Help · Getting started

Importing your history

You can start fresh, or bring in what you already have. When you create a budget, choose Import existing, then where it's coming from.

Another budgeting app

Pensum can import a YNAB export: accounts, categories, every month's assignments, and your transaction history, so your category balances match where you left off. You can bring in everything or start from a chosen month.

• In YNAB, open your budget's settings and choose Export budget (you get a ZIP file).
• In YNAB 4 (Classic), choose File → Export Budget (you get two CSV files; choose both).

The files are read in your browser; only the converted budget is sent to Pensum.

From another app, export your transactions as QIF, OFX or CSV, and import them as bank files (below). Most apps, Quicken included, can export at least one of these.

A Pensum backup

A Complete backup (from Settings) restores as a new budget with everything in it: accounts, categories, every month, transactions and reconciling. Sharing and bank connections aren't in a backup, so set those up again afterwards.

Files from your bank

Most banks let you download transactions from their website, usually under the account's activity, as QFX or OFX (best: they carry the bank's own IDs, so nothing is imported twice), CSV, or QIF. Choose Quicken, another app, or your bank's files when you start, and Pensum creates the budget with starter categories, then opens the import for each file. An account in a file can become a new account as it's imported.

Bank sync

If you connect your bank, the first sync brings in recent history, usually about 90 days (whatever the bank keeps). You can add older months from a downloaded file; transactions already there are matched, not doubled.

Choosing a starting date

Each account starts on a date with a starting balance. Pensum skips imported transactions dated before it, so nothing is counted twice. Pick a date your bank's files go back to, such as the first of a recent month, and use that day's balance.

Nothing is counted twice

When you import, Pensum matches each row against what's already in the account: by the bank's ID, or by the same amount within a few days (or the same payee and amount, up to two months apart, for something entered with the wrong date). Matches are merged into the transaction you already have, keeping your category and memo.

Still stuck? Signed in, choose Contact support in your account menu, or email [email protected] Copy