bank so often. I wouldn’t use both a manual reconciling process and direct import. That absolutely is double the work. Let import deal with your transaction clearing, and compare them to the bank less often, at the time when you actually mark your budget as reconciled.
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It does not appear to be working that way today. As I said.
Bank shows a transaction as posted, it imported as pending. This is incorrect. It should have been imported as a posted transaction and marked clearedOn another transaction I did not mention, I already recorded a transaction. It is no posted in the bank. Import should have matched and marked as reconciled. It did match it but did not flag as cleared.
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The items in green imported as cleared yesterday. The items in orange SHOULD have imported today. Those are dated 10/8. That seems to fit what you're saying about 24 hours. The items in yellow are still pending and I would expect to not have been imported at all before this.
Today, the yellow $300 item was previously entered and marked as matched but not cleared. That's overall fine, if the rest was working.
The $700 item in orange was previously entered. It was matched but not marked as cleared.
The $43.23 item was not previously entered in YNAB. It was imported as Pending but is not. Again, before today that would have been imported and marked as cleared. Transaction matching would have categorized it properly, and that did not happen either.
The top pending/yellow item wasn't even brought in as pending. That's my paycheck (why it's completely blacked out) and is a scheduled transaction.
I was expecting all the orange items to have been in YNAB, either matched or added if needed, and marked cleared. NOTHING was marked cleared, and how they were entered varied item by item. The difference between being marked Pending and Posted by my bank in the import process has been VERY consistent. Once it's posted, it's imported immediately.
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Sigh - OK....I was wrong. It works as intended and I jumped the gun. My error was with my original premise.
Yesterday was a busy day at work and I did NOT import my transactions as normal. So the transactions I imported this morning originally were the transactions waiting from yesterday.
Just a few minutes ago todays transaction imported and everything worked as expected.
And WordTenor I found the combination of manual and direct works well for me. I get real time look as I enter, but acknowledge I'm human and miss thinigs. Direct Import matching works great and auto marks items cleared, and catches things I miss. And because I do this every day the mismatches are minimal and easy to resolve.
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I haven't read through your entire dialogue here because holy moly. However, I do agree that this new pending transaction is causing confusion for me as well. I've been a YNAB user for years. I enter transactions and they show that they are already matched but not cleared. I'm assuming that this now means they are matched with the pending transaction but will then change to cleared when they actually post? Am I understanding correctly?
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2 Questions:
1) Some, but not all pending transactions show up with a "Pending" prefix in the name. If I match them and then edit to the real name, will the final cleared version still match?
2) When going to a restaurant, the tip doesn't usually show up until the transaction is cleared. So now I have the transaction twice. One with the "actual" amount that was manually entered and a "pending" version with a lower amount. How do I reconcile between these two?
Thank you.
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WordTenor said:
But with a pending transaction you want it exactly the other way--you want the match to take the manually entered transaction as the right one. So now you have to fiddle with the transaction instead of just matching it.That actually confused me as I believe it does match the user entered transaction amount.
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I’d also really like the option to turn off pending transactions. I manually enter and then match transactions when they clear through auto import. Having to interact with every transaction a third time not only adds significantly to the workload, but also makes it difficult to recall which of those “special transactions” that I’m trying to pay extra attention to haven’t yet cleared.
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Yes it has seemed to break mine as well. It will not even send my actual transactions. Before the update, I was working well. Then my transactions wouldn't import. so I followed directions and reset my bank. well now the whole thing is broken so I had to start all over again. It downloaded my old connection as subtracting it from the new.(same bank) Today I started all over and now it won't add my transactions. The same error. sorry it is taking longer then expected for transactions to import.
UGH
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When I first heard about this my understanding was that this was going to be an optional feature. It doesn't sound like that is the case, and that if your bank supports it, then you will have this extra "pending" section at the top of the screen next to scheduled transactions. A "feature" such as this should be optional, which is easily accomplished by adding a selection to the connection screen for each connection to include pending transactions if available. Again, I haven't seen this yet - and frankly don't want to - so if that is already the case then great. If not, then YNAB really needs to go back and think about this some more. There is a reason why we have a cleared balance at the top of the screen and a working balance. Cleared is for posted transactions - period. This should be completely optional and forcing it upon me may be the end of my relationship with YNAB.
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I'm having issues with this as well.
The pending transactions were imported and was auto-matched with my entries. Not conscious of this problem, I went ahead and approved them, creating a deficit when reconciling my account.
@dakinemaui unless it gets automatched. A user would naturally go to approve all matched transactions. Thinking it has cleared, because that's how Ynab used to work.
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I really hope that YNAB has hit the pause button on rolling this out because it seems like they are effectively forcing their customers to be beta testers of something that isn't ready for prime time. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, and I have to commend YNAB for actually listening and responding to my concerns about this. I just don't think that they have fully considered the level of change that this will force upon their customers.
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Yes, Pending transactions have made it harder for me. I went to import Chase and it is now out of sync and I can't for the life of me figure out the discrepancy between my account.
I have gone through the transactions a few times and they all match. At this point, I am about to make a Phantom transaction to make it sync up.
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Sure, I put in a transaction in YNAB. The next day it comes in as a pending transaction. The following day my Bank recognizes it as a transaction. The following Day, Ynab, once again recognizes it as a pending transaction. On the third day, the transaction is recognized as cleared by the bank and then I can reconcile it. Multiply this by every transaction over multiple accounts, and you have what I call Overuse of the Pending transaction.
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I am trying to wade through the numerous replies to this topic, but it is so far over my understanding. I have been a YNAB user since it was an excel file, first release.
The Pending Transactions feature is a nightmare for me. I DI my account transactions and the bank shows that they have cleared...days ago. My account will not be reconciled unless I enter those transactions as cleared, but yet, they sit in the pending line. Yes...I can move them to the cleared transactions, but then what is the point of the DI?
I am not a fan of the Pending Transaction feature. I kept quiet when it first came onboard so that I could give it a try. I have tried it and I feel as thought it is a failure. The bank has cleared the transaction. I have to fudge YNAB's interpretation of things in order to get my account reconciled. Doesn't this seem odd to the developers?
Other than this feature, I love my YNAB. Wish I could opt out of the Pending Transaction feature.
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WordTenor said:
Am I technically clicking one or two more bubbles every day?Would you please explore what happens when things are not approved (as would happen if that section were hidden)?
FWIW, my workflow is to not approve anything. Cleared transactions are auto-approved at reconciliation.