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Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

firefly-iii.org

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Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#51

Post by phoenixy1 »

smeej wrote: post #42
encryptluks2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plaid does the opposite. It scrapes using your banks credentials.

Am I totally misremembering this, or is it a fairly recent change? I could've sworn several years ago it was perfectly possible to use your sign-in credentials, then immediately change them, because it basically needed an authorization token, but then worked fine. Now it doesn't. I work for a company with a Plaid integration and if the bank so much as requires any kind of 2FA, you just can't use it at all anymore.

I work at Plaid. It all depends on the bank. Most data provided by Plaid is sent from banks to Plaid via API, but some isn’t. And generally Plaid connections work fine with 2fa, but some don’t depending on the 2fa method and implementation details.

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#52

Post by bern4444 »

BbzzbB wrote: post #45
candiddevmike wrote: post #41

If you're looking for budgeting like old YNAB and a general household management solution, checkout Homechart: https://homechart.app

I listened to a talk by YNAB's creator last year (about development not the program itself). Didn't realize until this thread how popular it is.

Can you share a link to the talk? Would enjoy listening to it

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#53

Post by Fnoord »

toyg wrote: post #11

Looks good but the real problem, as for 90% of similar programs, is the volume of necessary data-entry. Paid-for options like YNAB, nowadays, can fetch transactions from many mainstream US/EU banks and credit providers. Without that sort of feature, it's a real drudge to keep up entering every single expense.

They have plugins for various input sources, you could write one too or pay someome to.

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#54

Post by Fnoord »

imroot wrote: post #28
balaji1 wrote: post #12

how do Firefly or ActualBudget and the like compare to something like hledger?

It really just depends on how comfortable you are in the command line. If you know how to get your transactions downloaded from your bank and don't ever want to leave the command line, hledger is great for you -- I've been using hledger since 2019 and love every minute of it. If you need something point and click, or, need a high "wife-acceptance factor," firefly-iii is not a bad choice. After coming from hledger, I…

Ideally you want to be able to access such a database with whatever frontend you want: CLI, HTTPS (Laravel apparently), Qt and such, etc.

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#55

Post by morganvachon »

I guess I'm really old school but I just have a spreadsheet for my budgeting, with formulas and charts I've written and maintained over the last 25 years. It's gone from old Microsoft formats (xls/xlsx) to ODS, to Gnumeric, back to ODS, and now I use Apple's Numbers since I have a Mac and an iPhone, and iCloud web works on pretty much any device with a browser I might have in front of me. If I do ever feel like ditching my Mac and going back to an open source OS, I can just export it to ODS again and all my formulas and tools transfer over (I don't use anything proprietary from Numbers, though color fills don't always match right up).

I am salaried with weekly payout, and so I have a weekly chart for where my money goes on payday (bills/loans/cards/savings), an amortization schedule for each account that allows me to see how extra payments will affect the payoff and interest, and a brainstorming sheet for planning future large purchases (cars, maybe a bigger house one day). I can do pretty much anything with this that I could with Firefly III or a paid solution, but (for me at least) this is less hassle and my data stays between me and Apple's iCloud server; I trust them enough with that basic data to not bother with maintaining and securing a VPS just to balance my budget.

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#56

Post by kleebeesh »

toyg wrote: post #11

Looks good but the real problem, as for 90% of similar programs, is the volume of necessary data-entry. Paid-for options like YNAB, nowadays, can fetch transactions from many mainstream US/EU banks and credit providers. Without that sort of feature, it's a real drudge to keep up entering every single expense.

I've been using firefly over two years now. Data entry has not been been a problem:

* Run the data-importer as a separate container. Takes maybe 20 minutes to configure correctly if you already know docker and docker-compose.

* Download the transactions as CSVs from each of my 5 or so credit card and bank accounts that get regular use.

* Upload them through the data-importer. It lets you configure and save settings for each CSV format. I took five minutes to set that up the first time I imported CSVs and just keeping using the same settings.

I upload all of my transactions once a month and it takes about an hour to download them, import them, and categorize all of them (I also have a bunch of rules to auto-categorize, but there are inevitably a dozen or so bespoke transactions).

I've found that any of the solutions built on top of syncing backends like Plaid inevitably have issues: duplicates, missing txs, debit/credit mixed up. I even built my own custom Plaid-to-Firefly syncer at one point and found the data quality was very mixed, even when all my accounts are at major US banks. The data-importer takes some more up-front work, but it's more secure, way more predictable, and generally a solved problem.

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#57

Post by Phelinofist »

sirsinsalot wrote: post #7

I applaud the effort, but sometimes think apps like this when they promote self-hosting should have a mode of installation and operation that acts more or less like a desktop application.

That was also my gripe with Firefly III. I liked the looks of it but the setup was a PITA

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#58

Post by ocdtrekkie »

sirsinsalot wrote: post #44
prepend wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have a docker instal option. Granted it’s a bit of overkill but you can run it like desktop software.

I mean, a windows installer (or RPM) that doesn't require a background process so that more people can access the value of the software. Even Flatpak or something if we are talking Linux specific. Having Docker and other "enthusiast" methods of running software makes it less accessible. Having a web-stack as the goto method of writing software doesn't make sense if it limits the audience that would gain value from it…

But that approach doesn't work if you intend for people to be able to access it from their mobile app, multiple PCs, etc.

Slapping a web server into a local desktop install and calling it good basically removes the vast majority of benefits of it being a web app.

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#59

Post by bozhark »

kleebeesh wrote: post #56
toyg wrote: post #11

Looks good but the real problem, as for 90% of similar programs, is the volume of necessary data-entry. Paid-for options like YNAB, nowadays, can fetch transactions from many mainstream US/EU banks and credit providers. Without that sort of feature, it's a real drudge to keep up entering every single expense.

I've been using firefly over two years now. Data entry has not been been a problem: * Run the data-importer as a separate container. Takes maybe 20 minutes to configure correctly if you already know docker and docker-compose. * Download the transactions as CSVs from each of my 5 or so credit card and bank accounts that get regular use. * Upload them through the data-importer. It lets you configure and save settings f…

What a nuisance

Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager

#60

Post by gen220 »

aftbit wrote: post #23

I currently use Mint by Intuit. I hate the new UI, the constant ads, and the amount of trust I have to give them (with my bank credentials). I would love to self-host something else that can auto-import all of my transactions. I'll have to check out Saltedge and Nordigen. I might also write my own Plaid API integration. Just as much trust though... Open banking data APIs sounds like an easy win for regulators, but pr…

If you’re technical enough to self host and concerned about privacy, you might want to try using GNU Ledger and hand-rolling importers.

I was in your position about 3 years ago, and have no regrets going down this path.

Downloading all of the necessary files by hand only takes a couple minutes with a decent password manager. You’ll spend more time (re-)categorizing and running interesting reports, and IME the ledger apps have the best experience in this dimension, although YNAB isn’t bad.

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