Overview
If you budget with YNAB, you already know the method Liquify uses: give every pound a job before you spend it. What changes is the daily work. In Liquify you plan the month once, and your bank balances check the plan—categorising and reconciling every transaction is optional, not the job.
This guide maps YNAB terms to Liquify, shows the fastest way to move your plan, and says plainly what works differently. For prices and a side-by-side table, see Liquify vs YNAB.
YNAB terms in Liquify
| In YNAB | In Liquify |
|---|---|
| Plan / budget | Budget: your income, refill day, and boxes |
| Category | Box—or an expense inside a box (for example Netflix and Spotify inside a Subscriptions box) |
| Category group | A box that holds related expenses |
| Ready to Assign | Remaining: income not yet given to a box. Aim for about zero |
| Assigning money | Funding boxes on refill day |
| Targets | Box amounts, dated expenses, and goals. Yearly or quarterly bills split into monthly parts (Expense frequency) |
| Scheduled transactions | Schedule and payment-day reminders |
| Accounts and reconciling | Linked accounts: Liquify compares each account's balance with what its boxes need. No reconciling |
| Covering overspending | Cover it from buffer or savings that month; nothing rolls forward. See Overspending |
| Credit card payment category | A box linked to the card and to the payment account that pays it. See Credit cards |
| Sharing a budget | Shared budgets: invite people by email |
Move your plan in three steps
1. Rebuild your categories with Bento
Liquify does not import YNAB files. The quickest way over is Bento, the AI assistant included on every plan (sign in first):
- In YNAB, take a screenshot of your plan with category names and assigned amounts visible.
- In Liquify, open Bento, attach the screenshot, and ask: "Create my budget from this screenshot."
- Bento proposes boxes and amounts. Check them, then confirm.
A pasted list works too: "Create boxes: Rent 1200, Groceries 450, Car insurance 600 yearly…". One image per message (up to 5 MB); for a long plan, send it in parts. Bento's daily message limits depend on your plan—see Bento.
2. Set income and refill day
Enter your monthly take-home income and the day you get paid in Budget. Fund boxes until Remaining is about zero.
3. Connect your bank (optional)
Link the accounts you spend from so Liquify can compare real balances with your plan. Outside Brazil, bank sync runs through Lunch Flow; see Bank Sync for coverage and limits. Without sync, use manual accounts and update balances when you want a check.
What works differently
- No transaction homework. You don't need to categorise every purchase for the plan to work. Transactions Analysis can match charges to your expenses when you want it.
- A fresh start each month. Overspending is covered that month; Liquify doesn't carry box debt forward.
- Several currencies in one plan. Boxes can have their own currency; totals show in the budget currency.
- History is shorter by design. Transaction history is 30 days on Free, 90 on Pro, and 1 year on Ultra—enough to keep the plan on track, not a full archive. Keep your YNAB export if you need older records.
- No YNAB import. Past YNAB transactions don't move over automatically. If you want recent ones in a manual account, use CSV import with Liquify's columns.