Ledgerly Documentation

Welcome to Ledgerly - A minimal, fast, self-hosted personal finance tracker.

What is Ledgerly?

Ledgerly is a personal finance application built with Django and Next.js that helps you:

• 📊 Track income, expenses, and investments
• 💰 Manage multiple accounts and currencies
• 📈 View monthly trends and category insights
• 🎯 Set and track financial goals
• 🔄 Automate recurring transactions
• 📥 Import transactions from files

Philosophy

Ledgerly follows the principle: "Log first. Analyze second. Automate last."

• Log first: Manually enter transactions to understand your finances
• Analyze second: Use dashboards and reports to gain insights
• Automate last: Use templates and recurring transactions once you understand the patterns

Quick Start

1. Initialize: make init (backend) - Sets up database and seeds currencies
2. Start Backend: make runserver (runs on http://localhost:8000)
3. Start Frontend: cd frontend && npm run dev (runs on http://localhost:3000)
4. Create Account: Navigate to Accounts → New Account
5. Create Transaction: Navigate to Transactions → New Transaction

Core Concepts

Ledgerly is built on double-entry accounting principles:

• Every transaction affects at least 2 accounts
• Debits must equal credits
• Accounts are organized by type (Asset, Liability, Equity, Income, Expense)

Documentation Structure

• Getting Started: Installation and first steps
• Double-Entry Accounting: Understanding the foundation
• Account Types: The five account types
• Transactions: Creating and managing transactions
• Accounts Hierarchy: Organizing your accounts
• Templates & Recurring: Automating transactions
• Goals: Tracking financial objectives
• Import & Categorization: Importing and auto-categorizing
• Glossary: Terms and definitions

Features

✅ Implemented

• Double-entry transaction management
• Hierarchical account structure
• Multiple currencies support
• Dashboard with summaries and charts
• Transaction templates
• Recurring transactions
• Financial goals tracking
• Bank statement import (preview/execute/history)
• Rollback for import batches
• Hard delete for import batches
• Auto-categorization rules (+ learning on import)
• Transfer detection / merge across accounts (MVP)

🚧 Coming Soon

• Investment tracking UI
• Advanced reporting
• Budget enforcement
• Mobile app

Need Help?

• Check the Glossary for term definitions
• Review Getting Started for setup
• Read Double-Entry Accounting for concepts

License

Ledgerly is open source. See the main repository for license details.