Buckle your seatbelts, kids – YNAB Together is here!!
In the before-times, YNAB was an amazing budgeting tool for the individual. Most family units and couples had to find creative workarounds to make YNAB work for them – sharing logins, creating joint emails, or (gasp!) paying for multiple YNAB subscriptions. It was always a little tricky when you wanted to share budgeting magic with your partner, kid, or roommate.
My friends, those dark days are over.
YNAB Together is a new feature recently launched by the YNAB team that solves a ton of these issues. With YNAB Together, each member of your group will receive:
- their own YNAB account with an individual login,
- the ability to create and edit as many budgets as they want,
- the ability to choose who they share their budget with to other group members,
- and of course, access to the always helpful and witty YNAB support team.
Basic overview of YNAB Together
YNAB Together is a new feature of the You Need A Budget Software that allows multiple users to share one paid YNAB subscription and share budgets with one another.
- Each paid YNAB subscription has up to 5 spots for group members.
- Each person can have their own YNAB login — no more sneaky sharing needed
- The Group Manager is the one who pays the subscription and the only one who can invite members to join. They can also see everyone’s budget.
- Any member can join a group. A member’s budget is always shared with the Group Manager, but they can control sharing their budget with other members.
- Each person owns their own budget, but any budget owner can be transferred at any time.
- Each user owns their own budgets.
- When a budget is shared, other members can edit the budget fully (editing accounts, transactions, categories, etc.) They can do everything except manage sharing, deleting, or Fresh Starting the budget (only the budget owner can do it).
Who is YNAB Together for?
Generally, YNAB Together is great to share your budget with close members of your community. If your relationship has a financial aspect to it, there is a YNAB Together use-case for you.
Married/Committed Partners
- Budget together or separately – having multiple budgets means that you can share all your budgets with one another or only share joint budgets.
- Have your own login – no more forgetting to share the new password with one another – you each have your own login!
Newer Partners/Roommates
- Gain all the benefits of having the option of both shared and separate budgets.
- Feel secure in knowing that your budget can be taken with you in the future.
Parents and Teenagers
- With the parent as the Group Manager, teenagers won’t see any details of their parents budgets unless the parent chooses to share it with them.
- Parents can see the budget of the teenager.
- Teenagers will receive a separate login, meaning they will get fully onboarded to learn the YNAB method via email
- Once a teenager becomes an adult and wants the privacy of their own budget, they can take their budget with them.
- Kids must be 13+ to join in the US and 16+ everywhere else!
Caregivers
- A caretaker can get a full transparency of their loved one’s finances.
- Because YNAB doesn’t control the banking side, there’s no risk of unwanted transactions/financial abuse from any invited group members.
Coaches/Accountants
- YNAB Together isn’t just for family members! If you work with a financial coach, accountant, or another financial professional, you can share your budget with them as the Group Manager at any time.
- The professional can gain access to your budget to support your planning needs.
- You can revoke access once your work together has completed! (We do this with our clients all the time!)
How to set up YNAB Together
On Web
- Sign into your YNAB Account.
- On the top left hand corner next to your budget name, click the small down arrow.
- Under Account, find the YNAB Together option.
- A window will open to show you your Group Manager, Members, and the option to invite new members (if you are a Group Manager).
On Mobile
- Open the YNAB app.
- On the top left, click the three dots.
- Open Settings.
- Scroll down. Under “Account” you will see an option for YNAB Together.
- Here, you can manage existing members, see your membership status, or invite new members (if you are a Group Manager).
Frequently asked questions:
- Does YNAB Together cost extra? Nope! It’s included in the price of a regular YNAB subscription.
- Can I accept an invite to YNAB Together if I have an existing user account and/or subscription? Yaaaas queen! Just reach out to YNAB Support and they’ll get you sorted by canceling your current subscription and making sure that you keep all your current budgets.
- Can I share my budget with someone that’s not part of my YNAB Together group?Not right now! You have to be in a YNAB Together group in order to share budgets together, and you can only be in one group per account.
Personally, I think this is a game-changing feature for multi-member families, and I’ll be using it in my business as well. How are you planning to use YNAB Together?