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So I recently went about two weeks without tracking my purchases on YNAB. I cross-checked the majority of my purchases but the bill wasn't giving me the same total as YNAB. So I used 'Reconcile Account' to bring the numbers back in line. YNAB added a reconciliation adjustment and I figured that was it. But then, I got an overspending alert on my credit card category and then was required to budget money to get it to go away.

Am I understanding the credit card category incorrectly? I thought it was for tracking my credit card transactions and I would pay them off from a checking account category or something. Why am I being told to budget money for this category?

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    Normally 'credit card' isn't a category of spending, just a vehicle for spending in various categories. If the adjustment wasn't allocated to a proper spending category that you do budget for, then things would be out of whack.
    – Hart CO
    Dec 26, 2017 at 0:52
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    Related: How are the “Credit Card Payments” categories supposed to work in the web version of YNAB? I don't know that it's a duplicate, since that one doesn't cover reconciliation.
    – Thunderforge
    Dec 26, 2017 at 3:06
  • Did you just recently start with YNAB? Are you currently paying off your credit card in full every month, or are you carrying a balance (and paying interest) on your credit card? Are you having YNAB pull transactions from your credit card automatically, or entering them in manually as you go? You said that you "cross-checked the majority of my purchases." Why didn't you check all of them? When you reconciled, did you actually compare every transaction on your bill with the ones listed in YNAB?
    – Ben Miller
    Jan 19, 2018 at 20:59

1 Answer 1

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(Assumes new YNAB, not classic)

Say one spent $100 on ones card. $90 for groceries and $10 for a movie. The groceries were recorded in YNAB. Available to spend on budget category groceries is reduced by $90. Available to pay card is increased by $90.

Now one gets the statement and cannot figure out why the statement balance is $100, gives up and enters an adjustment of $10. That outflow of ten dollars is being recognized now and like every other outflow should be from a budget category. When the budget category is set, YNAB will know which category to reduce available by $10 to make $10 available for the credit card payment.

checking account category There is no checking account category. Just an account. Credit cards get both an account and a category in YNAB. The category is how much is available to pay. The account is for transactions and balance due.

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  • So it turns out that reconciliation is categorized to "To Be Budgeted" by default. After I changed the reconciliation adjustments to a different category, I could remove all of the credit card budgeting and the amount was being tracked properly again.
    – Jason L
    Jan 23, 2018 at 1:15

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