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Thank you for the tip! If I’m viewing this correctly this seems to have been incorporated in YNAB and removed from Toolkit? But still I so wish this would work for Category Group names (parent categories) too. I have a long list of them and it would be a quick way to access them.
Amy, to my knowledge this functionality has not been added to the native YNAB app (though, like a lot of the Toolkit settings, it should be).
To be honest I don’t personally find much use for this feature. When I’m looking for a category, I’m almost always doing it from a transaction perspective and am therefore either in a specific account or using the All Accounts view.
Two thoughts based on your comment:
1) The Add Master Category Toggle setting might be of interest to you: https://www.eshmoneycoach.com/ynab-toolkit/toggle-master-categories/ It is one of my favorite settings and one I can’t imagine living without. It won’t “find” the category group names but it will allow you to quickly collapse and expand your groups making it easy to get a top-level view of your category groups.
2) Refining your categories is an iterative process. In my work I’ve noticed a rather predictable arc: first – trying to fit yourself into YNAB’s categories, then – creating too many categories including duplicating several, and finally – (though not everyone gets here), just the right balance and organization. But even if you do get to that last phase, eventually your life will change in a way that will require a restructuring or reorganizing of your categories and/or groupings.
I’ve been using YNAB for ~16 years. My current budget file dates to January 2013. In that time I’ve experienced multiple significant life changes and my YNAB categories and category structure have changed accordingly. Not every category change is driven by a major life change though. Sometimes it’s just an adjustment in my perspective, a change in language, etc. I like to joke that I redecorate my YNAB categories as often as my mother redecorates her living space (which, if you haven’t guessed, is very often). Still, the ultimate goal is for your categories and groups to be so deeply representative of your life, your values, and your goals that you know exactly what’s what and what’s where.