Firefly iii vs actual budget reddit / selfhosted ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wokkieman · 2023-12-17 14:29 I'm currently a ynab user, but would like to move to a free alternative + something which can sync with my banks. Ynab doesnt support my banks. Both Firefly and actual budget support sync, first one even scheduled syncs. They both support the envlope budgeting style. Are there key features (or budget visions / strategies?) which differentiaties them? Or will this become more UI based preferences, like wife-acceptance factor? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fredflintstone88 · 2023-12-17 14:36 I was under the impression that firefly doesn't have sync feature ---------------------------------------------------------------------- guesswhochickenpoo · 2023-12-17 14:41 In my experience firefly works very differently. It’s a whole different paradigm. I don’t remember what it was exactly since it’s been a while but I remember finding firefly very ackward and hard to wrap my head around vs how YNAB worked. Actual Budget on the other hand is almost a straight YNAB clone, but the “old” YNAB 4 approach before they changed how a couple key things worked (which I didn’t like) such as how budget categories roll over (or can’t roll over anymore). TL;DR Actual Budget is way more like YNAB though I can’t speak to this bank sync capabilities as I only use manual import. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wokkieman · 2023-12-17 14:50 Thanks, i'll probably try both then! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wokkieman · 2023-12-17 14:51 Not natively, but through https://github.com/firefly-iii/data-importer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- scionae · 2023-12-17 16:15 I use Firefly3, honestly I love it. So rich of features and the Abacus app works good for it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- edersong · 2023-12-17 16:35 I was trying both this year along and my choice is: Actual Reasons: \- Facility to implement and maintain. \- Facility of use. \- Aware of upcoming payments. \- Schedules for automatic bills (even they didn't implement the end) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wokkieman · 2023-12-17 16:49 What do you mean with facility to implement and maintain? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Acceptable-Jump-8332 · 2023-12-17 17:33 I have been really unimpressed with the budgeting apps on offer. Maybe it's the way I spend, but nothing fits my needs other than a good old spreadsheet. Sadly it's on Google Drive (Google Sheets). I like to track my expenses rather than my savings (I can track the savings directly from the expenses anyway). Finance is one area where I think the one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. And therefore budgeting apps for one country doesn't really work for others. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nik_h_75 · 2023-12-17 19:56 I'm the same. Good thing is that actual budget has a beta feature which switches to monthly "results" instead of having roll-over budget. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- highspeed_usaf · 2023-12-17 20:37 Do what now? How does that work? Their roll-over doesn’t make sense for those of us putting things on CC and paying it off every month. And doesn’t do projections. Does what you’re speaking of handle these things differently? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nik_h_75 · 2023-12-17 20:44 I'm very new to actual budget (did everything in spreadsheet) - tried it/installed and like the import/de-duplication and rules engine. The standard setup uses monthly budget forecasts with roll-over. This is not a feature I line or use (I keep close track of spend across categories per month - and what is left = savings). In their beta feature you can enable "spend mode" (sorry can't remember the actual name). This switches your budget view to a monthly +/- so you can see how monthly spend is tracking without doing (pre) budget. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rg00dman · 2023-12-17 22:39 I have been using firefly since May this year and really like it, in July I was made redundant with no warning and I had a single source of truth to show me who I needed to contact to tell companies I owed money to what has happened. Yes my bank account would have had the same information but not with the eas of access. I very much agree with what others have said where there will never be one money app that will fit everyone , so try them both for at least two pay periods and see which one works best for you. I still have some things to work out but that is more to do with how I budget rather than how firefly works. Also I use waterfly on my Android mobile which can watch out for bank notifications and give you the option to create a transaction based on the information in the notification which I really like as previous to firefly I wouldn't track my monthly spending that wasn't tied to bill or regular payment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- KXfjgcy8m32bRntKXab2 · 2023-12-17 22:39 A couple years ago I gave a shot to firefly for personal accounting use case and it was indeed awkward to use. For example I wanted to report a partial refund of a transaction on my credit card, but it seemed impossible. Reported this as a bug and the main developer wasn't finding this to be an issue and his only suggestion was to edit the original transaction. I uninstalled and have been using gnucash ever since. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thefuriousadmin · 2023-12-18 00:18 What do you mean Actual has limited support? It’s in active development and the discord community gives you instant support for any queries ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thefuriousadmin · 2023-12-18 00:19 Go for Actual Budget. It’s the best. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RasMahatma · 2023-12-18 01:21 I agree that Firefly iii was just too awkward to use and I Actual Budget was so close to perfect for me it hurt. My main hangup with Actual was that most of my transactions happen on credit cards and I couldn't figure out how to reconcile keeping track of my credit card spend/debt without being so creative that I would ultimate forget what I did. I just ended up going with See Finance 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nguyening · 2023-12-18 03:26 Does Actual automatically sync transactions? Not entirely sure what 'limited support' means, does anyone have more info? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- edersong · 2023-12-18 06:00 To implement: Single container and simple docker compose yaml file (not many env settings). To maintain: SQLite DB for backup ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MadeWithPat · 2023-12-18 07:22 I am about to spin up firefly again now that I’m on a more stable, bimonthly pay schedule. I can’t speak from a place of extensive usage, but wanted to chime in on the paradigm.. YNAB is a zero budget, envelope type of thing. I actually really prefer firefly conceptually because it’s _not_ that, it’s more about understanding and keeping control of your cash flow. ([For reference](https://docs.firefly-iii.org/explanation/firefly- iii/background/zero-based-budgeting/)). In my own anecdotal experience, firefly is a lot better way to think about finances than zero-based systems like YNAB. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- primevaldark · 2023-12-21 05:53 My guess edersong is a French speaker and by “facility” they mean “easiness”. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- edersong · 2023-12-23 11:16 Portuguese, Spanish and English speaker but, for sure, It was my fault thinking in Spanish when writing quickly. Edited it. ;-)