Assigning Your Money: A Guide

June 7 2025 8:40pm • Est. Read Time: 6 MIN

Assign money in YNAB using either methods: manual assignment or Auto-Assign. Apply the YNAB Method and Give Every Dollar a Job whenever funds are available in Ready to Assign.

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But, wait! How does money get into Ready to Assign? By adding your accounts ↗️ and balances in YNAB and any time you add an inflow transaction ↗️ or other income. Want more details? Learn more about Ready to Assign ↗️ and how it's calculated.

In This Article

Ready to Assign

Manually Assigning Money to a Category

Auto-Assign

Going Forward

Ready to Assign

Ready to Assign holds the money that still needs a job and alerts you if you've assigned more than you have. There are four states of Ready to Assign, and each provides you with valuable information.

Four states of Ready to Assign

  • When Ready to Assign includes a positive amount and an "Assign" button in the current month, those dollars are ready for a job. Assign money to your categories until Ready to Assign is $0.00. You can manually assign money to individual categories or use Auto-Assign.

  • When Ready to Assign is $0.00 in the current month and in all future months, you've given every dollar a job. You're actively following the YNAB method ↗️. 

  •  When Ready to Assign includes a negative amount and a "Fix This" button in the current month, you've assigned more money than you have available in your plan ↗️. This means you need to remove money from your categories until Ready to Assign is back to $0.00.

  • There are times when Ready to Assign could be $0.00 in the current month but negative in a future month ↗️. This happens when you have enough money for all the assigning you've done in the current month, but not enough for all the assigning you've done in future months. If Ready to Assign is negative in a future month, move money from spending categories back to Ready to Assign until it reaches $0.00 in the future-most month.
  1. When Ready to Assign includes a positive amount in the current month, those dollars are ready for a job. Assign money to your categories until Ready to Assign is $0.00. You can manually assign money to individual categories or use Auto-Assign.

  2. When Ready to Assign is missing from the current month, you've given every dollar a job. You're actively following the YNAB method ↗️.

  3.  When Ready to Assign includes a negative amount and a "Fix This" button in the current month, you've assigned more money than you have available in your plan ↗️. Tap the banner with the "Assigned Too Much" alert to subtract funds until Ready to Assign is back to $0.00. 

  4. There are times when Ready to Assign could be $0.00 in the current month but negative in a future month ↗️. This happens when you have enough money for all the assigning you've done in the current month, but not enough for all the assigning you've done in future months. Tap the banner with the "Assigned Too Much" alert in the future-most month to subtract funds until Ready to Assign is back to $0.00. 

Ready to Assign holds the money that still needs a job and alerts you if you've assigned more than you have. There are four states of Ready to Assign, and each provides you with valuable information.

  1. When Ready to Assign includes a positive amount in the current month, those dollars are ready for a job. Assign money to your categories until Ready to Assign is $0.00. You can manually assign money to individual categories or use Auto-Assign.

  2. When Ready to Assign is missing from the current month, you've given every dollar a job. You're actively following the YNAB method ↗️.

  3.  When Ready to Assign includes a negative amount and a "Fix This" button in the current month, you've assigned more money than you have available in your plan ↗️. Tap the banner with the "Assigned Too Much" alert to subtract funds until Ready to Assign is back to $0.00. 

  4. There are times when Ready to Assign could be $0.00 in the current month but negative in a future month ↗️. This happens when you have enough money for all the assigning you've done in the current month, but not enough for all the assigning you've done in future months. Tap the banner with the "Assigned Too Much" alert in the future-most month to subtract funds until Ready to Assign is back to $0.00. 

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Manually Assigning Money to a Category

 How to Manually Assign Money to a Category  

  1. Click on Plan in the left sidebar (located immediately below the name of your plan).

  2. If you don't have anything assigned to the category yet, you'll type the desired amount of money right in the Assigned column and press Enter or Return. As you do this, the Assigned column and Available amounts will update.

  3. If you already had some money assigned to the category and you're wanting to adjust it, when you click into the Assigned column, you'll want to:

    1. Use the built-in calculator buttons (plus   , minus    , etc.) or type them yourself. This ensures that you don't accidentally overwrite the initial assigned amount. 

    2. So, if you had $300 Assigned, and you want to add $25 more, you'd click the plus    sign, type in 25.00, and then hit Enter or Return on your keyboard. If you want to remove $25, you'd click the minus    sign, type in 25.00, and then hit Enter or Return. Here's how to use our inline calculator functions ↗️. 
  1. Tap the Plan tab at the bottom of the app, then toggle on Categories at the top.

  2. When you tap on a category*, a number pad will pop up and the Assigned column will become editable. This allows you to type in the desired amount of money. After you tap Done, the Assigned column and Available amounts will update.

    * Wanting to assign directly to a Credit Card Payment category? If you tap on a Credit Card Payment category, you'll be brought to a pop-up telling you whether you're on track to pay off your current card. So to change the assigned amount, you'll need to instead use the Moving Money ↗️ process. You'll move money from Ready to Assign (or another category) into the Credit Card Payment category.

  3. If you already had money assigned to the category, and you're wanting to adjust the amount, you'll want to:

    1. Use the plus and minus signs on the number pad to make sure you don't overwrite the initial assigned amount. 

    2. So if you initially had $300 assigned and you want to add $25 more, you'd tap the plus sign   , type in 25.00, and then tap Done. If you want to remove $25, you'd tap the minus sign   , type in 25.00, and then tap Done. Here's how to use our inline calculator functions ↗️.
  1. Tap the Plan tab at the bottom of the app, then toggle on Categories at the top.

  2. When you tap on a category*, a number pad will pop up and the Assigned column will become editable. This allows you to type in the desired amount of money. After you tap Done, the Assigned column and Available amounts will update.

    * Wanting to assign directly to a Credit Card Payment category? If you tap on a Credit Card Payment category, you'll be brought to a pop-up telling you whether you're on track to pay off your current card. So to change the assigned amount, you'll need to instead use the Moving Money ↗️ process. You'll move money from Ready to Assign (or another category) into the Credit Card Payment category.

  3. If you already had money assigned to the category, and you're wanting to adjust the amount, you'll want to:

    1. Use the plus and minus signs on the number pad to make sure you don't overwrite the initial assigned amount. 

    2. So if you initially had $300 assigned and you want to add $25 more, you'd tap the plus sign   , type in 25.00, and then tap Done. If you want to remove $25, you'd tap the minus sign   , type in 25.00, and then tap Done. Here's how to use our inline calculator functions ↗️.

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Auto-Assign

Month after month, you assign and spend money. As you do, YNAB does some work behind the scenes to keep track of your current and past spending. Use our optional Auto-Assign ↗️ feature whenever you want to swiftly distribute funds according to your current plan or your past spending history.

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Going Forward

Here are some tips for managing Assigned amounts and working ahead in future months if you've already given every dollar a job in the current month!

Moving Money  

After you've manually assigned money or used Auto-Assign, sometimes you may want to exercise your flexibility ↗️ to cover any overspending or to reflect your priorities. You can easily accomplish this by moving money from one category to another. Check out Moving Money in Your Plan ↗️ for step-by-step platform-specific instructions and more on how to track your money moves. 

Leftover Money to Assign  

Have you finished assigning all the money you need this month but still have a positive Ready to Assign? Consider assigning money into the future ↗️. 

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