Linking an Account
Direct Import helps make sure you have all your transactions in YNAB. Transactions import once they clear your bank (which can take a day or two), so it's best to record your spending right away. When transactions are imported, they'll match right up with the ones you entered—and you'll know you haven't missed any.
In this Article
Linking a New Account
You can add an account and link it to your financial institution at the same time by following these steps:
- 1
-
Click
Add Account in the left sidebar and set it up as a Linked account.
- 2
- Choose one of your existing connections -or- Add New Connection to search for your financial institution. If this is your first connection, you'll skip right to the search.
-
- 3
- Enter your login credentials and follow the prompts. (If you run into an error, try these troubleshooting steps—or Skip to set up an Unlinked account if you prefer.)
- 4
- Select the account you'd like to add. Then, give the account a nickname and click Next.
- 5
- If you added a credit card account, you'll see the option to set a goal to pay off your starting balance. Otherwise, you're done. Success!
Can't find your bank?
If you search for your financial institution and come up empty, you can suggest an institution. If you don't see the option to suggest an institution, that means your bank was automagically suggested to be added. We can't guarantee if or when a new institution may be added, but your request will help our Direct Import provider prioritize which banks to add next. In the meantime, you'll be able to import transactions from a file downloaded from your bank as a quick and easy alternative to Direct Import!
What to Expect After Linking
Once you link an account, YNAB will import the opening balance of that day. If you have any transactions that clear on that same day, they'll be available to import soon after. Transactions that cleared before the date of the starting balance will not import, and as your pending transactions clear, they'll become available within 24 hours.
Going forward, your balance will be updated by transactions that are added to the account register. If you have any transactions to import, approve, or categorize, you'll see a notification dot next the the account name. When you select the account, you'll see a banner across the top:
Clicking the banner will import new transactions and apply a search to show you just those transactions and any others that need to be categorized or approved!
Linking an Existing Account
If you've already added an account to YNAB, and you'd like to link it to your bank, follow these steps:
If this is your first connection, search for your bank and follow the prompts. Otherwise, select from your list of connections or choose Add New Connection and search for your financial institution.
Enter your login credentials and follow the prompts. If you run into an error, try these troubleshooting steps.
Once the account is linked, if you have any recently posted transactions, you'll see they're available to import. YNAB will import transactions that cleared up to three days prior to your latest reconciled transaction. If you happen to see any duplicates, you can reject them—and you shouldn't see any others going forward. And you might want to reconcile again for good measure.
Having trouble linking an account?
Check out our troubleshooting article, but whatever you do—don't let it stop you from budgeting! Enter your transactions (in the mobile app when you're on-the-go) or better yet, try File-Based Import. It's as simple as dragging and dropping a file into YNAB.