Import from YNAB

Learn how to import your YNAB budget into Zerosum. Migrate accounts, categories, transactions, transfers, and monthly budgeted amounts.

Written By Pedro

Last updated 4 days ago

Bring your accounts, categories, transactions, transfers, goals, scheduled transactions, and budget history from YNAB into Zerosum. Both import methods use the YNAB API for a complete, accurate migration.

Get your YNAB API token

Both methods use the YNAB API, so you'll need a Personal Access Token from YNAB.

  1. Sign in to YNAB at app.ynab.com.

  2. Open Developer Settings: Account Settings → Developer Settings, or go straight to app.ynab.com/settings/developer.

  3. Create a new token: under "Personal Access Tokens", click New Token, enter your password, and click Generate.

  4. Copy the token: it appears once at the top of the page right after you click Generate. Copy it immediately.

⚠️ Warning: The token is shown only once, at the top of the page right after you click Generate. The value listed under "Personal Access Tokens" further down is masked (a row of X's) and is not your token; copying it fails with an "Invalid or expired token" error. In some browsers the token opens in a popup, so make sure popups aren't blocked for YNAB. If you only see the masked value, click New Token again and copy the full token at the top.

ℹ️ Important: Your token stays in your browser and is never sent to Zerosum servers; it's only used to fetch data directly from YNAB's API. We recommend deleting the token from YNAB once your import is complete.

Method 1: Paste your token in Zerosum

Paste your token and Zerosum fetches your budget directly. Everything happens in your browser.

  1. Open the import dialog: open the budget menu from your budget name in the sidebar, choose Switch budget, then Import Budget (or use the Manage Budgets page). Pick YNAB as the source.

  2. Paste your token and click Connect.

  3. Select your budget from the dropdown.

  4. Review and import: step through Budget Settings and Review Accounts, then click Import Budget on the final review step. Account types, loan details, and categories are detected automatically. Credit cards default to the Credit Card account model; toggle individual cards to Budget account on the Review Accounts step if you'd rather treat them like checking.

ℹ️ Important: Account types (checking, credit card, mortgage, and so on), loan interest rates, minimum payments, and escrow amounts are all detected automatically from your YNAB data.

Method 2: Upload a JSON file

If you'd rather not enter your token in Zerosum, download the budget data yourself and upload the JSON file. Both methods import the exact same data.

Download your budget

  1. Follow the steps above to create a Personal Access Token.

  2. Open a terminal (Terminal on Mac, Command Prompt on Windows) and run this command, replacing YOUR_TOKEN with the token you copied:

curl -sH "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" https://api.youneedabudget.com/v1/budgets | python3 -m json.tool

The response lists your budgets. Copy the id of the one you want, then run this command, replacing both YOUR_TOKEN and BUDGET_ID:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" "https://api.youneedabudget.com/v1/budgets/BUDGET_ID" --output budget.json

This saves budget.json in the folder your terminal is open in. If the first command fails because python3 is missing, remove everything from the | onwards; the output is the same, just harder to read.

⚠️ Warning: Use these commands exactly as written. YNAB's current API documentation points to newer api.ynab.com/v1/plans endpoints whose files use a different format that Zerosum doesn't accept yet. Uploading one of those fails with "Invalid YNAB budget file: could not find budget data."

Upload in Zerosum

In the import dialog, choose Upload JSON file and select the budget.json you downloaded, then review and import as usual.

⚠️ Warning: After importing, go back to YNAB's Developer Settings and delete the token. You won't need it again.

After import

Account types

  • Budget: checking, savings, and cash, plus any cards you toggled to Budget account in the wizard.

  • Credit Card: credit cards and lines of credit, the default for cards you didn't toggle to Budget. Each gets its own Payment category, and Ready to Budget after import matches YNAB's Ready to Assign.

  • Tracking: investments, assets, and other liabilities.

  • Loan: mortgages, student loans, auto loans, and personal loans, plus any card or line-of-credit debt you move here after import.

Loan accounts

Interest is calculated from the rate in your YNAB data. If your rate changed over the life of the loan, Zerosum uses the most recent one. You can add an adjustment on the loan detail page to correct the balance; see Working with loans for the full workflow.

Lines of credit

In YNAB, lines of credit work like credit cards (they're on-budget accounts), so in Zerosum they default to Credit Card accounts too. If your line of credit is really debt you're paying down rather than revolving credit, you can move the balance into a Loan account after import.

What gets imported

  • Account types and details: types, interest rates, minimum payments, and escrow, detected automatically.

  • Accounts: Budget, Credit Card (default for cards and lines of credit, with auto-managed Payment categories), Tracking, and Loan accounts, all with starting balances and full transaction history.

  • Category groups and categories: preserving your YNAB display order.

  • Transactions: all regular transactions with payees, dates, amounts, and categories. Native YNAB splits, including transfer split legs, stay grouped so credit-card payment math matches YNAB. Rows with no category stay uncategorized and show up in the "to categorize" banner.

  • Transfers: paired automatically between accounts using exact YNAB IDs.

  • Loan payment history: payment transfers plus monthly interest, escrow, and charge activity.

  • Monthly budgeted amounts: the amounts you budgeted each month in YNAB.

  • Goals: YNAB targets become Zerosum goals with the same amounts, dates, and repeat settings, including monthly and weekly spending targets, savings targets with or without a date, and loan payment targets.

  • Scheduled transactions: upcoming one-time schedules arrive as scheduled transactions, and repeating schedules become recurring transactions with the next occurrence already in place.

Fresh start vs import

  • Fresh start: a clean slate with no historical baggage, categories that match your current life, and simpler, faster setup.

  • Import from YNAB: preserves transaction history, keeps your budgeted amounts, and maintains loan tracking.

💡 Tip: Not sure? Start fresh first; you can always import later if you miss your history.

Where to next