Easy finance

Easy finance is a personal finance accounting tool.

Years ago, I tried the tool Mint, but I thought it was bloated with features I didn't care about, and too slow for answering basic questions.

So I wrote my own tool. My partner and I use it for keeping track of our finances on a daily basis, and it has been a complete success.

This tool may be useful to others, so here are the sources and instructions to self-host.

Screenshot

Features

• Shows financial transactions in near real-time
• Runs as a web applications, so it's easy to share with a partner
• Has a UI to configure the application and link new accounts when needs be
• Aggregates multiple checking/saving accounts with credit cards. Each credit card is associated with a checking account from which they get paid from. Each group of checking account and its associated credit cards are aggregated separately, and shown on top of the page for quick access
• Pending transactions are accounted in the balance, and shown with a (P) in the transaction list
• Automatic transfers and credit cards payments are shown is small, refunds in green.
• Access to the balances is speedy with a page load is under 1 second
• Easy to configure (and reconfigure) bank accounts and credit cards
• UI implemented with the Next.js framework
• Self-host for free
• No maintenance needed

Installation

1. Clone the easy-finance repository

git clone https://github.com/nviennot/easy-finance.git
cd easy-finance

2. Initialize settings

cp with_env.template.sh with_env.sh

• Edit the with_env.sh and set a password (replace the XXX).

3. Setup a Plaid account

Plaid is used to retreive all the bank data.

• Go to plaid.com
• Register for a new account. We will be using a free development account that allows up to 5 linked banks.
• In Team Settings → Keys, Copy the client_id, public_key, and developement secret into the with_env.sh file

4. Setup a Firebase account

Firebase is used to store the application settings.

• Go to firebase.google.com and register an account
• Create a new project. No need to connect to Analytics if asked.
• In Develop → Database → Create a new Database. Select production mode, and a datacenter closest to you if asked.
• In Settings → Project Settings → Service accounts, click on Generate new private key. This should download a .json file Save it as service-account-key.json in the root of the repository directory
• On the same screen, you should see a databaseURL setting. Save it in the with_env.sh file

5. Test and configure the application locally

You can use docker if you are familiar with it. Use source with_env.sh && ./run_docker.sh and you would be all set. Alternatively, proceed with the following steps.

• Run the following in the repository directory

yarn install
source with_env.sh
npm run dev

• This should lunch a webserver. localhost:3000 should show a login page
• Use the password from step 2 to log in. You should see the account page

6. Configure bank accounts

Configure accounts to your liking. Below shows a screenshot of what to expect. Once configured, click on Save which takes you back to the list of transactions.

7. Deploy to ZEIT

ZEIT is a platform that can run our application so it is accessible from anywhere.

• Register a free account at zeit.co
• Run the following in the repository directory

npm install -g now
now login
./deploy.sh

You may be asked to link your ZEIT account. Answering the default answers should do. After a minute or so, you should see the deployed URL.

License

Released under the MIT license.