Migrate from YNAB

Your YNAB history comes to Taiga Finance as two imports from one export: your transactions, with the category on each, and your budget’s categories, which become lines on your Plan. A YNAB category that carries its money forward becomes a Plan line set to Carries over, with last month’s balance. Every category is shown for review before anything is saved.

What comes over from YNAB?

A YNAB category is an envelope: money assigned to it each month, spending taken from it, and a balance that carries into the next month. Taiga Finance splits that into two records. Your transactions land in the ledger under the categories you map them to. A Plan line then names a category, a monthly amount, and whether its unspent balance resets or carries over.

How do I export my data from YNAB?

YNAB exports from its web app only. Click your plan’s name at the top of the left sidebar and choose Export Plan. The download holds two files: your transaction history, and your plan’s categories by month. The file names don’t matter: Taiga Finance reads each file’s columns. YNAB’s own help article, How to Export Plan Data, has the current steps.

In what order should I import?

Accounts first, then transactions, then the budget.

1. Connect your live accounts

Connect the banks and cards you still use before importing anything. A transaction import never creates accounts in the background. With your accounts already connected, the Map step matches your YNAB rows to them. See Getting connected. An account you can’t connect live, such as a closed card, gets created during the mapping step below.

2. Import your YNAB transactions

1. On the Import page, open the Transactions tab and choose YNAB. Its tile reads Register.csv · auto-maps.

2. Upload the transaction file from your export. A staged list headed Building your preview settles on Ready to review. Taiga Finance recognizes YNAB’s columns, so it skips column mapping and opens the Map step.

3. On the Map step, point each YNAB account at one of your real accounts. A match Taiga Finance found is tagged Best match: click ✓ Confirm, or ✓ Confirm all matched. For the rest, pick from the Map to account menu, or use + Create account for an account that isn’t in Taiga Finance yet.

4. Under Category review, give each YNAB category a decision: Map to existing category, Create new, Auto-categorize each transaction, or Leave uncategorized. Categories appear as Category Group: Category. Click Continue to review →.

5. On the Review step, rows that match transactions you already have are marked Dup · ID or Dup · content and skipped. Click Import N transactions.

Each row’s amount is YNAB’s Inflow minus its Outflow. The payee becomes the merchant. The memo, when there is one, becomes the description. Cleared and Reconciled rows import as posted, and Uncleared rows as pending.

3. Import your YNAB budget

1. On the Import page, open the Budget config tab. Upload the plan file from your export and click Upload & preview. The preview ticks from Reading your file to Classifying budget lines.

2. The Review your YNAB import table opens with a line for every YNAB category, its group shown beneath its name. The summary above it counts the categories and the months the file covers.

3. Check each line’s four settings. The name is YNAB’s category name. Category mapping picks the Taiga Finance category the line counts, with (any) for the whole parent category. Rollover is one of three options, covered in the next section. Monthly is the planned amount.

4. Clear Include on any line you don’t want, then click Apply import. With every line cleared the button stays disabled, with the reason At least one line must be included.

5. The finished card reads N budget lines imported and N balances carried, with the YNAB month the balances came from. View plan opens your Plan.

What happens to my envelopes, assigned amounts, and rollover?

Each YNAB category becomes one Plan line, named after the category. Its Monthly amount is the most recent assigned amount above zero in the file, and $0 when the file has none. A suggested Category mapping comes from YNAB’s own names: Groceries maps to Food › Groceries, and Rent to Housing › Rent. A name with no match is left for you to pick.

The Rollover column offers three options. The first two set the line’s Unspent setting, and the third makes it a savings line:

• Spending · carries forward is the default for every spending category, because a YNAB category always carries. On the Plan, the line’s Unspent setting reads Carries over, and its row is tagged ROLLOVER.
• Spending · resets each month makes the line’s Unspent setting Resets. Each month opens at the planned amount, and nothing carries in.
• Savings fund makes the line a savings line, covered below.

A carrying line opens this month with the category’s Available at the end of last month. That needs last month in the file. This month’s amount adds to that opening, and this month’s spending draws it down. A category that ended last month overspent opens at $0.

What happens to savings categories and targets?

A YNAB category is proposed as Savings fund when its group’s name contains saving, goal, fund, or true expense. A category is proposed the same way when most of its months show no spending and its Available ended the file no lower than it started. You can change the proposal on any line before Apply import.

A savings line lands in the Plan’s Savings section with no fund attached, and its chip reads + link a fund. The chip’s picker offers your existing funds and + Create a fund. Once a fund is attached, the line’s figure is the fund’s balance, so the opening carried from YNAB no longer applies. A savings line always carries. See Savings funds.

No line comes over with a target. In Taiga Finance a target amount and date belong to a savings fund, set on Savings.

What doesn’t come over from YNAB?

• Targets and category notes. YNAB’s export leaves them out.
• Ready to Assign. The budget import skips YNAB’s Inflow rows, and it creates no income lines. Income lines are set on the Plan. See How do income lines work?.
• Hidden categories. The budget import skips YNAB’s Hidden Categories group.
• The Credit Card Payments group. The review summary counts these categories as not imported. Taiga Finance records a card payment as a transfer, so a line for it would count your card spending twice.
• Category groups as Plan sections. A line keeps its category name, and its YNAB group isn’t stored on the Plan.
• Past months’ assigned amounts. Only the current month opens with a YNAB figure. Your past spending comes over through the transactions file.
• Flags. The transaction import doesn’t read YNAB’s Flag column.

For a bank’s own CSV or OFX file, see CSV & PDF importers.

Troubleshooting

Upload fails with “No budget rows found.”

The full message reads Expected a YNAB Budget.csv with columns Month, Category Group, Category, Budgeted, Activity, Available. The transaction file has no Month column, so none of its rows read as budget rows. Upload the plan file from the same export.

A line’s Monthly amount is $0.

No month in the file had an amount above zero assigned to that category. Type the amount in the Monthly column before Apply import, or change it later on the Plan.

A line reads “already in your budget” and can’t be edited.

You imported that YNAB category before. Its Plan line is kept as you left it, balance included, so the checkbox and fields are locked. Change the line on the Plan.

A line shows a “name collision” warning.

A Plan line you already have uses the same name. Rename the line in its name field, or clear its Include box.

The finished card reads “0 balances carried.”

The file has no row for the month before your current month, or every line is set to reset. To enter the figure by hand, expand the spending line on the Plan and click Set… beside its carried amount.

FAQ

Can I re-import the YNAB budget file?

Yes. A line is matched on its YNAB group and category name, so lines you already imported stay as you left them. A new or renamed YNAB category comes in as a new line.

Do I have to import the budget file?

No. The transactions import stands on its own, and a Plan can be set up from scratch. See How do I start a plan?.

Will my Plan lines count my imported transactions?

Yes, when both point at the same category. A line counts the transactions in the Taiga Finance category its Category mapping names. A YNAB category mapped to Food › Groceries in Category review fills a line mapped to Food › Groceries.

Can I re-import the same transactions file without creating duplicates?

Yes. Each incoming row is checked against your ledger, live-synced transactions included, by amount to the cent, a date within three days, and a similar description. A row you already have is skipped, and a category you changed after the first import stays as you left it. A row that was pending and has since cleared becomes posted in place.