5 ms·

Show HN: An expense manager built using Google Sheets

107 points by mitul_45 9y ago

sanderjd 9y ago
Nice work! I've been mulling something like this for awhile. I use YNAB (classic) to track our budget, but I haven't made the switch to their new subscription-based version because it just doesn't fit my workflow as well. The experience made me think more deeply about what I actually need in a tool like this, and I came to a similar conclusion that you seem to have: I need a convenient way to enter my expenses and balances, and a way to analyze them. A spreadsheet is perfect for the latter purpose, but isn't very good at all for the former. Having said that, the thing I care about the most in YNAB is importing expenses from my bank accounts. My thought on replacing this was to be able to add download URLs to my spreadsheet and kick off a script which would prompt for manual username and password entry (so that the credentials aren't saved) before downloading and parsing the exports. I haven't gotten around to creating this yet - if you added it to your project, I would seriously consider using it!
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- msangi 9y ago
  I switched from YNAB classic to http://plaintextaccounting.org/ http://plaintextaccounting.org/ and I'm satisfied. If you like a command line based approach I'd recommend you to have a look.
  - keehun 9y ago
    Would switch to this immediately if there was a good UI for iOS that kept in sync via Dropbox or some other method. I was disappointed that YNAB ditched the old model and decided to go towards subscription. I am currently using YNAB (Classic) and am looking for a way out because I understand that it will eventually die. There doesn't seem to be a good replacement that has good iOS and Desktop applications (GUI or CLI).
- tmerr 9y ago
  I came to a smiliar conclusion and have been working on a solution for my particular set of bank accounts. So far it downloads transactions from citizens bank or venmo using selenium. Then in a separate stage it parses them into a python object based spreadsheet. I've also used YNAB and loved how it could categorize spending. So a part of my project is that it lets you use udev-inspired matching rules to assign categories or other properties to transactions. You can also put credentials for each bank in an encrypted file behind a master password. I can't promise it's secure but it's enough for me to not worry about saving the info to disk. There's still work to do: I've only implemented a couple bank backends and some core logic, and haven't got around to adding anything for analysis, or a real setup.py, or a readme. Still working on it a bit every day. Fidelity is next. Would love it if anyone was interested and wanted to add their own equally jank bank backend. https://www.github.com/tmerr/bank_wrangler https://www.github.com/tmerr/bank_wrangler
- burkemw3 9y ago
  You (and children) may be interested in ofxclient: https://github.com/captin411/ofxclient https://github.com/captin411/ofxclient
  - sanderjd 9y ago
    It looks like ofxhome.com is down right now. Is there a mirror of that anywhere?
justcreatedthis 9y ago
Does not work on Firefox (53)
- mitul_45 9y ago
  Thanks for pointing this out. Will fix soon. https://github.com/mitul45/expense-manager/issues/2 https://github.com/mitul45/expense-manager/issues/2.
huula 9y ago
Nice work! I've been trying to pick up some App Script stuff too. Where did you learn it?
- mitul_45 9y ago
  I don't think I am using App Script. I just started off with Google Sheets Javascript Quickstart guide. And it's pretty well documented: https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/quickstart/js https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/quickstart/js.
deferredposts 9y ago
> why? Privacy. It's your personal data. It should belong to you. Well, it uses Google sheets to store the data. So I don't agree with this 'benefit'.
- mitul_45 9y ago
  I agree. But the idea is not to pass it on any other third party for visualization. I feel Google Sheets will be comparatively more secure than other options out there.
  - simonebrunozzi 9y ago
    That's true. Safer than giving your data to Intuit or similar, for sure. Google is very unlikely to analyze your spreadsheet to understand what it's about.
    - Grangar 9y ago
      Is this sarcastic..? Sounds like something I would especially see Google do.
- obstinate 9y ago
  There are plenty of people for whom adding their expenses to a Google Sheet offers little reduction in privacy. For those people, the statement is accurate.
elmalto 9y ago
Cannot get the example to work on iPhone 7+ with 10.3.2 beta3(I think)
- mitul_45 9y ago
  Thanks. Created an issue: https://github.com/mitul45/expense-manager/issues/6 https://github.com/mitul45/expense-manager/issues/6.
obsurveyor 9y ago
Is there a demo I can try without connecting it to my Google account? Also, why does it say the app is "Tracking Numbers" when clicking Login? Makes it seem fishy.
- mitul_45 9y ago
  No, as of now there is no demo credentials. This is how the adding expense would look like: http://i.imgur.com/tg6UzFe.gifv http://i.imgur.com/tg6UzFe.gifv. And it will be added to this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NfF1A0UC6qLuOE7eiTsAzNVAskNcYeuPHAkzSURH0Pc/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NfF1A0UC6qLuOE7eiTsA.... "Tacking Numbers" is the name I came up with when I was trying to setup Sheets API with Google API Console. I am not able to change it now.
zomg 9y ago
although not free, ynab (you need a budget) is probably a much better way to track expenses and budgeting.
- hyperbovine 9y ago
  I don't know about nYNAB but I've used YNAB daily for more than two years. It's a glorified spreadsheet with a nice mobile UI for entering expenses.
davidjhall 9y ago
I get "Cannot find the sheet" from Windows/Chrome. Details takes me back to the Github page. Was something removed?
- mitul_45 9y ago
  You need to add sheet to your Google Drive first. Details points to the step-by-step instructions to do so.
faysal_ahmad 9y ago
I created a clone of the new YNAB as a standalone desktop application. It is available at https://github.com/envelopes-app/envelopes-desktop https://github.com/envelopes-app/envelopes-desktop with installers for mac/windows.
la_fayette 9y ago
It is an interesting idea to store data on a private (also shareable) excel sheet instead of a database.
- thatwebdude 9y ago
  Sharing your finance planning with someone close who also shares your finances makes a lot of sense.
t24562445 9y ago
I'm aware this isn't a place intended for troubleshooting questions, but when one adds a read-only Google Sheet to their drive, doesn't it just make a shortcut? I clicked on the Drive icon as shown in the tutorial but the document is still read-only, and the app says that it isn't in my Drive. I tried making a copy with the same name, but no dice either. What am I missing?
vsidn 9y ago
Nice one. I have been using a similar method with Google Forms that carries the data over to a google spreadsheet, for a while now.

107 points by mitul_45 9y ago

Nice work! I've been mulling something like this for awhile. I use YNAB (classic) to track our budget, but I haven't made the switch to their new subscription-based version because it just doesn't fit my workflow as well. The experience made me think more deeply about what I actually need in a tool like this, and I came to a similar conclusion that you seem to have: I need a convenient way to enter my expenses and balances, and a way to analyze them. A spreadsheet is perfect for the latter purpose, but isn't very good at all for the former. Having said that, the thing I care about the most in YNAB is importing expenses from my bank accounts. My thought on replacing this was to be able to add download URLs to my spreadsheet and kick off a script which would prompt for manual username and password entry (so that the credentials aren't saved) before downloading and parsing the exports. I haven't gotten around to creating this yet - if you added it to your project, I would seriously consider using it!

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
msangi 9y ago
I switched from YNAB classic to http://plaintextaccounting.org/ http://plaintextaccounting.org/ and I'm satisfied. If you like a command line based approach I'd recommend you to have a look.
- keehun 9y ago
  Would switch to this immediately if there was a good UI for iOS that kept in sync via Dropbox or some other method. I was disappointed that YNAB ditched the old model and decided to go towards subscription. I am currently using YNAB (Classic) and am looking for a way out because I understand that it will eventually die. There doesn't seem to be a good replacement that has good iOS and Desktop applications (GUI or CLI).
tmerr 9y ago
I came to a smiliar conclusion and have been working on a solution for my particular set of bank accounts. So far it downloads transactions from citizens bank or venmo using selenium. Then in a separate stage it parses them into a python object based spreadsheet. I've also used YNAB and loved how it could categorize spending. So a part of my project is that it lets you use udev-inspired matching rules to assign categories or other properties to transactions. You can also put credentials for each bank in an encrypted file behind a master password. I can't promise it's secure but it's enough for me to not worry about saving the info to disk. There's still work to do: I've only implemented a couple bank backends and some core logic, and haven't got around to adding anything for analysis, or a real setup.py, or a readme. Still working on it a bit every day. Fidelity is next. Would love it if anyone was interested and wanted to add their own equally jank bank backend. https://www.github.com/tmerr/bank_wrangler https://www.github.com/tmerr/bank_wrangler
burkemw3 9y ago
You (and children) may be interested in ofxclient: https://github.com/captin411/ofxclient https://github.com/captin411/ofxclient
- sanderjd 9y ago
  It looks like ofxhome.com is down right now. Is there a mirror of that anywhere?

justcreatedthis 9y ago

Does not work on Firefox (53)

mitul_45 9y ago
Thanks for pointing this out. Will fix soon. https://github.com/mitul45/expense-manager/issues/2 https://github.com/mitul45/expense-manager/issues/2.

huula 9y ago

Nice work! I've been trying to pick up some App Script stuff too. Where did you learn it?

mitul_45 9y ago
I don't think I am using App Script. I just started off with Google Sheets Javascript Quickstart guide. And it's pretty well documented: https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/quickstart/js https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/quickstart/js.

deferredposts 9y ago

> why? Privacy. It's your personal data. It should belong to you. Well, it uses Google sheets to store the data. So I don't agree with this 'benefit'.

mitul_45 9y ago
I agree. But the idea is not to pass it on any other third party for visualization. I feel Google Sheets will be comparatively more secure than other options out there.
- simonebrunozzi 9y ago
  That's true. Safer than giving your data to Intuit or similar, for sure. Google is very unlikely to analyze your spreadsheet to understand what it's about.
  - Grangar 9y ago
    Is this sarcastic..? Sounds like something I would especially see Google do.
obstinate 9y ago
There are plenty of people for whom adding their expenses to a Google Sheet offers little reduction in privacy. For those people, the statement is accurate.

elmalto 9y ago

Cannot get the example to work on iPhone 7+ with 10.3.2 beta3(I think)

mitul_45 9y ago
Thanks. Created an issue: https://github.com/mitul45/expense-manager/issues/6 https://github.com/mitul45/expense-manager/issues/6.

obsurveyor 9y ago

Is there a demo I can try without connecting it to my Google account? Also, why does it say the app is "Tracking Numbers" when clicking Login? Makes it seem fishy.

mitul_45 9y ago
No, as of now there is no demo credentials. This is how the adding expense would look like: http://i.imgur.com/tg6UzFe.gifv http://i.imgur.com/tg6UzFe.gifv. And it will be added to this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NfF1A0UC6qLuOE7eiTsAzNVAskNcYeuPHAkzSURH0Pc/edit#gid=0 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NfF1A0UC6qLuOE7eiTsA.... "Tacking Numbers" is the name I came up with when I was trying to setup Sheets API with Google API Console. I am not able to change it now.

zomg 9y ago

although not free, ynab (you need a budget) is probably a much better way to track expenses and budgeting.

hyperbovine 9y ago
I don't know about nYNAB but I've used YNAB daily for more than two years. It's a glorified spreadsheet with a nice mobile UI for entering expenses.

davidjhall 9y ago

I get "Cannot find the sheet" from Windows/Chrome. Details takes me back to the Github page. Was something removed?

mitul_45 9y ago
You need to add sheet to your Google Drive first. Details points to the step-by-step instructions to do so.

faysal_ahmad 9y ago

I created a clone of the new YNAB as a standalone desktop application. It is available at https://github.com/envelopes-app/envelopes-desktop https://github.com/envelopes-app/envelopes-desktop with installers for mac/windows.

la_fayette 9y ago

It is an interesting idea to store data on a private (also shareable) excel sheet instead of a database.

thatwebdude 9y ago
Sharing your finance planning with someone close who also shares your finances makes a lot of sense.

t24562445 9y ago

I'm aware this isn't a place intended for troubleshooting questions, but when one adds a read-only Google Sheet to their drive, doesn't it just make a shortcut? I clicked on the Drive icon as shown in the tutorial but the document is still read-only, and the app says that it isn't in my Drive. I tried making a copy with the same name, but no dice either. What am I missing?

vsidn 9y ago

Nice one. I have been using a similar method with Google Forms that carries the data over to a google spreadsheet, for a while now.