Miss the split transaction Auto-Distribute functionality? Me too!
Now you can get it back by turning on the Add Auto-Distribute Button to Split Transactions setting in the Toolkit.
For some reason the folks at YNAB dropped the auto-distribute function when moving from YNAB4 to the new online version. Split transactions now have only the standard 3 button options of Cancel, Save, and Save and Add Another (below, top left).
If your splits don’t exactly add up to the purchase total, YNAB pops up an error message and makes you go back and fix your numbers before you can save the transaction and move on.
The Toolkit for YNAB brings back the very useful Auto-Distribute button (below, bottom left). This feature takes the unassigned remainder and distributes it proportionally between your split entries. This feature is great if you pay sales tax or if you like to round to the nearest dollar amount when dividing up a long receipt between different categories.
Question, you said (and I agree) this is great for taxes. However, when it takes the unassigned remainder and distributes it proportionally between your split entries, does it divide by the number of entries or does it actually calculate the tax of each entry, say multiply by 8.67%?
Amy, great question. To the best of my knowledge, the calculation is based on 1) how many splits & 2) what is the proportion of each split in relation to the whole. It is possible that the math is constructed according to your latter option — that it takes the total, takes the remainder, calculates the percentage of the remainder of the whole, and then multiplies each split by that percentage. But that math just doesn’t make as much sense to me.
Let’s say your expense is $7 and your splits are $3, $2, and $1. Your remainder would be $1. The calculation for that remainder would assign 0.5, 0.334, and 0.166 to the splits, respectively (rounding, of course, to match the net total of the transaction).