YNAB has been awesome so far, why all the negative comments?

[RaceFPV]

After using YNAB for 1+ months now its been really helpful with getting my budget in order, and if it wasn't for this being on steam I would've never found out about it in the first place. I don't understand why there are so many posts about "this isnt a game" or "this software sucks it isn't free", it does exactly what it states and when I use this + the phone app I don't have to even think about sitting down with an excel document to do my budgeting anymore, I just enter things as they appear on my bank statements.

[colonelclick]

I feel the same way after just a few weeks. The concenience of the app is nice. Very quick, keeps my dollars on point.

[Lost Dragon]

I like it too. I got my budget sorted out and now things are less stressful when it's time to pay bills.

My only real complaint is that I think the smart phone app should have come with the software and not be another five bucks.

[Proud Honest Dad]

True i agree but if its licening to get on then underdtandable but the free ipod app works for me lol shoikd do same for android lol

[SalaSSin]

Love it too, but i have the same minor gripe as Lost Dragon, i expected the Android App to be included with the software.

Anyway, i think the program is really good for budgetting, but if you import all your bank transactions from over 6 months, you can evaluate spending trends on categories, and correct the way you spend too! (Bizarre they don't talk about that in the videos...)

[Serneum]

I've used it for about a month and a half now and have my budget on track. I should actually be debt-free by mid-April and have about $2k saved up by the end of May. I was really bad about tracking my money before and YNAB has helped a lot. I also feel like $5 was a bit steep for the app and I wish the app had some more features, like being able to edit budget values (unless I'm missing something), but it's extremely helpful overall. I love how easy it is to adjust things as well. I got a $5,000 raise that was retroactive and I was able to not only adjust for more earnings each month, but also for the influx of extra cash from the retroactive portion of my raise. Awesome program.

[Taytay]

Hey guys,

(Quick Intro: I'm Taylor, and I work with RodeoClown on YNAB).

I wanted to thank you all for the kind words. I'm thrilled you are getting so much out of YNAB, and I'll be sure to pass your kudos on to the rest of the team.

Thanks for the frank comments on the $5 app price too. We're proud to charge for our software since we are confident it's worth it, but we also don't want anyone feeling "nickel and dimed." That's completely different. I'm sure we'll find a good solution there.

@SalaSSin, you're completely right: If you do a big import and take the time to categorize, it can give good insights. As for why we don't tout it more: We don't generally discuss or recommend it to all new folks since it can be quite a bit of work and can actually distract some from getting down to the task at hand (budgeting the money they have right now). We're actually looking at ways to make that initial import and categorization process easier since it can indeed be helpful, and many people are reticent to leave their legacy data.

@Serneum: Wow! Congrats on almost being debt free! That's awesome! (Congrats on the 5k raise too ;) )

Thanks again for taking the time to comment here. As a developer, it's always extremely motivating to hear from happy customers. :)

[swollentiki]

@Taytay For $60, I expect more from YNAB like the mobile applications being included in that price. But that isn't my biggest complaint which is why I won't buy, nor recommend the product.

My local, small bank produces a CSV file that YNAB won't import. For $60, I expect the software to figure it out since it's just a column or two out of order. If it can't figure it out, then give me a window that I can map columns in the CSV to columns in YNAB. Instead the solution offered is to download a separate 3rd party application to fix the file. That is just unacceptable to me, espeically since just about every other budgeting/financial software I've used has had this feature - many of them were free!

It would also be nice to take a picture of your receipts on the mobile app to keep and a field to track tax since that is useful when itemizing on income taxes.