Recorded YNAB for DA Members Workshop (Accounts)

The workshop went very well and I’m so excited that the recording worked! Now, aside from my sounding like Daffy Duck, I’m hopeful that this recording can help anyone, even a complete beginner. I really tried to keep it simple and resolve the issues that seem to be problematic for DA members.

Total time is 1:21 (one hour and 21 minutes). The great part is that you can stop and rewind as needed.

REMINDER! YNAB for DA Members Workshop Tomorrow

I will be conducting a free conference call tomorrow (Sunday, 11/8/15) from 2:00 PM EST to 3:30 PM EST to walk you through the Register portion of using YNAB. This workshop is specifically geared toward the tasks DA members need.

No need to register; just call in! 2:00 PM EST to 3:30 PM EST
If you cannot make it, I will HOPEFULLY be able to record the call and will post it later, so you can follow along at your convenience.

Here is the call-in information:
Dial-in Number: (641) 715-3580
Access Code: 479117

International callers
Click here for a PDF with associated country numbers.

What you will need

* A working copy of YNAB on your computer.
* Pen and paper to take notes

You can either work in your existing YNAB spending plan or create a new plan along with me for the workshop. NOTE: YNAB calls it a “budget,” so I will use that terminology though we know ours is a spending plan! 🙂

Here is the Agenda:

1. Walkthrough to create a new budget
2. Where to save your YNAB Spending Plan
3. Auto-download transactions or not?
4. Setting up on and off budget accounts
5. Entering transactions with and without a check number
6. Transferring between accounts
7. Dealing with cash
8. Splitting transactions
9. Scheduling recurring transactions
10. Reconciling with your bank account (CRUCIAL!)

There will definitely be time for questions.

If people find this helpful, there will be a second workshop dealing with the spending plan side of YNAB for DA members.

Hope to “see” you there tomorrow!

Month End & Month Beginning

Because it is the end of the month, I wanted to talk a bit about closing out the current month and starting the new month. Since I use YNAB as my spending plan software, I am going to give instructions using that program, but you can take these principles for any program.

Steps to Reconciling with Your Bank Account

Now that we have discussed the concept of reconciling, it’s time to go over the steps. You can adapt these steps to work with whatever tool you use to track your spending and income.

Since I use YNAB as my tracking tool, I am going to show you how to reconcile using that software. But the principles are the same for any tracking tool.

Bank Reconciliation is Essential

I have come across numerous DA members who have never reconciled their income and spending with their bank account. So coming into DA, even though they have a spending plan and a tool for tracking their income and spending, they are vague about the accuracy of their tracking.

Note: The term “transaction” is used to describe any spending or income that occurs in your bank account. Each of these are examples of transactions:

• Spending $125 at the grocery store with a check
• An automatic debit of $1,000 to your mortgage company
• Your paycheck, which is deposited into your checking account

Unless you reconcile your tracking of actual spending and income with transactions in your bank account, there is room for a huge amount of error and vagueness.

Here are just a few examples of what might happen: