Automatically Fill Split Transaction Payee

If you’ve found yourself wishing that the Payee name was included on every single line of a split transaction, you’re in luck. There’s now a Toolkit for YNAB setting for that.

After you turn on this setting, once you enter the Payee on the first line of a split transaction, the Payee name will automatically be filled in on each line of the transaction.

A word of warning: I discovered while experimenting with this setting that the results are “destructive.” Most of the Toolkit settings only change the way information is displayed or how the application functions while you’re using it. This setting actually effects that data that is stored in your database. So if you turn this setting on and use it for a while then decide you don’t like it and turn it off, all of the splits that you created while the setting was on will continue to have Payees filled on each split. Turning the setting off does not get rid of all the extra Payee data.

The more I experimented with this setting, the more I’m convinced it’s a bad idea. As you’ll notice in the images below, when you do an All Accounts search for a specific category, splits are always displayed with both the parent split (the total amount of the transaction) and the split assigned to the category you searched for. While both lines are shown, only the split is included in calculations of the search total. Having the Payee field blank of individual splits actually makes it easier to identify the split (no Payee) as the split and the parent (with a Payee) as the parent.

Honestly over all the years I’ve been using YNAB (since 2007), I can’t recall a time where I wished my split transactions had the Payee listed on every single line. Nor have I worked with a client or student who mentioned a desire for the Payee to be filled on their splits. Clearly someone somewhere wanted this feature but so far I don’t understand the need it fills.