4 ms·

Can highly recommend Firefly. Used for a while and it is really powerful, impressive work has been done here. What bothers me (too much) as a former YNAB-user i

by Kovah 7y ago

Can highly recommend Firefly. Used for a while and it is really powerful, impressive work has been done here. What bothers me (too much) as a former YNAB-user is the limited budget planning view. But the dev already has this on his to-do list.

martin-adams 7y ago
I'm a current YNAB user find it hard to use any other financial manager software because they only seem to record what happened and not plan for the future. What made you leave YNAB if you don't mind me asking? In additional to my personal finances, I currently use Xero for my business, but I also run everything through YNAB as well to actually know the health of my business and how much money I'm making. The book "Profit First" made a lot of sense through a YNAB approach.
- Kovah 7y ago
  I feel you. I spent countless hours trying to find a suitable YNAB replacement, but there is none. I want to see what is possible, not was has happened to my money. I am about to leave YNAB because I am using version 4 (standalone software) which is 32-bit only. My main machine is a Mac so I won't be able to use the software with the next major version. Also, I do not want to use the new YNAB web-based app because the privacy policy is contradictory and their subscription offer is just shitty. Currently I am using Outbank, which is more like a banking app but has automatic categorization which is quite cool, and you can define budgets. Still, no suitable replacement. I really hope for Firefly to take off with a powerful budget planning somewhere in the future.
  - martin-adams 7y ago
    Thanks. Makes sense and really appreciate you clarifying.
  - aeorgnoieang 7y ago
    I feel your pain – but I'm a happy YNAB user and I've only ever 'known' the web version. (I'm aware of the desktop versions.) I don't use the auto-import features anymore – they never worked consistently with all of my financial providers and I've found that manually reconciling is much better anyways. Given how awesome YNAB is for me managing my finances, I'm more than happy to pay the subscription.
    - Kovah 7y ago
      I honestly thought about moving to the web version, but as stated, especially the storage of my financial data on some server of a random company is a no-go for me. The privacy policy is also everything but nice. They state that all data is encrypted but somewhere else they state that they may have access to it for support and in case of legal obligation. Not really trustworthy.
      - aeorgnoieang 7y ago
        There's an option in your settings to share your data with their support people and you have to explicitly enable it for them to see your data/info. But I understand your reluctance nonetheless.
  - stefanf 7y ago
    There's an open-sourced clone of YNAB (standalone version) called financier (https://financier.io https://financier.io). There's been a few efforts to easily run it locally: -https://gitlab.com/caleb3141/financier https://gitlab.com/caleb3141/financier -https://gitlab.com/josh-whitney/financier-backend https://gitlab.com/josh-whitney/financier-backend Biggest downside is that it doesn't have an OFX/QFX import option.
    - Kovah 7y ago
      Yeah, I also tried Financier. Although it provides everything needed, I didn't feel very comfortable with it running in the browser and storing the database in the browser too. Backups are hard in this case. Also, when moving to a new system, the import of transactions was a requirement.
- hvidgaard 7y ago
  One thing that I find surprisingly missing from most budget platforms is a recurring rolling budget post. For instance, let's say we have a clothing "category" I want spend $200 monthly for the entire family. I don't know when I'm going to buy a new winter parka, or the recurring biannual event of buying new shoes for the children. But I do know that $200 monthly is what I believe is reasonable for our income. I just want the balance on that budget to roll over for every month, so I know how much there is for that particular thing. And if you don't buy any clothing for 2 months, $400 is added to the available fund for that particular budget category. It extends to a lot of things: * Day trips * Saving for car repairs and ultimately a new one. * Groceries * Holidays * Hobbies * Takeaway
  - Naga 7y ago
    With anything with double entry bookkeeping, you can book an expense each month for $200 for clothing and have a liability account set up as a clothing reserve account. Then you would have a built up total over time, less anything you purchase.
    - hvidgaard 7y ago
      I could do that - but is it really that foreign to center a budgeting tool around it, so I don't have to go about creating accounts and transactions for every budget category? In essence, it's just the "envelope" system with a rollover - i.e. if I don't spend all my grocery money this month, just add them to the next months envelope.
      - crdrost 7y ago
        It's more than that... when you are living on a tight budget you really want a line graph that tells you what your checking account is going to look like in a week, two weeks, three weeks. Your problem is not necessarily income but cash flow, and you do all of this cash-flow reasoning informally, “I'd better postpone any doctor’s visit until the 15th because usually things are less tense in the middle of the month and I’d like to keep my copays out of it,” but it would be really handy to say “look, if you need to you can spend up to $200 and things will get tight in 9 days time but you will not go broke, assuming you have put everything in properly.” This sort of diagram is only easily possible if you can specify “here are the deposits that I think are going to happen, and here are the expenses that I think are going to happen.” And for that, those envelopes are crucial, especially the ability to graph the amounts in the various envelopes and the amount that’s not in any envelope.

by Kovah 7y ago

martin-adams 7y ago

I'm a current YNAB user find it hard to use any other financial manager software because they only seem to record what happened and not plan for the future. What made you leave YNAB if you don't mind me asking? In additional to my personal finances, I currently use Xero for my business, but I also run everything through YNAB as well to actually know the health of my business and how much money I'm making. The book "Profit First" made a lot of sense through a YNAB approach.

Kovah 7y ago
I feel you. I spent countless hours trying to find a suitable YNAB replacement, but there is none. I want to see what is possible, not was has happened to my money. I am about to leave YNAB because I am using version 4 (standalone software) which is 32-bit only. My main machine is a Mac so I won't be able to use the software with the next major version. Also, I do not want to use the new YNAB web-based app because the privacy policy is contradictory and their subscription offer is just shitty. Currently I am using Outbank, which is more like a banking app but has automatic categorization which is quite cool, and you can define budgets. Still, no suitable replacement. I really hope for Firefly to take off with a powerful budget planning somewhere in the future.
- martin-adams 7y ago
  Thanks. Makes sense and really appreciate you clarifying.
- aeorgnoieang 7y ago
  I feel your pain – but I'm a happy YNAB user and I've only ever 'known' the web version. (I'm aware of the desktop versions.) I don't use the auto-import features anymore – they never worked consistently with all of my financial providers and I've found that manually reconciling is much better anyways. Given how awesome YNAB is for me managing my finances, I'm more than happy to pay the subscription.
  - Kovah 7y ago
    I honestly thought about moving to the web version, but as stated, especially the storage of my financial data on some server of a random company is a no-go for me. The privacy policy is also everything but nice. They state that all data is encrypted but somewhere else they state that they may have access to it for support and in case of legal obligation. Not really trustworthy.
    - aeorgnoieang 7y ago
      There's an option in your settings to share your data with their support people and you have to explicitly enable it for them to see your data/info. But I understand your reluctance nonetheless.
- stefanf 7y ago
  There's an open-sourced clone of YNAB (standalone version) called financier (https://financier.io https://financier.io). There's been a few efforts to easily run it locally: -https://gitlab.com/caleb3141/financier https://gitlab.com/caleb3141/financier -https://gitlab.com/josh-whitney/financier-backend https://gitlab.com/josh-whitney/financier-backend Biggest downside is that it doesn't have an OFX/QFX import option.
  - Kovah 7y ago
    Yeah, I also tried Financier. Although it provides everything needed, I didn't feel very comfortable with it running in the browser and storing the database in the browser too. Backups are hard in this case. Also, when moving to a new system, the import of transactions was a requirement.
hvidgaard 7y ago
One thing that I find surprisingly missing from most budget platforms is a recurring rolling budget post. For instance, let's say we have a clothing "category" I want spend $200 monthly for the entire family. I don't know when I'm going to buy a new winter parka, or the recurring biannual event of buying new shoes for the children. But I do know that $200 monthly is what I believe is reasonable for our income. I just want the balance on that budget to roll over for every month, so I know how much there is for that particular thing. And if you don't buy any clothing for 2 months, $400 is added to the available fund for that particular budget category. It extends to a lot of things: * Day trips * Saving for car repairs and ultimately a new one. * Groceries * Holidays * Hobbies * Takeaway
- Naga 7y ago
  With anything with double entry bookkeeping, you can book an expense each month for $200 for clothing and have a liability account set up as a clothing reserve account. Then you would have a built up total over time, less anything you purchase.
  - hvidgaard 7y ago
    I could do that - but is it really that foreign to center a budgeting tool around it, so I don't have to go about creating accounts and transactions for every budget category? In essence, it's just the "envelope" system with a rollover - i.e. if I don't spend all my grocery money this month, just add them to the next months envelope.
    - crdrost 7y ago
      It's more than that... when you are living on a tight budget you really want a line graph that tells you what your checking account is going to look like in a week, two weeks, three weeks. Your problem is not necessarily income but cash flow, and you do all of this cash-flow reasoning informally, “I'd better postpone any doctor’s visit until the 15th because usually things are less tense in the middle of the month and I’d like to keep my copays out of it,” but it would be really handy to say “look, if you need to you can spend up to $200 and things will get tight in 9 days time but you will not go broke, assuming you have put everything in properly.” This sort of diagram is only easily possible if you can specify “here are the deposits that I think are going to happen, and here are the expenses that I think are going to happen.” And for that, those envelopes are crucial, especially the ability to graph the amounts in the various envelopes and the amount that’s not in any envelope.