[porker]

7 months into using it my partner & I find YNAB very overcomplicated. Being freelance I don't have a steady income, and I've never managed to make it handle that well. Because the income figure isn't correct it's hard to see what I'm actually spending (if I put my 'lump income' in a category and move money between categories to have 'income' each month, that mucks up the amounts).

I have yet to get it to balance any month too. Some categories (e.g. clothing) we work on an annual budget, so overspending in these categories rolls forward; that doesn't seem to work smoothly.

My partner can't get her head around it at all, which is a bit of a bummer.

What I'd like is a much simpler system based on the old T account (envelope accounts are similar) where each category functions as a virtual account, showing what was spent, inter-category transfers and overall status.

[percentcer]

I haven't done full time freelance so feel free to shoot this idea down, but I'm always curious as to why freelancers don't just put their income in a separate, harder-to-access bank account and pay themselves a regular, weekly disbursement from that.

[prawn]

A piece of advice I had from a mentor 15+ years ago when I started my business was to pay yourself something regular. Even if it was a tiny amount like $200/wk, just do that rather than forever be pulling out irregular lump sums when you got paid for a job.

[porker]

I do put it in a separate bank account (a company account), but up to now I take drawings in chunks, maybe every 3 months. To make YNAB easier I am trying to take a chunk once a month, which feels very unusual.

There is also other random income that's not income. In the UK it's common for savings account interest to be paid back into the linked current account. For me that's not income to be spent each month, that's money to be re-invested.

None of this addresses ease of use though - or does no one else (or their partner) find YNAB confusing and difficult?

[tamal]

YNAB can handle irregular income easily, if you're using the YNAB method. Be sure to read https://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/variable-inco...

It should be uncomplicated once you grok it. I signed up for their free course. It helped.

[zrail]

That's exactly what I do. Money from my book and consulting goes into a business account, owned by my single-member LLC. I make regular transfers from there to my personal account.

[Argorak]

This is the first thing you should do. It also makes questions like "what was incoming and outgoing last month?" very easy. (download csv. done.)