EEBA is now Goodbudget! You can find the most up-to-date information about using Goodbudget on our Help Center.
[UPDATE 11/21/2013: See this post for an updated feature list and our plan for a slower transition to the new site. ]
Dear faithful EEBA supporters,
We’ve gotten an earful from you over the past four days since we launched Goodbudget. And we’ve learned a lot. Several of you have expressed that you feel like you lost a friend in EEBA and you’re in mourning. You loved her.
We realize that we messed up in not providing enough warning and help in transitioning to the new version of the website. Even though we listened carefully to feedback from a large group of beta users, based on your feedback now, it’s clear that we misjudged how critical certain features are to you. Point humbly taken.
While some of the decisions we made in building this version were inherently either/or decisions, others were a matter of prioritizing limited resources. We’re working as fast as we can to build the features you’ve told us that you absolutely need. Over the next couple months, you can expect to see these features come to the new version:
- Click to clear transactions in the transactions window
- In Add Transaction > Income, add “Take me to Fill Envelopes” option [UPDATE 11/21/2013: Based on budgeter feedback, we’ve decided to build a one-step income-to-envelopes option instead.]
- In Add Transaction, show Envelope balances in drop-downs
- Budget Allocation Report
- Spending by Payee Report
- Envelope Balances Report
- Spending by Envelope Report Enhancements
- Record Now for scheduled transactions
- Export transaction history (CSV)
- Make reconcile checkboxes easier to check off
- Show “last reconciled” date
The old EEBA site will continue to remain available until we have brought all the features listed above to Goodbudget.
If there’s a feature that you need in EEBA that hasn’t made it to the new version yet, you can use the old site by clicking the small link to log in to classic EEBA here.
If you want to stay up to date when each of these features comes to Goodbudget, we’ll post updates here, on Facebook , and on Twitter.
Again, thanks for your support and patience as we make the transition. We’re grateful that you have stuck with us in this transition, and we are committed to you, our budgeters.
— Chi-En and the team
25 thoughts on “Where did my EEBA go?”
Greatly appreciated Chi-En and team.
Hi,
After a few days of using Goodbudget, here are my findings and suggestions :
– I cannot find the budget period option in my account
– reports are not grouped anymore by envelope groups
– it would be nice to have the option to view the budget allocation report on a yearly view (it is key for me to forecast on a yearly basis)
Many thanks
David
@David, Thanks for sharing your experience and suggestions. The budget period option is now on the Add/Edit Envelopes screen — there’s a drop-down in the header above your regular Envelopes where you can choose to make them Monthly, Bi-Weekly, etc. And we’ve got Envelope Groups in mind as we work on the reports.
Hi Chi-En,
I appreciate your thoughtful response, and your commitment to re-implementing these important features, and hopefully many others as well.
I’m struggling because this whole escapade has left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I feel completely thrown by the sudden and drastic changes and the clumsy way in which they were handled. I feel betrayed by the loss of features that are so important to me, and that I paid for – in EEBA, not Goodbudget – and that I am expected to now live without until (or if) they are re-created. And I’m disappointed that it took your team so long to really start listening to us – to realise that it wasn’t really about technical issues, but emotional ones. Everything is always about the people, and the only thing that really matters is your relationship with them.
I know you’re trying to do the right thing, whatever that is, but I feel like the ones who matter the most – your users – are the ones who’ve come last in this changeover. And I’m saddened that I don’t feel like I can trust you any more.
You’re right, I love(d) EEBA, and I might have loved GoodBudget, but not like this. I’m torn, because maybe the devil I know is better than anything else out there, but I’m also reluctant to sacrifice my needs to stay in a bad relationship, just because it’s the only one I’ve currently got and I’ve already spent so much time on it.
I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but I do know that our relationship is never going to be the same, and that’s a real shame. We had something beautiful, and now it’s a bit tattered and stained. I want to live in a world where I’m always treated with honesty, respect and thoughtfulness, even if that makes me unrealistic, and I’m grieved that your handling of this situation means that you’re no longer such a good fit for my world.
Darn it!
Feeling sad and unexpectedly sitting in a muddy puddle,
Nikki
@Nikki, I’ve read your comment multiple times today, and every time it cuts me to the heart. I am incredibly saddened and sorry that I have made you feel betrayed. And it’s tough to hear the truth that we haven’t treated you in a way that respects you as a person and honors our fundamentally human relationship. I am sorry that I’ve altered our relationship for the worse, and I do hope that you will give me and my team the chance to earn back your trust. Hoping to do right by you, Chi-En
Have you considered making the envelopes easier to see on the page. Currently it is like looking at the envelopes on a phone and having to scroll to get an at a glance sense of where you stand in spending. In the real EEBA I could get a quick overview of my monthly spending but now there is a tiny widget in the corner. I do not understand this given that the envelope is the main tool. I have no desire to have 2/3 of the page show me my most recent transactions while not even a third shows me only a few of my envelopes. I suggest changing the design to resemble the old view. At present it is super inconvenient to have to scroll and scroll and scroll just to do what I used to be able to do with a glance.
Rebekah thank you so much for bringing this up! I have been beta-testing the new site and this was the main complaint I had. Unfortunately, it appears that the goal is to step away from envelopes and become more like Quicken (YUCK).
I’m glad someone else has the same issue I do!
Sean, We’re not stepping away from envelopes. We still think it’s the best way to manage household budgets.
Thanks for putting this up, Chi-En. I know from past experience that you and your team truly have it in your hearts to help everyone learn to budget wisely. I must say that, thanks to EEBA and a little encouragement from Dave Ramsay, my wife and I have gone from being $30k+ in debt, and living paycheck to paycheck, to where we are now: nearly debt free with a large cash cushion beneath us. Thank you for that. That said, all things change. EEBA’s feature set was wonderful, but the navigation and aesthetics sometimes left a lot to be desired. I think the upgrade was a wise choice (though I’m really gonna miss the old name). I’m sure that Goodbudget will be just as useful and helpful as EEBA is/was once all the wrinkles are ironed out.
Speaking of wrinkles, please don’t forget about the “Save and Add New” button in the Add Transaction widget. It was a huge topic on get satisfaction, but I don’t see it listed above. Also, I must agree with Rebekah that the new envelope view could use a little work. Maybe separate columns for the budget amount and the balance? Stacked like they are makes it a little tougher to read the balances.
Aside from these and the items you roadmapped, I think Goodbudget is pretty groovy.
@Kevin – Thanks for recognizing our motivations behind the changes. Save & New is on our updated list (next blog post). And congrats on tackling that mountain of debt! Keep up the good work.
I’m really sad about this change. It is definitely into worse. Envelope list and transaction list has become lot smaller so much harder to overview. I have a huge screen why can’t I use it for the information I need? Allow opening envelopes and transactions in full screen as it is in eeba. There’s no inline editing either what was so convenient to fix typos or mark transactions cleared.
@metz2000, I’m sincerely sorry that you’re sad about the change and that you find it to be worse. Re: in-line editing specifically, the click-to-clear aspect of that is on our to-do list. The other aspects currently aren’t on our short-term to-do list because we’re trying to prioritize things that affect the most people most frequently, and I understand that means something that used to be quick has become slow. Sorry!
I don’t know about anyone else, but I am missing the “remembered refill” more than anything else. I corresponded with Steve in Support, but I really want to nag you guys to death until it returns. Like Nikki said, I paid for EEBA, not Goodbudget. I do not feel that it is right for us to lose features that we have paid for because a forced migration. I love EEBA. It has changed my life, but I’m torn as well. When I think of Goodbudget the phrase “bait and switch” comes to mind. Although I felt hopeful after talking to Steve, I am terribly disappointed that remembered refills didn’t make the list of features to be added. Now you guys have me thinking about doing something different, and that saddens me. If the product morphed as you said it did, why didn’t you just change the name and not the whole system? “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Bring back remembered refills!!!!
@Micah, I’m grateful that you love EEBA and that it has changed your life. And I am grieved that Goodbudget feels like a bait and switch to you. I am deeply sorry for that. We owe you the features you depend on. And yes, following the thread on GetSat and what you all have been telling us over email, we’ve included remembered refills on our to-do list. I’ll be posting an updated list of feature to-do’s later this week, and you’ll see remembered refills on that list. Generally, we welcome your nagging. Hopefully not to death, but yes, please nag 🙂 And I hope you give us the chance to earn your trust again.
I can’t figure out how to transfer between envelopes or how to transfer a certain amount out of unallocated. I can transfer the whole amount out of unallocated but not a smaller amount. Is this still possible?
@Rachel, Yes, both are still possible. Transfer between Envelopes is found under Add Transaction > Transfer tab. Using “Fill Envelopes,” you can transfer any amount out of Unallocated that you like. As you pick what to do to your Envelopes, you can see the summary on the right show you the amount that will come out of Unallocated as a result. That amount can be anything you want.
I am not having as many issues as some, but here are my comments on the new site. I find it a little more cumbersome at times to do what was so easy in EEBA. I’m not sure if this is a glitch, but I went to “set” my envelope amount to, let’s say $50, but instead of setting it, it just added the $50 to an envelop that had a negative amount. Now, that envelope is less than $50. I don’t think that’s how “set” is supposed to work. Also, there is no more “sweep unallocated funds to…” option. I don’t always end up with a perfect $0.00 when distributing my paycheck and I loved the option to sweep the remaining funds into a single envelope.
I also agree with the cleared check marks. I’d like to be able to just click instead of opening the interim window. Every time I do, I lose my spot because the list refreshes.
So far that’s all I can find that effects me.
@Libby, thanks for your comments. For “Set,” if you click the set / add toggle on the Fill page, it should do what you expect (no rollover). You can also choose “Set All” from the Quick Fill, and then make adjustments to certain Envelopes. Sweep is on our updated to-do list, which I’ll be posting later this week.
Thanks Chi-En. I did use the Add/Set toggle on my fill page. I had a positive amount in the envelope (I misspoke) – $10. So when I clicked “set” and filled in $50, instead of the balance being $50 it was $40. It should have just stayed at $50 or at least been over $50, not below. I’m just pointing out that it might be a glitch.
@Libby, Hm – that’s certainly odd. I just checked, and it looks like set/add is working okay generally, so it sounds like something’s going on in your specific household. Would you email support@goodbudget.com with your household username and the date(s) of your Fills so we can take a look? Thanks!
Launching the new interface without the option to export the expenses is a real FAIL!!!
@Hando – Yes, we should have included export in the first release of the new site. That’s our mistake. You can still export via the EEBA site while we work to bring that feature to the new version.
@Nikki Stokes –What planet are you from? Chill OUT. It remains a budgeting tool, not a life-support system. We’ve made the tool to be essential in our household, but I’m not going to be emotionally destroyed if a few features have changed. Let’s get a grip on reality, shall we? Guess what! People used to budget money without apps! No seriously, they did! I’ve not seen a developer be more apologetic and gracious…
@Susan Thanks for recognizing our efforts to make things right. We appreciate people who call us out on our mistakes, and we also appreciate people who cut us some slack when we mess up.
If you wanted to hear when we roll out features to Goodbudget from this to-do list, check out this blog post instead. We just released three from the updated list today.