Welcome to this multi-part tutorial series on the Toolkit For YNAB open source companion browser plugin for YNAB [You Need a Budget] — my preferred budgeting tool.
- Part 1: Toolkit for YNAB – General Settings walkthrough
- Part 2: Toolkit for YNAB – Account Screen Settings
- Part 3: Toolkit for YNAB – Budget Screen Settings
- Part 4: Toolkit for YNAB – Report Screen Settings
Also check out my other tutorials, articles, my YouTube Channel.
Note: These settings affect the default YNAB reports. Do not confuse these Reports Screen Settings with the Toolkit Reports setting found in the General Settings of the Toolkit for YNAB plugin.
Watch a full video tutorial here:
Prefer a text-and-screenshots tutorial? Keep reading below….
Toolkit for YNAB – Reports Screen Settings
Compact Income vs Expense
YNAB’s Income vs Expense report is spread out with lots of space between rows and columns. This creates a document that requires lots of vertical and horizontal scrolling and makes it difficult to see and compare data at a quick glance.
The Toolkit for YNAB offers the Compact Income vs Expense setting as a solution. This setting reduces all of that wasted space.
Hightlight Income vs Expense Row on Hover
When viewing a big spreadsheet report such as the Income vs Expense report in YNAB, it’s nice to have a visual cue that helps keep the rows straight across all 14 columns (12 months plus Average and Total. YNAB doesn’t provide any type of visual cue.
The Highlight Income vs Expense Row on Hover setting in the Toolkit does just that – it highlights the row your mouse is hovered over. This makes it much easier to view the category names on the far left and follow the numbers for that category all the way across to the spreadsheet to the far left column without losing your place.
View Zero as Empty
The View Zero as Empty setting cleans up what is naturally a busy spreadsheet.
Instead of printing $0.00 in all cells without any activity, the Income vs Expense report will display empty cells anywhere there is no activity to report.
The exception — where $0.00 still shows — is in the subtotal rows. If an entire category group (all subcategories) have no activity during a month, the individual cells will be empty but the subtotal row will display a “$0.00” (see screenshot below, bottom row).
And that’s a wrap! Short and sweet! Only three Reports Screen settings and all three pertain to the YNAB’s built-in Income vs Expense report.
Personally, I prefer the Toolkit Reports.
Which settings are your favorites?
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