There’s a reason why Venmo is so popular. It’s a simple and convenient way to pay someone. If you use both Venmo and YNAB here are some things to keep in mind:
YNAB considers Venmo a bank, so if you add it to YNAB, it will show up in the Cash area of your Accounts list, along with your checking, savings, and PayPal account if you have one.
You can add your Venmo account to YNAB, but you don’t have to. If you tend to keep a balance in Venmo that you pay people from, then adding the account to YNAB allows you to track all your money. To add it, just click Add Account and follow the prompts like any other account you’ve added. You can add it as a linked or unlinked account. If it is on budget and you pay through your checking account (because your Venmo balance isn’t high enough), you’ll simple do a YNAB transfer between checking and Venmo accounts.
If you don’t carry a balance in Venmo (in other words, you transfer your Venmo balance to a checking account when you receive money and money is automatically transferred from your checking account when you pay someone), you may not want to add Venmo to YNAB. I don’t have Venmo included in my budget. Payments via Venmo come through my checking account, so they show up in my checking account register in YNAB with the Payee “Venmo”. Same thing with transfers to my checking account from Venmo. In my checking account register it looks like this. (I always add an explanatory memo so I know what the payment was for.)
While I haven’t added Venmo to YNAB, I have added PayPal because I keep a balance there. It operates in YNAB just like my checking account.
One thing to bear in mind with Venmo. You don’t want to use a credit card as your funding source. While it might vary by credit card, one my clients was surprised to see a $20 charge from Chase for each of multiple transactions because she used her Chase credit card to pay someone via Venmo. Chase considered it a cash advance. My advice: Stick to linking a bank account (you can have more than one) to your Venmo account and leave your credit card out of it.
Venmo makes it so easy to pay for things. Make sure that spending is capture in your YNAB spending plan!
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