Managing Personal Finance CSVs from YNAB and Notion
If you track money in YNAB or a Notion database, the monthly CSV export is where the real analysis starts: year-over-year spending, category trends, and the one subscription you forgot about. The catch is that exports drift, categories get renamed, date formats vary, so a little cleanup comes first.
Bottom line: Export each month, force one date format, map categories onto canonical labels, merge the files, then pivot and chart spending by month and category, all locally.
Step 1: Export Each Source
Pull a CSV from YNAB (Account > Export, or Export Budget) and from your Notion finance database ("..." menu > Export > CSV). Keep the raw files; you will re-run the same steps on next month's export.
Step 2: Force One Date Format
Convert every date column to YYYY-MM-DD. Notion exports dates in your workspace locale and YNAB in yours; unifying them is what lets you sort and group by month later.
Step 3: Map Categories to Canonical Labels
Build a category mapping that collapses "Groceries", "groceries", and "Food - Groceries" into one label. Save it and reuse it every month so your history stays comparable.
Step 4: Merge the Files
Once columns and dates line up, stack the monthly files into one long history. If you are joining a transactions file to a budget or category file, merge on the shared key instead of pasting columns.
Step 5: Pivot and Chart
Build a pivot of month by category to see where the money goes, then chart the totals. A stacked bar by month makes seasonal spending and creeping subscriptions obvious.
Your Finances Never Leave Your Computer
Every step runs in your browser. How To CSV parses and transforms the CSV locally, with no upload and no storage. Your full transaction history stays on your device.
Doing This in How To CSV
- Datetime Reformat to unify date formats (Step 2)
- Categorical Mapping to canonicalize categories (Step 3)
- Smart Merge to combine monthly or multi-account files (Step 4)
- Pivot for month-by-category totals (Step 5)
- Charts to visualize spending trends (Step 5)
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I export my data from YNAB or Notion as CSV?
YNAB exports from Account > Export or the budget-level Export Budget option, producing a register CSV and a budget CSV. Notion exports a database as CSV from the "..." menu > Export > CSV. Both give you a plain file you can combine and analyze offline.
My categories are inconsistent across months. How do I fix that?
Use a categorical mapping step to collapse variants ("Groceries", "groceries", "Food - Groceries") onto one canonical label. Save the mapping so you can reapply it to next month's export in one click.
How do I merge exports from several accounts or several months?
Standardize the columns and date format in each file first, then stack them. If you are combining a transactions file with a categories or budget file, use a merge/join on the shared key rather than pasting columns together.
Is it private to analyze my finances this way?
Yes. Your transaction data is processed entirely in your browser with How To CSV. It is never uploaded to a server and nothing is stored, which is the point when the file is your full spending history.
Analyze your budget history
Load your YNAB or Notion export and pivot spending by month and category, entirely in your browser.
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