Bring your YNAB budget over in five minutes

What comes with you

• Your categories, as budget lines in the groups that fit them.
• What each costs — the monthly average over the last three whole months in the file, rounded to $5, yours to change.
• Your merchants, as filing rules: anything the file saw under a category files itself from now on.
• Your transactions, with their categories, if you want them in the inbox (part of Pro).

What doesn't

• YNAB's own goals, reports and account balances — PathForward builds its own from your plan and, with Pro, your bank.
• History older than the file you export.
• Transfers between your accounts and income rows: they are not spending, so they never become lines.

1. Export from YNAB

1. Open YNAB in a web browser — exporting is web-only.
2. Click the name of your plan at the top of the left sidebar, then Export Plan.
3. Two CSV files download: the plan and the register. Bring the register (transactions) file; it has a column for every category and category group.

YNAB's category groups come along too, so lines land in the right places on the first try. Transfers and "Ready to Assign" are left out, as they should be.

2. Then, in PathForward

1. Start free — no card, and the free plan is enough for this.
2. Open Settings and, under Profile, tap Bring my budget over. Choose the file.
3. Every spending category appears with what it cost a month, already sorted into groups. Change an amount or a group, untick anything you don't want, then tap Build my budget.
4. Your month is planned. Every merchant the file saw becomes a filing rule, so when your bank's transactions arrive they come suggested.