# FinanceTracking.app

> Updated 2026-04-11.
>
> FinanceTracking.app is a self-hosted budgeting application built around month-by-month planning rather than always-on account syncing. It helps users set up accounts, save recurring transactions, create or clone each month, import or add entries, review cash flow and account activity, and keep portable backups.

## What the product is

- A self-hosted budgeting app for monthly planning.
- Designed for people who want more structure than a spreadsheet but more control than a hosted bank-sync app.
- Focused on recurring setup, month review, account-aware budgeting, and manual balance tracking.
- Distributed from the GitHub repository and commonly run with Docker.

## What it is not

- Not a hosted SaaS budgeting service.
- Not an automatic bank-sync platform.
- Not a replacement for legal, tax, accounting, or financial advice.

## Best-fit use cases

- Planning one month at a time with recurring income and expenses.
- Reusing a recurring budget structure without recreating it every month.
- Tracking checking, savings, cards, loans, and other balances manually.
- Importing CSV activity instead of connecting accounts directly.
- Keeping versioned backups of budgeting data in a portable format.

## Core workflow

1. Add accounts and optional balance snapshots.
2. Save recurring transactions such as paychecks, subscriptions, monthly bills, payment plans, and credit card payments.
3. Create a new month or clone the most recent month.
4. Open the month and pull in recurring entries from the Plan and Edit workflow.
5. Add one-off entries manually or import CSV activity.
6. Update actual amounts, mark entries paid, and review the month in multiple views.
7. Export backups when needed and preview restores before importing.

## Main UI areas

### Overview dashboard

- Landing page after sign-in.
- Shows next-step guidance, current month access, recent months, attention items, and quick actions.
- Includes a year cash flow section for saved months in the current year.
- Includes a full-width Account Activity graph that compares charged versus paid-to totals by account.
- Account Activity can be filtered to the last month, last 3 months, last 6 months, last 12 months, or all saved months.

### Accounts & Net Worth

- Used for manual checking, savings, card, loan, cash, asset, and liability tracking.
- Supports point-in-time balance snapshots.
- Current balance is based on the latest snapshot plus later linked paid activity.
- Linked accounts improve recurring setup, month review, account filters, and restore accuracy.

### Recurring transactions

- Stores reusable monthly structure before a month is created.
- Main recurring types:
  - Pay schedules
  - Subscriptions
  - Monthly bills
  - Payment plans
  - Credit cards
- Credit cards can carry both the card account being paid down and the funding account making the payment.

### Months

- Users can start a month fresh or clone the most recent structure forward.
- Once inside a month, previous and next month navigation helps move between saved months.
- Month views are kept within a shared workflow so switching context is easier.

### Entry management

- Manual entry forms support direct editing.
- A guided entry wizard supports multi-step entry creation with progress, review, and optional recurring-save behavior.
- Entry editing and recurring editing use modal flows that preserve context and recover inline from validation errors.
- CSV import is available when users already have transaction history outside the app.

### Month review

- Budget view for grouped or list-style review.
- Calendar mode for date-based review.
- Breakdown view for charts, the monthly flow graph, and account activity analysis.
- Plan and Edit for importing recurring entries and changing month structure directly.

## Important budgeting behaviors

- Some recurring-generated entries can auto-mark as paid when they become due.
- Recurring generation actions are hidden in older months that already look complete.
- Credit card estimation adds minimum payments first and can use leftover cash to increase planned payments.
- Account-linked entries and templates improve the accuracy of account rollups and activity summaries.

## Backup and restore

- Uses versioned JSON exports.
- Supports optional password protection.
- Supports import preview before restore.
- Includes sample backup downloads.
- Restores stay backward compatible with older shapes when possible.
- Backup data can include account-linkage context and source-template metadata.

## User-facing docs

- [Homepage](https://financetracking.app/): High-level overview, screenshots, feature summary, workflow, and FAQ.
- [Documentation](https://financetracking.app/docs.html): Detailed user guide by screen and workflow.
- [Privacy policy](https://financetracking.app/privacy.html): Website privacy policy and self-hosted operator guidance.
- [Terms](https://financetracking.app/terms.html): Website and repository terms.

## Documentation section map

- [Start here](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#start): Recommended setup order and important app behaviors.
- [Overview dashboard](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#dashboard): Continue workflow, quick actions, and account activity context.
- [Accounts & Net Worth](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#accounts): Balance snapshots, current balance behavior, and account-linked workflow benefits.
- [Connecting recurring transactions to accounts](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#linkage): How to link recurring items and how credit card payment accounts work.
- [Create and clone months](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#months): Fresh months, month cloning, previous and next month navigation, and shared month context.
- [Add or import entries](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#entries): Plan and Edit, guided wizard, imports, and modal editing flows.
- [Recurring transactions](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#templates): Recurring transaction types and how they are used before creating a month.
- [Review a month](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#review): Budget, breakdown, calendar, and plan-and-edit review paths.
- [Layout & theming](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#layout): Navigation and workflow framing.
- [Backup & Restore](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#backup): Export, encryption, preview, and restore behavior.
- [Help & Documentation](https://financetracking.app/docs.html#help): In-app help and release notes context.

## Source and installation

- [GitHub repository](https://github.com/taimoorq/expense_tracker)
- [Quick start with Docker](https://github.com/taimoorq/expense_tracker#quick-start-docker)

## Current documentation emphasis

The current public documentation highlights these newer user-facing capabilities:

- Overview cards backed by clearer dashboard guidance
- A year cash flow section
- Account Activity with charged-versus-paid-to analysis by account
- Month-window filtering for account activity
- Previous and next month navigation
- More guided wizard and modal editing workflows