Are there FOSS libraries that handle common financial functionality and do it reliably? Are these FOSS applications all reinventing the wheel?
Basically, yes.
Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
91–100 of 135 posts
Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#92Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
I appreciate the breakdown but I think you’re out of touch with how easy auto-import has become for most PF software users. They just see whatever new transactions have come in, as often as they care to look at their budgets. Like checking email.
Maybe out of touch. I've used them all (Mint, ynab, pocketsmith, buxfer, some google-sheets-based app, probably tried a dozen others). All of the auto-sync features had obvious bugs. It works for a few months and then you end up with junk data. But if it works for you, carry on!
Contra anecdote: been using auto import with YNAB for years with multiple accounts and never had junk data. At least, not of that means the data is wrong/corrupt.
The two issues I have had:
1. Have to reauthorize bank connection, but that's Plaid's issue I guess.
2. Payee names are all over the place because it's often the merchant name. I used to try and fix these and only have a single page payee for each entity, but gave up.
Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
this sounds like such a pain in the ass just to do my finances when other tools do it all for me…
I guess it comes down to the tradeoffs you're willing to accept for privacy. I personally find it quite sketchy that Plaid takes your username and password to your literal money and then does some opaque screen-scraping just to grab your transactions. I also spent a lot of time working with their API and it did not inspire confidence.
Not really their fault. The banks fault.
I have two banks and one CC that use an OAuth type system now.
Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a hugeeee LunchMoney fan. It's a solo dev and she does great! Hooked a few friends on it as well. This has been a lifesaver for insight into my financials and it's super flexible.
Bummer that it’s subscription only. I switched from a decade old spreadsheet to YNAB. Then it went subscription and online only. It relied on the Adobe Air runtime which stopped working in macOS several years ago (32-bit only). I haven’t looked at firefly yet, but I really want something that allows me to forecast expenses, and realize them as they occur and automatically adjust forecasts accordingly.
There is a script to patch YNAB 4 on macOS. You will need your serial number (but that should be enough, the script _should_ download the applications). After this, you can archive all the binaries for more safety (AdobeAir, patched YNAB, etc.)
It's on GitHub: https://github.com/banesto/YNAB4-64bit/blob/main/install
Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe out of touch. I've used them all (Mint, ynab, pocketsmith, buxfer, some google-sheets-based app, probably tried a dozen others). All of the auto-sync features had obvious bugs. It works for a few months and then you end up with junk data. But if it works for you, carry on!
Contra anecdote: been using auto import with YNAB for years with multiple accounts and never had junk data. At least, not of that means the data is wrong/corrupt. The two issues I have had: 1. Have to reauthorize bank connection, but that's Plaid's issue I guess. 2. Payee names are all over the place because it's often the merchant name. I used to try and fix these and only have a single page payee for each entity, b…
Side question, why are merchant names always so cryptic?
Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#97Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#98Looks 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.
This depends on how you look at financing and budgeting (duh). But Firefly III was originally designed (by me) to lower your running expenses. It doesn't feature a lot cool budget automation because that leads to more charts but less money.
The original idea was to make it hard (or at least with some friction) to create transactions. This also excluded any way of importing data. That way you feel your transactions twice. Once when you spend the money, and twice when you have to enter it.
Making you finances tangible is a very good way of spending less money. Importing all your shit just gives GIGO but with nicer graphics.
Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#99Firefly III is excellent - there was a lot of excitement for Actual budget the other week (which is also excellent) but firefly has been a solid self hosted finance tool for years. We have a one click installer for kubernetes over at https://kubesail.com/template/erulabs/firefly-iii if anyone is interested in self hosting this!
I found out about Firefly III a couple of weeks ago and wanted to try, but it seemed a bit more than what I needed. That's when I found out about Actual, which does seem to be an interesting solution. My issue with it is that they seem to have made the web version (intentionally?) not compatible with mobile, and their iPhone app requires a subscription of ~$10 a month. At first I thought I'd give it a try then felt s…
actual is "going open-source", but "Unfortunately, the mobile apps are going to be deprecated"
Re: Firefly III: A free and open-source finance manager
#100Looks 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 tried the auto ones and they are _too_ easy. It feels like all it’s doing is showing my credit card bill in a different format. Plus, I don’t want some external corporation to be the source of truth for my money. Entering everything in myself makes me slow down and consider what I’m spending. And as a bonus, I spot check against what my creditors think I’m spending.