Linking your bank and credit card accounts to YNAB can make it very easy to keep up with your transactions. They’re entered for you; all you have to do is categorize, recategorize or approve each transaction.
But sometimes the direct import link breaks. And when it does, you need to pay attention. Recently I’ve had two clients who didn’t do anything when their link broke, which meant that dozens of transactions weren’t being entered into YNAB. That’s a recipe for disaster. It took a good amount of time to clean up their disasters.
In my opinion, the easiest way to use YNAB is to do direct import and to categorize and approve transactions daily. It’s an easy routine to get into and when you do it that way a backlog doesn’t build up. I practice what I preach and check YNAB daily. If I have a linked bank account or credit card that doesn’t import (which happens more than I’d like it to) I open up my account online and do one of two things:
- manually enter the new transactions if there are just a few
- download the transactions and import them into YNAB
Either of these options allows me to stay on top of the transactions. Once the link is re-established (see below) and the transactions are imported, YNAB matches them to the previously entered transactions and a little chain link symbol appears. Then I approve the match.
Luckily, it’s easy to tell if your account has become unlinked or if imports are delayed. On the desktop app, there are symbols to clue you in. If you look at the left sidebar at the account list, you’ll see a wrench or a key symbol to the right of the account name. The wrench means that import is delayed and the key means that you need to reauthorize. Clicking on the key will take you through the actions needed to get it going again. You can also reauthorize any account by clicking on your budget name on the left sidebar, then Manage Connections and selecting the account from the list of financial institutions that are connected to the account (or click Add a Connection).
Another key component to managing your budget and transactions is reconciling your account to make sure that your YNAB balance matches your bank balance. Once you’re paying close attention to your transactions, it’s easy to reconcile. I do it daily because I think it’s easiest to do it that way. If you’re wondering what the big deal is about reconciling, read this post about why it’s important to reconcile (and how to do it). When reconciling, I recommend avoiding doing reconciliation balance adjustments if at all possible. They can mess you up. When you reconcile frequently you typically don’t need to make reconciliation adjustments because it’s easy to pinpoint any problems.
In short, direct import makes YNAB easy peasy. (There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing manual entry if that appeals to you, though.) Direct import allows you to be pretty passive when it comes to your transactions. But if the connection breaks, it’s time to become more active. Waiting until the connection is fixed does you no favors.
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