URL: budget.bvoy.dev
Actual Budget is a personal finance app built around envelope budgeting — you
allocate the money you actually have into categories, rather than budgeting
against future income. It's private and self-hosted, with your data stored on
the homelab server and synced across all your devices.
Login: Go to budget.bvoy.dev. You'll be
prompted to log in with the Actual server password (set by the admin, separate
from your SSO account).
- Go to budget.bvoy.dev
- Enter the server password when prompted
- Choose Create new budget to start fresh, or Import to bring in data
from another app (YNAB, Mint, etc.)
Actual Budget uses envelope budgeting:
- Each month, you assign every dollar you have to a category (rent,
groceries, dining, etc.)
- When you spend money, it comes out of that category's envelope
- If a category goes negative, move money from another category — don't "borrow
from next month"
Add your real-world bank accounts so you can track spending:
- Click Add Account in the left sidebar
- Choose Offline account (manual tracking — you enter transactions
yourself)
- Give it a name (e.g. "Chase Checking") and enter the current balance
- Click Create
Repeat for each account: checking, savings, credit cards, cash.
Actual doesn't connect to banks automatically in the self-hosted version. You
enter transactions manually or import them.
- Click on an account in the left sidebar
- Click Add Transaction
- Fill in: date, payee, category, and amount
- Click Add to save
Most banks let you export transactions as a CSV or OFX file:
- Log into your bank → download transactions (OFX, QFX, or CSV format)
- In Actual, open the account → click Import
- Select your file — Actual will preview and import the transactions
Repeat monthly (or as often as you like). Actual detects duplicates
automatically.
Banks don't expose transaction data directly to self-hosted apps, so Actual uses
SimpleFIN Bridge as a middleman. SimpleFIN is a
paid service (~$1.50/month) that connects to your bank and makes the
transactions available to Actual. You set it up once; after that, syncing is one
click.
- Go to simplefin.org and sign up
- Add your bank accounts through their interface (they support most major US
banks via Plaid or direct connection)
- Once your banks are connected and showing transactions, continue to Step 2
- In SimpleFIN, go to Settings → Access Tokens (or Apps)
- Click Create a token / Add an app
- Copy the long setup token — you'll use it once in Actual
- In Actual Budget, open Settings (gear icon, bottom-left)
- Scroll to Show advanced settings
- Find SimpleFIN and click Connect
- Paste your setup token and click OK
Actual stores a derived access credential — you won't need the setup token
again.
When you add a new account (or edit an existing one):
- Click Add Account in the sidebar
- Choose Link account (instead of Offline account)
- Select the matching bank account from the SimpleFIN list
- Actual will import existing transactions and mark the account as linked
Click the sync icon (circular arrows) in the top bar to pull in new
transactions from all linked accounts. Actual deduplicates automatically, so
syncing multiple times is safe.
Transactions usually appear in SimpleFIN within a few hours of posting at your
bank. If a transaction is missing, wait a day and sync again before manually
entering it.
- Click Budget in the left sidebar to see the current month
- Click the Budget amount next to any category and type a number
- Watch the To Budget amount at the top decrease as you fill in categories
- Get To Budget to zero (every dollar assigned)
Moving money between categories: Click on a category's budgeted amount →
adjust up or down, or click the balance to transfer to another category.
Actual Budget is a web app — use it in your mobile browser at
budget.bvoy.dev.
For a native app-like experience:
iOS (Safari): Tap the Share icon → Add to Home Screen → Add
Android (Chrome): Tap the three dots → Add to Home Screen
This creates an icon on your home screen that opens Actual Budget full-screen.
Your budget is stored on the homelab server and syncs automatically. Open
budget.bvoy.dev on any device — you'll see the same
data. No extra configuration needed.
- Start simple: Create 5–10 broad categories to start. You can always split
them later.
- Reconcile monthly: After importing transactions, check that your account
balance matches your bank statement (Reports → Net Worth shows the trend).
- Recurring transactions: Use Schedule to set up recurring transactions
(rent, subscriptions) that appear automatically each month.
- Reports: The Reports section shows spending trends, net worth over time,
and category breakdowns.
- Notes: You can add a note to any transaction — useful for tracking what a
charge was for.