Not affiliated in any way with Actual Budget, but I can’t recommend it enough. It’s the FOSS version of YNAB pretty much so if you’re a fan of envelope budgeting it’s a great tool. I’d even say it has quite a few other strengths compared to YNAB (free bank syncing in the EU with more banks supported for example), and you can always be sure that your financial data stays within your reach.
How does it compare to Firefly III?
Actual budget just dropped, holy hell
I switched over to this last month, and I’m already a fan of it. It did take a bit of time to port over my old shtitty excel tracking, and to write a few python scripts to parse the export CSV files from each of my bank accounts, but it is very clearly worth it.
One of the nice things is that it uses a SQLite db to store everything, so if shit ever hits the fan with one of my drives or the software, it isn’t the end of the world.
I will try this out! That looks handy!
The man who originally invented this tech is a really good guy, can’t recommend it enough!
at first I thought this required hosting but it looks like maybe its stand alone software now. Am I right or did I misunderstand the site?
You can self host it so you can access it over the web, or you can choose to run it entirely locally. It’s pretty nifty, and I’ve elected to using it for the second option.
The number one thing that most of these don’t do well for me is the connection with banks. You mentioned that there is bank syncing, how well does that work? Can I say, just click my bank and do an oauth connection, and it will store it? I really loved Mint, and essentially want it to be done the same way
For me personally, it was easier to just write a few python scripts to parse the CSV files from my banks.
In the US it has integration with SimpleFIN. SimpleFIN isn’t free but it’s pretty cheap ($1.50/mo) and supports most banks out there, even my obscure local credit union. It works pretty well, though sometimes the banks fuck with stuff and seem hell bent on breaking any kind of API access, but SimpleFIN support was really responsive for me to get it fixed when it happened. I do also have to reauthenticate my bank every day when I want to sync, but that’s also just the banks being assholes and isn’t too bad to do.
How well do you find it works? I’m not afraid of the fee, but I don’t want to spend time setting it up and paying the fee to only find out that it won’t do most things
Worked really well for me, just put in an API key to actual budget and it pulls all the info from simple fin. Only thing that doesn’t pull for me it categories of the transactions so you have to manually set them up in actual but it does allow for rules.
Tried it and it works pretty well! I’ll have to keep playing with it, but so far so good!
Yeah I started using Actual about a week ago. Setup SimpleFin in a few seconds within a couple of minutes actual was auto populated. I ran into a syncing snag and messaged Simple Fin support. They worked with my credit union and I was all good in a couple of hours. Been running smoothly ever since. I really like it. And I don’t have the guilt of not budgeting anymore. Plus, ynab tutorials and advice are basically Actual tutorials.
Has worked really well for me. Like I mentioned I’ve had a couple instances where the banks change their login flow and I had to open a support ticket to get it fixed, but they (SimpleFIN) were very responsive in working on it when I opened a support request and had it fixed within a couple days. Two of my accounts also have to be re-authenticated every time I wanna pull data into Actual, but that’s also the banks’ fault and it’s not that big of a deal to do.
As for integration with Actual is basically flawless and just works. Setup is super easy, just paste in a token from SimpleFIN and boom you see all the accounts you have linked and can attach them to accounts in Actual. Sync is rock solid too, I don’t have any issues with it messing up transactions with duplicates etc.
Does SimpleFIN use OAuth to log into bank accounts, or do you need to enter your bank’s username and password?
Unrelated to this post, but do you know if SimpleFIN supports investment accounts? If it does, it seems like an easy way to let me write a script to help rebalance my investment accounts. I might look into it.
It varies by bank but for all mine you have to use the username and password unfortunately. My understanding is that it’s just how the underlying bank APIs work in general, because that’s what I have to do when I link accounts for my banks elsewhere too, not just in SimpleFIN. I don’t think they actually store your credentials though, I think it proxies it to the bank login and then caches a token. You can probably ask their support about the details if you’re concerned, they have been pretty responsive to me and willing to answer technical questions.
It does support investment accounts, I have my retirement and investment accounts in there. It supports just about every account I have, actually, credit cards included which is super handy. I think it’s all read-only access through, so you can only use it to import data not make new transactions.
I think it’s all read-only access through, so you can only use it to import data not make new transactions.
That’s alright. Even read-only access is useful. I could write a script that pulls my current investments, prompts for the amount I’ll be investing in total, and prints out the buys (eg “buy 10 x VOO, 5 x VXF, 20 x VXUS”) that’ll keep the account balanced based on some percentages.
Not sure if it tracks like your actual portfolio breakdown, it might have access to that info but for Actual Budget it just shows the balance on the account.
If you’re in the EU you can do bank syncing for free with GoCardless integration. If you’re in the US you need to go with SimpleFIN which costs a small sum and is in a more experimental phase than the GoCardless integration I think. Either way, GoCardless has been working great for me. Actually far better than YNAB which didn’t even support my bank. It’s literally just set up and forget.
Because the actual export, transform and loading of multiple banks and accounts data is cumbersome its holding me back.
So curious to read about GoCardless.
But is that also for consumer?
And is it this: https://gocardless.com/pricing/
Yes, it works a treat in the EU (due to PSD2, which mandates open banking) and U.K. (which is copy/pasting PSD2 to ensure their banks aren’t left behind).
I’m syncing with Handelsbanken UK, American Express, Lloyds, Monzo and Starling, all in the UK. Works a treat except most of the banks actually rate limit you to a couple of syncs per day.
Yes. You can read about on Actual Budgets documentation. It’s free for personal use. You just generate an API token. https://actualbudget.org/docs/advanced/bank-sync/gocardless/
I’ve literally just switched to Actual (3 days in) after living out of a homemade Excel YNAB clone for years and years. Overall it’s great and the bank syncing works really work.
I love that it’s open source, E2E encrypted, self-hostable and the data lives in a SQLite database.
If I haven’t found any major snags, I’ll of course become a supporter in a couple of weeks.
Neat, I did already transfer my budgeting to GNUCash a few months ago, but this looks shiny too.
Looks interesting. Marked it for exploration. Too many cool projects to explore and not enough time!
You need a time budgeter
I’ve been using it for almost a year now and it works great. I used to just use a spread sheet to track my bills paychecks and due dates but this made it much nicer
This is the comment that’s going to make me try it. I love my spreadsheet, so I’ll have to see if this does everything that my spreadsheet does.
I downloaded the mobile app but it’s asking me for E-Mail straight away and there’s no way to select my own server… What gives?
This mobile app is not associated with the current open source project. Like i think it’s a vestige from before they went open source. They recommend using actual in your mobile browser for now, which works decently well
Ohhhh, thanks for letting me know!
I really love it, been using it for about 2 months, came from YNAB, used that for probably 3-5 years. Although I wish it was a little more mobile friendly, it works on mobile well enuf for me to record my daily transactions and then I just use a desktop once a week when I do all my bill payments and budget catch up.
I really like the reporting options, and also it has some mass note append/prepend/replace functionality which works great for me hashtagging the expenses I have addressed, confirmed and moved around to various accounts.
I do wish it had flagging, I really loved the colored flags, but I’m using the hashtagging as a replacement and it works pretty well.
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Actual is libre and gratis
Looks nice, I’ll check it out. Always open to something that looks nicer than my excel sheets
Maybe I’ll do the homeassistant install option, I’m actually surprised to see that mentioned in their documentation. I didn’t see a docker image, surely there’s a community-maintained one somewhere?
My eyes have failed me today, thanks lol
