Find the right place for each budgeting task
The primary navigation follows the work
- Home points toward setup tasks or the month that needs attention next.
- Plan holds the month library, recurring setup, and the Budget, Breakdown, and Plan and Edit views.
- Activity shows transactions, imports, and whether each transaction is matched to the plan.
- Accounts shows current and projected balances; Reports shows trends and categories and lets you open the transactions behind each total.
- Budget contains the Grouped, Full List, and Calendar modes for reviewing entries from different angles.
- Previous and next month arrows preserve the selected month view while moving between nearby periods.
You can switch the app theme
- The app includes built-in color themes if you want a different look and feel.
- Your theme choice is remembered for later visits on the same browser.
- Changing themes affects the interface styling, not your month data or account setup.
Read a chart and verify the exact amounts
Use charts to spot patterns
- Trend charts compare income, outflow, and net movement across periods.
- Composition charts explain which categories contribute to an outflow total.
- Plan-versus-actual views show where spending or income differed from the plan.
Open exact values when you need them
- Each chart includes labels and a written summary, so color is never the only explanation.
- If you prefer a table or use assistive technology, open the exact values.
- Open the transactions behind a report total whenever you want to check it.
What changes when you close a month
Totals saved at close
Closing saves the totals you reviewed and the transactions behind them. Reports clearly label those values as the closed-month totals.
Current calculation
If something changes later, reopen the month, correct the transaction, and close it again to save the updated totals.
Back up and restore your whole budget
What the backup area supports
- Exports include your accounts, months, categories, plans, transactions, imports, and closed-month totals.
- Optional password encryption for downloaded export files.
- Preview a restore before it replaces your current data. Restore previews expire after 15 minutes.
- After confirmation, Backup v2 exports and restores continue in the background. You can leave the page and return to their saved status.
- A restore package can contain up to 100 MB or 250,000 normalized records.
- Download an example if you want to see what a backup contains.
Keep accounts, months, and transactions connected
- Backups preserve the links between accounts, plans, transactions, imports, and closed months.
- You can still import backups from supported earlier releases.
- A generated Backup v2 export remains available to its owner for one day.
- Before replacing current data, the app creates an encrypted safety copy that you can restore for seven days.
- Application exports complement PostgreSQL and server backups; they do not replace them.
Preview every restore first.
Check what will be replaced before the 15-minute preview expires, keep the safety-copy password secure, and retain your server backup until the restored budget is verified.
How self-hosted updates work
Pin a release so updates happen when you choose
- Pin production installs to a versioned image such as
ghcr.io/taimoorq/expense_tracker:v2.1.0.
- Read release notes before changing the tag.
- Pull the new image, restart the stack, and let the
web service prepare the application, cache, and queue databases during startup.
- Confirm both the
web and dedicated worker services are running before starting background work.
- When upgrading an existing budget to 2.0, follow the compatibility checks in Getting Started before completing the switch.
- Open Home, Plan, Activity, Accounts, Reports, and Backup, then export a fresh backup.
Use source updates when you run from git
- Export a backup before pulling changes.
- Pull the repository, review environment variable changes, and restart through the normal setup flow.
- Do not run the sample-data command as part of a routine production update.
- Keep the README update instructions nearby for HTTPS, Docker, and environment-specific details.
Know when an update is available
The app can show an Update Available prompt when a new release is ready.
Open the install and upgrade guide for exact commands
The GitHub README covers published images, production Compose commands, HTTPS, environment variables, and the exact upgrade and rollback sequence.
Back up before you change anything.
Export a backup before changing image tags, pulling source changes, moving servers, or testing a restore path you have not used before.
Where help, release notes, and docs live
In-app help
The Help page inside the app stays useful for first-run orientation, screen-by-screen reminders, and
quick links to the most common next steps.
Release notes and this hosted guide
Read the in-app release notes to see what changed. Use this guide whenever you need setup,
workflow, or recovery instructions before or after signing in.
Related workflow pages
Need setup help?
Go to Getting Started for installation, safe upgrades, Home, accounts, and recurring transactions.
Need month-building help?
Go to Monthly Workflow for planning, Activity matching, account reconciliation, Reports, close, and reopen.