Separating Business from Personal Budget
I searched for an answer but couldn't seem to find what I need.
I started YNAB with my business and personal combined, but it's getting hard for me to see what's actually where. Is that extra money budgeted for my insurance in my business or personal checking??
So....I want to start over with two different budgets. What's the best/easiest way to accomplish this. It doesn't look like a fresh start will work since all of the categories and linked bank accounts will carry over.
Should I just unlink all of my accounts and then create two new budgets? I only started with YNAB about a month ago, so redoing everything wouldn't be that big of a pain.
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If you are only a month or so in, I would definitely suggest starting two brand new budgets - one for business, one for personal.
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Yes, I think it will be worth a little bit of time to set them up as separate budgets.
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I would recommend separating your business and personal bank accounts as well. Then it will be easier to keep money separate.
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Alice Blue Door Those are already separate, including the CC's I use for personal and business. My issue was just with the combined everything budget.
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Hey Duschinka, you seem to be on the right track thinking about separating your budgets. I also started with a combined business/personal budget and it got sticky quickly. I created a new account for my business and linked only my businesses there. This gave the business budget a completely fresh start. The other budget I turned into my personal budget and did a "fresh start" on it. Best descision I could have made. I'd highly recommend it for peace of mind and ease of use. Easy to keep straight and will allow you to have the right budget items for business and personal asthey tend to be different.
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I did the two new budgets thing, and it was easier to set up than I had thought it would be. I'm very happy with the separation! So much easier to know what part of the budget is "mine" and which one is for the business!
Thanks for all of the suggestions!
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Glad to hear this went so well. I'm actually in the process of doing this right now, so it's inspiring to hear of others doing it too. Have you seen this video about using the profit first method in your small business ynab budget? I found it mind-blowing and am implementing that, too!
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You need to start with separate accounts for you business and personal life, then you can separate out the budgets.
I highly recommend you check out Profit First budgeting for businesses. I was using it for my Airbnb business to much success, until Covid hit and I decided renting a room in my house wasn't worth the risk anymore.
