By default, YNAB shows your budget only one month ahead of the current month. But as soon as you assign money into the next month, it'll unlock the month after that. This allows you to see targets and any underfunded amounts going into the future, so you can better plan ahead. You don't need to cover a full "month ahead" in order to do this—simply assign a small amount to a category to see what's coming in the future. For example, if it's October, assign a dollar to a category in November to unlock December's budget.
Create a holding category for next month to avoid overspending or overbudgeting for the future
When you receive a reimbursement—such as for a work-related charge, from a friend repaying you for dinner, or a credit back from a return—assign that transaction directly to the category it came from instead of sending it to Ready to Assign first. This ensures that the inflow doesn't look like earned income in your "Income v Expense" report. For example, you can assign a Venmo transaction directly to "Dining" or a store credit to your "Shopping" category.
Separate work charges and reimbursements to keep your personal budget reports accurate
For accounts that sync automatically with your budget, preauthorization charges may appear as pending for a few days before a final transaction clears. In some cases, these totals differ—due to tip amounts being added later, for example—and the preauthorization may not drop off once the actual charge goes through. If you've entered a preauthorization transaction to stay on top of your cash flow, flag it so you don't forget to delete it if the actual charge comes in separately. Tap the flag icon next to the transaction and choose a color specifically for preauthorizations. You can use flags to organize other transaction types, such as charges that need to be reimbursed.
Add gift cards and store credits as on-budget accounts to ensure funds get spent
If you have dozens of categories you're prioritizing and funding over the course of each month, a little bit of organization goes a long way to keeping track of what's most important. YNAB shows you when you need funds based on the targets you've set, but for major bills that have the same deadline each month, you should add the due date to the category title and put your categories in order from earliest to latest. This will offer an easy visual reminder of what you should fund first, second, third, etc. as you have money ready to assign.
Enter recurring bills as scheduled transactions to forecast cash flow
The YNAB method is designed to get you away from credit card "float," which is when you don't have enough cash to cover your total card balance, and paying down current debt is dependent on future income. This may not be obvious in your budget if none of your categories are overspent, but you can compare the "payment available" balance for the card with the cleared negative balance for that same account in the left sidebar to expose hidden debt. If the available payment is less than the current balance, you are on float. If you have funds to spare (from flexible spending categories, for example), you can move money directly to the credit card category to close the gap. Otherwise, you'll need a strategy to gradually pay down the difference.
Install the Toolkit extension to get more customization
YNAB already has fairly detailed reporting, but for users who want even more, the open-source Toolkit for YNAB browser extension adds extra data views, filters, and UI customizations to the platform's web version. For example, you can tweak fonts and progress bars, add buttons and toggles, bulk edit, and enable custom filters and reports. Toolkit is available for Chrome and Firefox, though note that it is not an official offering from YNAB.
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