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2026-06-06 11:49:51 -04:00

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PFM — Personal Finance Manager

A self-hosted personal finance web application. Track income, expenses, investments, budgets, and savings goals. AI-powered financial assistant and receipt OCR built in. Sync bank accounts via Teller, Plaid, or Schwab.

Live at: https://pfm.ngodanguyen.tech

Features Overview
Getting Started
Dashboard
Transactions
Accounts
Categories
Budgets
Goals & Savings
Investments
AI Assistant
Reports & Export
Settings
Security & 2FA
Recurring Transactions
Bank Statement Import
Receipt OCR
Teller Bank Sync
Schwab Bank Sync
Plaid Bank Sync
USD → VND Rate Widget
System Logs
Keyboard Shortcuts & Tips

Features Overview

Module	What it does
Dashboard	Net worth, savings rate, cash flow chart, budget gauges, upcoming bills, reconcile, AI insight, USD/VND rate
Transactions	Income/expense entry, transfer, inline category, bulk actions, quick date filters, duplicate detection, split transaction, filtered export
Accounts	Multiple account types, auto-calculated or provider-synced balances (Teller / Plaid / Schwab)
Categories	Custom expense + income categories with color and icon
Budgets	Monthly spending limits with progress bars, budget vs actual chart, rollover support
Goals	Savings goals with contribution tracking, projected completion, emergency fund tracker
Investments	Stock/ETF/crypto portfolio, per-account view, price alerts, price history chart, live price fetch
AI Assistant	Chat with your finances via Groq (free), daily auto-insight, streaming responses
Receipt OCR	Drag-drop a receipt image — AI extracts and fills the form
Reports	Monthly/quarterly/yearly summaries, net worth history, category spending trends, PDF/CSV/Excel export
Teller	Live US bank sync (mTLS), balance refresh, transaction import, webhook
Schwab	Schwab brokerage sync — balance, stock/ETF positions, transaction import, daily auto-sync
Plaid	12,000+ US banks/credit unions via Plaid — cursor sync, credit card billing, webhook auto-import
Bank Import	Upload PDF/OFX/QFX/CSV bank statements — auto-categorizes, preview before import
Security	TOTP 2FA, session idle timeout, rate limiting, audit log, at-rest encryption for bank tokens
System Logs	DB-backed application log viewer with colour-coded levels, search, module filter, and purge

Getting Started

Navigate to https://pfm.ngodanguyen.tech
Enter the username and password created during setup (python scripts/init_db.py)
Check "Remember me" to stay logged in across browser sessions

Recommended Setup Order

Add accounts — add your bank accounts, cash wallet, and credit cards first
Review categories — 21 default categories are seeded; add custom ones if needed
Set your currency — go to Settings → Profile and pick from 8 currency options
Connect bank sync — connect Teller (US banks), Plaid (12,000+ institutions), or Schwab for automatic data
Add transactions — enter income/expenses manually, import a bank statement, or sync from a provider
Set budgets — once you have spending data, set monthly limits per category
Create goals — add savings goals and start contributing
Add investments — manually or via Schwab sync
Enable 2FA — recommended: Settings → Security → Two-Factor Authentication

Dashboard

The dashboard is the home screen — accessible from the sidebar or by clicking the PFM logo.

Period Selector

Three buttons in the top-right: This Month, Last Month, Custom (date range picker). All summary cards update for the chosen period.

Summary Cards

Income — total income for the selected period
Expenses — total expenses for the selected period
Net Cash Flow — income minus expenses
Savings Rate — net cash flow ÷ income (green ≥ 20%, blue > 0%, red negative)
Net Worth — total assets minus liabilities
Checking & Savings — sum of checking, savings, and cash account balances
Investments — sum of investment and crypto account balances

Reconcile Button

Click Reconcile (next to period selector) to recalculate income, expenses, net cash flow, and savings rate while excluding internal transfers. This shows your true external cash flow. A notice shows the excluded transfer amounts and which categories were excluded. Click again to toggle back to the original totals.

Cash Flow Chart

Bar chart showing the last 6 months of income (green) vs expenses (red).

Upcoming Bills

Table of recurring rules due within the next 14 days — category icon, rule name, due date (color-coded: today/overdue in red, within 3 days in amber), amount, and account. Links to the Recurring page.

Accounts Panel

Lists all active accounts with current balances. Credit cards show Amount Owed (positive) instead of a raw negative balance.

AI Daily Insight

Auto-generated summary of your finances at midnight. Click Generate Now for an on-demand insight. Click Open AI → for the full chat interface.

Reference-only exchange rate. Click ↻ to refresh without reloading. Click the widget to expand a 30-day trend chart. A ⚠ stale indicator appears if the rate is older than one day.

Schwab Expiry Warning

A banner appears on the dashboard when your Schwab refresh token expires within 2 days. Click the link to reconnect.

Transactions

Viewing Transactions

Navigate via Transactions in the sidebar. Two tabs: Expenses and Income (with total counts).

Filtering

Search — matches description and notes fields
Category dropdown
Account dropdown
Date range — from/to pickers
Amount range — min/max amount
Quick date filters — "This Month" and "Last Month" buttons above the filter bar; active button is highlighted; ✕ clears the quick filter
Saved filter presets — save the current filter combination under a name; reload it from the dropdown in one click

Plaid Review Banner

When transactions are imported via Plaid webhook without a category, a purple banner at the top of the Transactions page shows the count and a link to review and categorize them. The sidebar Transactions link also shows a badge with the count.

Adding a Transaction

Use the topbar Income / Expense buttons, or use the sidebar links. The form includes:

Type toggle (Income / Expense) — switches available categories
Description, amount, date, account, category, notes
Duplicate detection — if the same amount on the same date already exists, a yellow warning banner appears before you save

Inline Category Change

Click the category dropdown on any transaction row in the table to change the category. The change saves via AJAX — no page reload.

Editing and Deleting

Click Edit to open the full form. Click Del to delete permanently.

Split Transaction

Click the ✂ (scissors) icon on any transaction row to split it into multiple parts:

A split page shows the original transaction details and two default rows
Assign a different category, description, and amount to each part
A live Remaining counter shows how much is left to allocate
Add or remove rows as needed; the total must equal the original amount
On confirm, the original transaction is replaced by the individual split transactions

Bulk Actions

Check one or more transaction rows (or use the select all header checkbox) to reveal the bulk action toolbar:

Set category — apply a category to all selected rows at once; dropdowns update in the table without reload
Delete — delete all selected transactions after a confirmation dialog

Export Filtered View

In the filter bar, CSV and Excel buttons export the current filtered view (respects all active filters — search, category, account, date range, amount range). Exports are streamed for memory efficiency — no row limit.

Transfers

Click Transfer in the topbar. Creates a single transfer record between two accounts. Transfers are excluded from income/expense totals.

Accounts

Account Types

checking / savings / cash / credit_card / crypto / investment / other

Balance Sources

Manually managed — balance is computed from transactions (income − expenses ± transfers). Updates after every transaction.
Teller-linked — live balance from Teller API. Blue Teller badge. Updated after sync or Refresh click.
Schwab-linked — balance from Schwab snapshot (liquidation value). Green Schwab badge. Updated after Balance & Positions click or daily auto-sync.
Plaid-linked — live balance from Plaid API. Purple Plaid badge. Updated after sync or Refresh click.

Teller Account Actions

Button	What it does
Refresh	Pulls live balance from Teller API (AJAX)
Sync	Opens transaction preview — import new transactions
Reset	Clears sync cursor — next Sync re-fetches full 90-day history

Schwab Account Actions

Button	What it does
Balance & Positions	Fetches live balance + investment holdings from Schwab
Transactions	Opens transaction import preview

Plaid Account Actions

Button	What it does
Refresh	Pulls live balance from Plaid API (AJAX)
Sync	Opens transaction preview — import new transactions
Billing	Fetches credit card due date, minimum payment, and statement balance

Plaid Credit Card Billing Card

For Plaid-linked credit cards, a billing card on the account shows: due date, days remaining, minimum payment, and last statement balance. Updated by clicking Billing.

Credit Cards

Credit cards show two values:

Amount Owed — how much you currently owe (positive number)
This Month — expenses charged to the card this calendar month

Opening Balance

When creating a new account, enter the current balance in the Opening Balance field. For credit cards, enter a negative number to indicate existing debt (e.g. -500 if you owe $500).

Budgets

Navigate via Budgets in the sidebar. Use ◀ ▶ to navigate months.

Setting Budgets

Click Add Budget in the topbar to set a monthly limit for a category. Click Edit on an existing row to adjust.

Budget vs Actual Chart

A horizontal bar chart at the top of the page shows Spent (color-coded green/amber/red) vs Budget limit per category — for all categories that have a budget set this month.

Progress Bars

Each row shows a progress bar: green (< 80%) → amber (80–99%) → red (≥ 100%). Rows that exceed the limit have a red background tint.

Rollover

Enable rollover on a budget to carry unused amounts forward to the next month. A blue +rollover badge shows the carried-over amount on the row.

Copy from Previous Month

Click Copy from [month] at the top right to duplicate last month's budgets to the current month in one click. Also available on the empty-state screen.

Goals & Savings

Navigate via Goals in the sidebar.

Create goals with target amount, target date, color, and icon
Add contributions with dates and notes; view contribution history
Progress bar + projected completion date (based on average monthly contribution)
Auto-completes when 100% is reached
Emergency Fund Tracker — shows how many months your liquid assets (checking + savings + cash accounts) cover at your current monthly spending rate, with 3-month and 6-month targets

Investments

Navigate via Investments in the sidebar.

Portfolio Overview

Summary cards: Total Value, Total Cost, Unrealized P&L, Return %. Allocation doughnut chart by asset type. Sidebar "By Account" breakdown.

Price Alerts

A yellow banner at the top of the Investments page appears when any holding moves ≥ 5% intraday. The banner lists each mover with its ticker and change percentage. Dismiss with ×. Alerts are recalculated daily when prices update.

Investment Detail Page

Click any holding to see the detail page:

Current price, day change, P&L
Price history chart — 1W / 1M / 3M / 6M / 1Y timeframes; fetched from Yahoo Finance
Full buy/sell/dividend/split transaction log

Per-Account View

If investments span multiple accounts (e.g. Schwab Individual + Schwab Roth IRA), holdings are grouped into separate sections — one per account. Each section shows the account name, total value, and its own holdings table. Same ticker in different accounts stays as separate rows.

Syncing from Schwab

Click Sync Schwab in the topbar to pull the latest holdings and balances for all mapped Schwab accounts at once.

Adding a Holding Manually

Click Add Holding in the topbar. After saving, go to the detail page to record buy transactions.

Ticker Format

US Stocks/ETFs: AAPL, VOO, QQQ
Crypto: BTC-USD, ETH-USD
International: Yahoo Finance suffix (e.g. VIC.VN)

Refreshing Prices

Click Refresh Prices in the topbar. Prices also auto-update daily at 4 PM weekdays via cron.

AI Assistant

Navigate via AI Assistant in the sidebar.

The AI has access to the last 90 days of transactions, budget status, goals, investments, and net worth. No personal names or identifiers are sent — only aggregated financial figures.

Type a message and press Enter to send; Shift+Enter for a new line
Responses stream word-by-word (SSE)
Eight quick-question suggestion buttons
Daily Insight — auto-generated at midnight; click Generate Now to create on demand
Chat History — all past responses with timestamps

AI Model

Change in Settings → Profile → AI Model:

llama-3.3-70b-versatile — best quality (default)
llama-3.1-8b-instant — faster, slightly lower quality

Reports & Export

Navigate via Reports in the sidebar.

Four tabs: Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, Tax Year.

Export buttons in the topbar:

CSV — plain text, streamed (no row limit)
Excel — color-coded (green = income, red = expense), formatted, streamed
PDF — printable report via WeasyPrint

Net Worth History — line chart from monthly snapshots. Snapshot Now saves today's values immediately.

Category Spending Trends — top 6 categories over the last 6 months.

Settings

Navigate via the gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar.

Section	What you can change
Profile	Display name, email, timezone, currency (8 options), AI model
Password	Change password (requires current password)
Security	Enable/disable TOTP 2FA; view Audit Log
Recurring	Create/edit/pause recurring transaction rules
Import	Upload CSV or bank statement for bulk import
System Logs	View, search, and purge application logs

All Settings sub-pages have a ← Settings back button in the topbar.

Security & 2FA

Two-Factor Authentication (TOTP)

Go to Settings → Security section
Click Enable Two-Factor Authentication
Scan the QR code with an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, etc.) or enter the manual key
Enter the 6-digit code to confirm setup
On future logins, you will be prompted for a 6-digit code after password entry

To disable 2FA: Settings → Security → Disable (requires password confirmation).

The TOTP verify endpoint is rate-limited (10/min, 30/hr). After 5 failed attempts in one session, the login is invalidated and you must start over.

Session Idle Timeout

Sessions expire after 60 minutes of inactivity (configurable via SESSION_IDLE_MINUTES in .env).

Audit Log

Settings → Audit Log shows a paginated, filterable log of security events with IP addresses and timestamps:

Login success / failure (with and without 2FA)
2FA enabled / disabled
Password changed
Schwab connected / disconnected

Filter by event type. Purge dropdown removes entries older than 7, 30, or 90 days.

At-Rest Encryption

Teller, Schwab, and Plaid OAuth tokens are encrypted in the database using AES-128 (Fernet). Changing SECRET_KEY in .env invalidates stored tokens — all providers would need to reconnect.

Recurring Transactions

Navigate via Settings → Recurring.

Rules auto-create transactions on a schedule. Frequencies: daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly.

Set start date, optional end date, account, category, and amount
Pause/enable individual rules without deleting them
Run Now button processes all overdue rules immediately
Upcoming (30 days) panel shows next-due dates for all active rules
Rules also appear on the Dashboard upcoming bills widget when due within 14 days

Bank Statement Import

Navigate via Settings → Import Statement (sidebar) or Settings → Import.

Supported Formats

Format	Notes
PDF	Digital (text-based) PDFs only — scanned/image PDFs are rejected. Uses table extraction first; falls back to AI parsing via Groq if no structured table is found
OFX / QFX	Standard Open Financial Exchange format (most US banks)
CSV	Chase, BofA, Citi, Capital One, Discover, Amex, USAA, Wells Fargo, and Generic CSV
Custom CSV	Map your own column headers when the bank format isn't recognized

Import Flow

Upload the file
Preview table — per-row checkboxes, editable category dropdowns, bulk category apply, bulk type toggle
Click Confirm Import to write to the database

Duplicate Detection

OFX/QFX: uses the FITID field
CSV/PDF: matches on date + amount + description + account

Auto-Categorization

200+ keyword rules automatically assign categories to imported transactions. Override any row in the preview before confirming.

Receipt OCR

On the new expense form: drag-drop or click the purple AI Receipt Scanner panel to upload a receipt image (JPG/PNG/GIF/WEBP, max 10MB). The AI extracts amount, date, merchant name, and category suggestion, then fills the form fields with a green flash animation. Always review before saving.

On the edit form:

Re-extract button re-runs OCR on the already-attached receipt
OCR also runs automatically when you select a new image file in the upload field

Teller Bank Sync

Teller connects US bank accounts using a secure mTLS connection. Accessible via Settings → Bank Connections.

Connecting

Go to Settings → Bank Connections
Click Connect a Bank — the Teller Connect modal opens
Select your bank and log in
After connecting, use Map Account on any unmapped accounts to link them to PFM accounts

Syncing Transactions

On the Accounts page, find a Teller-linked account (blue Teller badge) and click Sync. Review the transaction preview and confirm to import. After import, the live balance is fetched from Teller automatically.

Webhook

Teller can push transaction updates to PFM automatically. The webhook endpoint verifies the Teller-Signature header (HMAC-SHA256) and has a 5-minute replay window.

Disconnecting

Settings → Bank Connections → Disconnect. Imported transactions are kept.

Schwab Bank Sync

Schwab integration uses OAuth 2.0 to sync brokerage and IRA accounts. Accessible via Settings.

Connecting

Set SCHWAB_CLIENT_ID, SCHWAB_CLIENT_SECRET, SCHWAB_REDIRECT_URI in .env
Register the redirect URI in the Schwab developer portal (exact match required)
Settings → Schwab → Connect Schwab Account
Authorize on Schwab's login page
On the Map Accounts page, link each Schwab account to a PFM account (or create new ones)

Syncing Balance & Investment Positions

On the Accounts page, click Balance & Positions on a Schwab account (green badge). This:

Updates the account balance to Schwab's total portfolio liquidation value
Upserts stock/ETF/bond/fund holdings into the Investments section
Associates each holding with the specific account (Individual vs Roth IRA stay separate)

Also click Sync Schwab in the Investments page topbar to update all Schwab accounts at once.

Syncing Transactions

Click Transactions on a Schwab account card. Review the preview and confirm to import.

Token Expiry

Schwab access tokens expire after 30 minutes (auto-refreshed). Refresh tokens last 7 days — a dashboard warning appears when ≤ 2 days remain. Reconnect via Settings → Schwab to reset the expiry.

Daily Auto-Sync

A cron job runs at 7 AM daily (scripts/sync_schwab.py) — updates balances, positions, and transactions for all mapped Schwab accounts automatically.

Disconnecting

Settings → Schwab → Disconnect. Imported transactions and holdings are kept.

Plaid Bank Sync

Plaid connects to 12,000+ US banks and credit unions. Accessible via Settings.

Connecting

Set PLAID_CLIENT_ID, PLAID_SECRET, PLAID_ENV (sandbox or production) in .env
Settings → Plaid → Connect Bank Account
The Plaid Link widget opens — search for your institution and log in
On the Map Accounts page, link each Plaid account to a PFM account (or create new ones)

Syncing Transactions

On the Accounts page, click Sync on a Plaid-linked account (purple badge). This uses cursor-based sync (/transactions/sync) — only new transactions since the last sync are fetched. Review the preview and confirm.

Reset Sync — click Reset to clear the sync cursor. The next sync re-fetches the full available history; duplicates are automatically skipped via the Plaid:<transaction_id> marker in notes.

Live Balance Refresh

Click Refresh on a Plaid account card to fetch the latest balance from Plaid's /accounts/balance/get endpoint.

Credit Card Billing

For Plaid-linked credit cards, click Billing on the account card to fetch:

Next payment due date
Minimum payment amount
Last statement balance
Overdue indicator

This information also appears in the billing card on the Accounts page.

Webhook Auto-Import

Plaid can push new transactions to PFM via webhook (POST /plaid/webhook). When a TRANSACTIONS/SYNC event arrives, new transactions are imported silently (no preview step). Transactions imported this way without a category appear in the Plaid review banner on the Transactions page and the sidebar badge — review and categorize them from there.

The webhook is verified using Plaid's JWT signature (ES256). Configure the webhook URL in Settings → Plaid → Apply to Existing Items.

Disconnecting

Settings → Plaid → Disconnect on a connection. Imported transactions are kept.

Reference-only exchange rate on the dashboard. Does not affect any app calculations.

Click ↻ to force-refresh without reloading the page
Click the widget to expand a 30-day trend chart
Source label shown (yfinance / exchangerate-api)
⚠ stale indicator appears if the cached rate is more than one day old

System Logs

Navigate via Settings → System Logs (or sidebar → Settings → System Logs card).

Application log entries are stored in the database and shown in a colour-coded viewer:

Filter by level (INFO / WARNING / ERROR / DEBUG) or free-text search
Filter by module name (e.g. app.teller, app.plaid)
Auto-refresh toggle for live monitoring
Download — downloads the raw log file (app.log)
Purge dropdown — delete DB entries older than 7, 30, or 90 days
Clear All — truncates both the DB log table and the log file
DB entry count shown in the page header

Keyboard Shortcuts & Tips

Sidebar collapses on desktop — click ☰ to toggle (state saved in localStorage)
On mobile, tap outside the sidebar to close it; tables scroll horizontally

Transactions

Enter sends in AI chat; Shift+Enter adds a new line
Change category directly in the transactions table — no form needed
Date defaults to today — change it for past transactions
Use the ✂ Split button on a row to divide a transaction across multiple categories
Export the current filtered view with the CSV / Excel buttons in the filter bar

Budgets

Copy from previous month at the start of each month saves re-entering all budgets
The Budget vs Actual chart gives a quick visual of where you stand each month
Rollover amounts appear as a blue +rollover badge on the row

Investments

Click any holding row to go to the detail page with P&L and price history chart
↓ button on the new transaction price field fetches the live price for that ticker
Ticker symbols are auto-uppercased on save
Price alerts banner appears automatically when any holding moves ≥ 5% intraday

Reports

Snapshot Now saves today's net worth to the history chart immediately
CSV and Excel exports from the Reports page use the selected period
From the Transactions page, use the filter bar export buttons to export any filtered view

Security

Enable 2FA in Settings → Security for additional login protection
The Audit Log (Settings → Security → Audit Log) records every login attempt and security event with IP address
Sessions time out after 60 minutes of inactivity

26 KiB Raw Blame History Unescape Escape

PFM — Personal Finance Manager

Table of Contents

Features Overview

Getting Started

First Login

Recommended Setup Order

Dashboard

Period Selector

Summary Cards

Reconcile Button

Cash Flow Chart

Upcoming Bills

Accounts Panel

AI Daily Insight

USD → VND Widget

Schwab Expiry Warning

Transactions

Viewing Transactions

Filtering

Plaid Review Banner

Adding a Transaction

Inline Category Change

Editing and Deleting

Split Transaction

Bulk Actions

Export Filtered View

Transfers

Accounts

Account Types

Balance Sources

Teller Account Actions

Schwab Account Actions

Plaid Account Actions

Plaid Credit Card Billing Card

Credit Cards

Opening Balance

Categories

Budgets

Setting Budgets

Budget vs Actual Chart

Progress Bars

Rollover

Copy from Previous Month

Goals & Savings

Investments

Portfolio Overview

Price Alerts

Investment Detail Page

Per-Account View

Syncing from Schwab

Adding a Holding Manually

Ticker Format

Refreshing Prices

AI Assistant

AI Model

Reports & Export

Settings

Security & 2FA

Two-Factor Authentication (TOTP)

Session Idle Timeout

Audit Log

At-Rest Encryption

Recurring Transactions

Bank Statement Import

Supported Formats

Import Flow

Duplicate Detection

Auto-Categorization

Receipt OCR

Teller Bank Sync

Connecting

Syncing Transactions

Webhook

Disconnecting

Schwab Bank Sync

Connecting

Syncing Balance & Investment Positions

Syncing Transactions

Token Expiry

26 KiB

Raw Blame History