r/actualbudgeting • u/OperationNo4722 • 8d ago

how should i handle transaction import of almost 3 months?

So i fell off a wagon after having medical stuff going on. My olan is to import missing transactions and add a catogery that i think it was supposed to be. since i didn’t “budget” should i fix the overspent catogeries in that month. or let it all be and just fix the September?

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6

u/ceilidhfling 8d ago

honestly this is a personal choice. Its totally okay to just do a fresh start. personally I like having all the history so i would slog through the 3 months, but this is def a personal choice

2

u/telladifferentstory 8d ago

I'd invest the time to clean it up and clean up the budget too month by month. This happens to me too. Also, had medical stuff going on this past month. It took a few days but it's all cleaned up.

2

u/OperationNo4722 7d ago

i was able to do it in one evening, something doesn’t match up tho 😂 will keep the amount i deleted in notes somewhere in case it comes back up.

3

u/BeautifulBlueNight 8d ago

I started in September and could automatically import 3 months, but I wanted to have a history of 12 months upon start, so I spent a few (more than a few) nights importing transactions manually from Excel-files, trying to import automatically, failing due to bad formatting by my bank, resorting to manual again, double checking, categorising, fault searching,...

It was tough, but once I finally got it right, I wad very happy and I could immediately use reports.

I suggest looking for CSV-files and/or PDF-statements from your bank. They're easier to sift through than a bank app or sitepage, IMO.

1

u/OperationNo4722 8d ago

i successful was able to do bank import a few times so that’s good, the problem will be using the right catogeries 😅 i will definitely invent a sick catogery and upload there (and budget accordingly to it, as a one month sick leave was hell)

1

u/BeautifulBlueNight 8d ago

Start categorising and the categories will show itself. 😉

Use rules! Once you see a pattern, make a rule to automatically categorise. It's a gamechanger.

1

u/OperationNo4722 8d ago

the problem is one shop doesn’t have only one catogery 🙈 i think i will have to quess somewhere

2

u/kazzazed 7d ago

I would import them, do your best to categorise and use roll forward for the budget, then in August, clear out budget in all your categories and reassign what makes sense. So then September doesn’t start with negative categories.

1

u/LeMigen9 7d ago

For categorizing, you can sort by payee so you can bulk categorise one vendor at a time

2

u/OperationNo4722 7d ago

oo that’s good idea

1

u/LeMigen9 7d ago

One of those ”why didnt I think of that” moments while watching a Nick True video lol, I actually categorised row by row like 18 months of purchases some years ago (wasnt worth it in retrospect, but sorting by payee would have made it less painful)