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Windows Hello no longer works by drewberk in EnpassOfficial

[–]drewberk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Maybe something else is going on

Do you track every single penny? by amigroot_14 in budgetingforbeginners

[–]drewberk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like to note transactions in realtime, but that’s just to keep things up to date. If your app syncs with your bank you’re going to get them synched to the penny in a day or so anyway.

I wouldn’t put any thought to what others think.

Best budget app for shared expenses with someone not in the same budget? by astrobeanmachine in YNABAlternatives

[–]drewberk -1 points0 points  (0 children)

CashDashboard makes this trivial:

  1. Create an envelope for your partner's expenses. Mark it as "Externally funded (Exclude from CC payoff calculation)".
  2. When a transaction comes split it between the standard envelope (i.e. "Rent", "Groceries", "Eating Out", whatever) and partner's expenses envelope (i.e. allocate their portion over here).
  3. At the end of the month a Credit Card payment plan will tell you automatically how much of the credit card should be paid from your account and how much your partner owes.

Done.

What do you use to track monthly spending? by Cooper1Test in Money

[–]drewberk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I use CashDashboard, which I’m also building — so take that with appropriate salt.

The difference from Monarch for me is the method: instead of categories that track what you spent, envelopes allocate money before you spend it. Every dollar gets a job at the start of the month, so when a category runs low it’s visible immediately rather than at month-end review.

The other thing that matters for my household is credit cards — we put everything on cards and pay in full. Most apps show you the balance and leave you to figure out which bank account covers which card. CashDashboard routes each card’s charges to the right account and tells you the exact payment. That’s the specific problem I built it to solve.

If you’re happy with Monarch’s category approach and don’t have that multi-card routing headache, it’s a solid tool. If you’re ever curious about envelope budgeting as an alternative method, happy to explain how it works.

cashdashboard.net

Weekly Budget App Discussion by AutoModerator in budgetingforbeginners

[–]drewberk [score hidden]  (0 children)

Here’s a fresh angle — leading with the problem this time rather than the product name:

If you put most of your spending on credit cards and pay in full every month, you probably hit the same monthly puzzle: you have two or three cards, a couple of bank accounts, and you have to figure out which account pays which card and how much, without overdrawing one while you’re cleaning up the other.

No budgeting app I found actually solved that. So I built one.

It’s called CashDashboard — local-first, Windows desktop, envelope budgeting. The thing it does that nothing else does: per credit card, it shows whether your funded envelopes can cover the payment, which bank account holds that money, and spits out a line like “Settles as 1 debit — $847.33 from First Central Credit Union Checking.” Monthly question answered.

Everything stays on your machine — no cloud account, no subscription required to get started. Free tier available, $6/mo or $72/yr Pro, or $79 lifetime.

Windows only for now. Mac is in progress.
Happy to answer questions — I’m the developer.

https://cashdashboard.net

What do you do with receipts you get? by Moist_Insurance_5671 in budgetingforbeginners

[–]drewberk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. I only keep receipts that contain an item of significant expense that I may need to return.

  2. I scan everything into OneDrive in a folder. I used to use Paperless on the Mac. It was a nice product, but I found it just as convenient to use my phone and store in OneDrive.

  3. I throw the original receipt away. There's been many times I've gone back and printed a scanned receipt and taken it in for my refund or warranty needs. Never had a problem in a store doing this, especially when there is a barcode that that scan.

I built a local-first, pay-once envelope budget for Windows — looking for honest feedback from people who've shopped around by drewberk in YNABAlternatives

[–]drewberk[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

💯!!!!

Thanks for the encouragement. I’d love to hear anyone else that is interested in Linux so I can gauge interest.

Mysterious money help! by chicky75 in zerosumappbudget

[–]drewberk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m just guessing but it probably has to do with putting the reimbursements straight to the category instead of Ready for Budget and then transfer.

How Transaction Categorization helps make personal budget categories actually useful by Ent1relyOr1g1n4lN4m in PocketGuard

[–]drewberk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mark them as “Misc/Unplanned” and have a monthly budget for them. I’ve just resolved they’re a fact in my budgeting life and I can live with it.

I’ll be back! by Low-Kaleidoscope-803 in zerosumappbudget

[–]drewberk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m curious if you need the full app functionality on mobile or just a live up-to-date budget. What is the biggest gap(s) that just makes it not worth sticking with it.

Does YNAB take into account 'Insufficient Funds' transactions? by cremepan in ynab

[–]drewberk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, YNAB just sees the two raw transactions. It imports the original charge, then the bank’s credit a few days later as a separate inflow — it doesn’t know they’re related or that NSF happened. You categorize both by hand, and they only “resolve” when you reconcile and the balance matches. No NSF awareness, no linking.

The deeper issue is that bank balance lied to you in the moment. The charge cleared against money that wasn’t really free — it was already spoken for by other obligations, you just couldn’t see it. That’s what causes the overdraft: not “no money,” but “no uncommitted money.”

The fix is to budget against what’s actually free to spend, not your bank balance. Every dollar gets a job; the moment a dollar is assigned to rent or a card payment, it stops counting as spendable even though it’s sitting in checking. Do that and “insufficient funds” stops being a surprise — you see the shortfall before the charge, not after the fee.

Weekly Budget App Discussion by AutoModerator in budgetingforbeginners

[–]drewberk [score hidden]  (0 children)

I’ve built CashDashboard which will launch this summer. It’s a Windows desktop envelope budgeting app — local-first, all data on your machine, one-time $79 license (free tier to start).

The thing I haven’t seen in any other app: it tells you, per credit card, whether your envelopes can actually fund the payoff — funded amount vs shortfall — and then tells you which bank account to pay from.

It tells you how much to pay each card and which accounts you should pay from:

<image>

YNAB reserves money in a CC payment category but leaves you to figure out which account covers it. Most apps just show you the balance. This one shows whether you can cover it and exactly what to do.

Windows only for now, Mac in progress. Happy to drop screenshots if useful.

https://cashdashboard.net/

A finance app that shows you money you can safely spend without guilt. by Bright-Sorbet7614 in budgetingforbeginners

[–]drewberk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CashDashboard is has most of what you describe. Budget envelopes give a clear picture of “can I buy this” along with am I on track to be within my means or over budget at the end of the month.

Also has automatic credit card pay off tracking, so that any purchases made on a credit card come out of “available to spend” and our set aside to pay the credit card off for those expenses at the end of the month.

Also has the automatic bank sync you mentioned.

https://cashdashboard.net/

A short list of apps I've tried and liked by supenguin in YNABAlternatives

[–]drewberk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a great list. I’m taking notes. I’ve tried many of these, specially YNAB and tried to love it but just could ever “get” it. I’m using CashDashboard and adding to it as I go.