I need help with YNAB where money came in and out from an account, but ready to assign does not match up. More info in thread.

If it’s already spent it can’t be assigned. When you spend money it has to be assigned to category. Look at every dollar you have as having a job. It has to be ‘linked’ to a category. When you spend that money it’s gone. I’m happy to take a look if you want to zoom at some time.

Thanks, I would take the zoom offer, I'll PM you tomorrow. Just for clarification, I did assign the expense (i.e. rent) to a category, but category rent wasn't funded then. So it was marked overspend. Now I want to assign the money to that category, So it shouldn't be overspend, but my ready to assign doesn't reach the amount I actually spent. My understanding is, whenever I have an expense which is assigned to a category, it doesn't touch the ready to assign amount, all what it touches is the spent amount for that category. So if I have an inflow to 'ready to assign' of $2000 this month, Then I have expenses of $2000 this month, if all expenses were assigned to a category, -whether funded or not- it shouldn't effect the ready to assign amount. The only thing that should effect the 'ready to assign amount' is: 1. An outflow in 'ready to assign' category. 2. Assigning money to a category. Where am I wrong?

It’ll be easier to see this in action

1. First of all, Reconcile all accounts in your budget. 2. At the end of the month, if there is money left in Ready to Assign, it will first go to cover Overspending for that month, before it rolls over to the next month. (That would explain why you might not see the $500 that was Ready to Assign at the end of last month, and possibly where the $2000 went if the transaction date was in last month) 3. Check which categories have Money Available in your budget. That might be were the money is "hiding".

@acceptable-angle-23240 the only thing that I’m not sure about in your answer is that the money doesn’t automatically go to cover overspending. You have to manually tell the money to cover the red of overspending. Does that happen with you that it automatically does it? I haven’t seen it happen like that

@thousands-sunset-8939 Yes, at the end of the month, it will automatically deduct Cash Overspending from Ready to Assign for the next moth

@acceptable-angle-23240 #2 seems to make sense, as i had a few overspending at the end of the month. I'll check that out.

@acceptable-angle-23240 you’re saying something a bit different now. It will not cover the overspending. What it will do is say you overspent and make the next month red and overspend it. But it won’t take the money and assign it without you physically doing that. As @eager-keyboard-7093 pointed here it did not assign money to the overspent category. It will not do that.

Thanks @thousands-sunset-8939 for the huddle! Was a real help! In short the answer is: Although YNAB does not assign money you overspent, it is still not available to ready to assign. Simple logic behind it: You can't assign money you don't have. Since you overspent, you have to cover that money from somewhere...

Thank you @thousands-sunset-8939 for all the help! You are an incredible addition to the family of frum finance coaches 💪