POLL: How often do you review bank/credit transactions?

Akrasia
1

How often do you check your bank or credit card transactions or balances?

(Since it probably varies, just give the most frequent frequency.)

  • I get a notification of every purchase that goes through and keep my eye on them
  • I review them every 1-3 days
  • …every 4-6 days
  • …every week
  • …between 8 and 14 days
  • …between 15 and 31 days
  • Every few months or so, I gather my credit card statements and sit down in front of some streaming content to review my statements. At the end of the show, I take the still-unopened envelopes and put them back in my inbox, so that I can find them in 3 months for the next review.

0 voters

(That last option is totally not autobiographical or anything…)

I use Beeminder to enforce the frequency I selected above?

  • Yes
  • No

0 voters

1 Like
2

I answered once weekly, but in reality I have multiple accounts I reconcile with YNAB, each with its own frequency and Beeminder goal.

2 Likes
3

I just completed my once weekly review of all of my credit card transactions, as the Beeminder goal was set to derail tonight.

3 Likes
4

Only one of my banks has notifs, so I see that one every 1-3 days when I reconcile YNAB.

1 Like
5

My beeminder goal is to approve & categorize all incoming transactions, every day. I rely largely on auto import for this, but I do it every day so that it’s easier to attach memos and such. During that daily check, I also move money around in my budget so that I am never in the red. Sure, I end up playing whack a mole a little bit, but more importantly, I always know that all my bills are covered. Or if they’re not covered, I know exactly what amount I need to cover them.

About once a week I manually enter transactions from my Apple card and make sure the balance matches. I usually just pay off the apple card at that time, even though it’s not due until later. Then I either manually pay my other credit cards at the same time, or just leave them for auto pay.

About once a month I enter the balance of my 401k, and usually at the same time, check and make sure YNAB and my bank agree on my checking account balance.

In retrospect I should use beeminder goals for the latter two :slight_smile: especially the apple card. Manual transaction entry suckkkks

2 Likes
6

I have a beeminder goal to reconcile all my accounts with YNAB, including the savings and investment accounts, at least every two weeks, but in practice I check all the current accounts over every day or three. So it’s no to the second part of the poll because it doesn’t match up with my answer to the first part.

2 Likes
7

I don’t have an issue with reviewing credit card transactions because a i get SMS/email notifications on everything.

I do have a couple of goals on accounting staff

  • keeping an archive of expenses / invoices / receipts (e.g pdf files) to be sent to my accountant
  • keeping some Google Sheets files updated with the proper internal notes on transactions
2 Likes
8

I have a Beeminder goal to reconcile YNAB and post to my financial accountability journal every few days.

2 Likes
9

This sounds interesting. Can you say more about that?

1 Like
10

It’s just a place to ramble about financial choices I’ve been making and to keep track of the general trajectory of our finances: https://support.youneedabudget.com/t/q5pz0s/freelancing-for-three

2 Likes
11

Interesting that a fair number of those who commented use YNAB. I do, but I don’t Beemind reviewing transactions or reconciling. I just do it as needed and generally look at YNAB at least daily.

1 Like
12

I use ledger-cli for accounting, and I update it (almost) every day (with Beeminder). I use the same scheme I use for other almost-every-day activities: a goal with slope of 0.8 per day and max safe buffer of two days.

3 Likes