You may or may not be aware of YNAB (You Need a Budget) personal money management software. I recently became a fan and user of the product. It’s definitely a product focussed on helping you proactively manage your money because it puts you in the driver seat of planning your spending each month. Learn more by reading my comprehensive YNAB review.
YNAB also has an iPhone app that helps you manage your money on the go, so I thought it would be appropriate to post a YNAB iPhone app review, especially since I’ve had such a great experience with the product.
YNAB is desktop software, so you install it on your computer versus using it over the internet. The YNAB iPhone App syncs over a a wireless network with the desktop version on your computer. The iPhone app provides you an IP address and sync code you simply enter in your YNAB desktop version.
Syncing takes place by activating the sync feature within the desktop software. Your budget and other information is added to the iPhone app and new transactions are added to the desktop version of YNAB.
So, keep in mind you must have a wireless network to make this process work. Also keep in mind it takes a few manual steps to perform the sync. But once you’re completed, you have your budget, spending history and the ability to enter transactions on the go in a user friendly app!
Let’s take a closer look at some of the main features of the YNAB iPhone app.
Budget
The Budget feature puts your budget categories and associated balances on your iPhone. If you select the arrow next to a category you can see all your spending transactions for that category. You also have the ability to add a new transaction by selecting the category itself. This is a great feature as it saves you time and insures you’re tracking spending as soon as spending occurs so you don’t forget to do so later.
Accounts
The accounts feature essentially provides the same functionality as the Budget feature except you can see transactions for each of your financial accounts. You also have the abilty to add new transactions within each account.
Other Features
There are a few other features of the app worth mentioning. The app has a nice security feature. You can set up a four digit code to access your app. Doing so will insure others can’t get to your financial details if you lose your phone. The app also has an autopopulate feature which makes typing easier. Finally, there is also a nifty GEO Smart Payees feature. You can store payee locations and the next time you’re at that location the YNAB app will add the payee so you don’t have to type it.
Full Feature List
In summary, here is the full list of features mentioned on the YNAB website:
- View your budget category balances.
- View your account balances.
- View historical transactions by account or budget category.
- NEW: Geo-Smart Payees (opt-in) Your location can be stored with your payees for faster transaction entry. Next time you’re at Jon’s Grocer’s, YNAB will recognize your location and fill in the payee for you.
- Designate categories as ‘Favorites’ for quicker transaction entry.
- Keep your iPhone app secure with a secret Unlock Code.
- Add transactions (payee, amount, date, type (inflow/outflow), account, category, memo, flags):
- Quick payee entry with autofind.
- Date defaults to today’s date.
- Enter by selecting a category, or an account.
- Memo defaults to last-used memo for that category.
- You can enter transfers on the go as well (especially useful for those of you who track cash as a separate account).
- Sync multiple devicesover a shared wi-fi network with YNAB for Desktop:
- Wi-fi network is required (or a wi-fi card for an ad-hoc network).
- Transactions imported come from source: iPhone
- Transactions can be matched with manually-entered or bank-imported transactions.
Ready to learn more and see the YNAB iPhone app in action? Check out this video from the YNAB website.
The only concern people might have with the app is the price point. It costs $9.95 to download which is quite high compared to most iPhone apps. But, I think it’s worth the price if you’re serious about managing your money and love using YNAB like me! You can get the YNAB iPhone app by visiting the iTunes Store.
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