FireflyIII

Firefly III (that's the project's own spelling) is a personal finance manager that takes bookkeeping seriously. Every transaction moves money from one account to another, so a transfer between your current account and your savings is one entry, not two guesses, and the numbers reconcile because they have to.

On top of that sit the tools you use day to day: budgets with an envelope per category, bills that tell you what's due and whether it was paid, piggy banks for saving towards something, recurring transactions that post themselves, and rules that categorise and tag new transactions automatically so you're not doing it by hand. Multiple currencies, multiple asset accounts, and reports that break the year down however you want to look at it.

When does Firefly III make sense?

You want to know where it went, not just what the balance is.
You budget by category and want the envelope to tell you when it's empty.
You have accounts in more than one currency.
You want something lighter? Actual is envelope budgeting with less bookkeeping underneath.
You're tracking investments too? Wealthfolio covers the portfolio side.

How do I access FireflyIII?

FireflyIII is available:

From your dashboard: https://your-username.elfhosted.com
Directly: https://your-username-fireflyiii.elfhosted.com

Signed-in users see their own URLs

The addresses above show the general pattern. Sign in and these become your personal, clickable links.

How do I use it?

Claim your instance first

Firefly III sits behind your ElfHosted login, and it also keeps an account of its own.

The first account registered becomes the owner, and registration closes behind it. Open Firefly III as soon as it's running and register yours. That account is separate from your ElfHosted login, so you'll sign in twice in a browser.

Firefly III can email you, and it sends from fireflyiii@mg.elfhosted.com, so password resets and notifications reach you without any setup.

Set up your books

Work through the opening wizard: your name, your default currency, and your first asset account with its current balance.
Add the rest of your asset accounts (current, savings, cash, credit card).
Start entering transactions. Withdrawals go to an expense account, deposits come from a revenue account, and transfers move between your own accounts.
Create categories and budgets, then set an amount per budget period.
Add your bills so Firefly III can tell you what's due and match payments to them.
Once you've seen the same shop typed in five times, write a rule to categorise it automatically from now on.

Recurring transactions and bill reminders run on a scheduler inside the app, so they fire on their own once you've set them up.

Firefly III starts in UTC, which affects which day a transaction lands on. Set your own with ElfBot:

Quick-paste into Firefly III's environment variables using ElfBot

TZ=Europe/Amsterdam

Pick your own time zone. Firefly III restarts to pick it up.

Importing, apps and the API

This is the Firefly III web application on its own. The separate Firefly III Data Importer, which pulls statements in from CSV files and banking APIs, isn't part of it, so transactions are entered in Firefly III itself.

Everything is reached through your ElfHosted login, which keeps your finances private. It also means the API, the mobile apps and browser extensions that sign in with a personal access token can't connect from outside. Firefly III's web interface works well on a phone, so use it in your phone's browser.

Keep the app key in place

The first time Firefly III starts, it generates an application key and stores it in your config/fireflyiii folder. It encrypts some of your settings with that key, so leave the file where it is and don't replace it.

Where is my data stored?

Firefly III keeps everything in a SQLite database in your config/fireflyiii folder, and we back it up daily. You can also export your data from inside Firefly III at any time, from Options, then Data.

FireflyIII also works with

How do I get support for FireflyIII?

For general use of FireflyIII, refer to the official site or to one of the links in the resources section below.
For specific support re your ElfHosted configuration / account, see the ElfHosted support options!

You can contribute directly to the development of FireflyIII using the following:

FireflyIII resources

Your content, your responsibility

ElfHosted provides FireflyIII as a hosted application — we do not supply content, accounts, or third-party credentials. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of this app complies with applicable laws and our Acceptable Use Policy. If you have questions about what is or isn't permitted, please reach out — we're happy to help.

What users say..

We're rocking some excellent TrustPilot Reviews, and here's what some of our ~~users~~friends say..

I am new here, but today I learned realized that Elfhosted is one of the best free and open source software communities I've seen, and FOSS communities have been at the center of my life since the 90s (Perl, PHP, Symfony, Drupal, Ethereum, etc.). Great open software built by great people who care = great community, and that is something special.

You've done an amazing job @Funky Penguelf with the platform you provide and this place has an awesome mix of active community caretakers and software creators that I've seen here so far like BSM, Spoked, LayeZee and other elf vengers. Keep up the energy, productivity and community and take time to enjoy it and appreciate each other!

@skwah (Discord)

As a happy Elfhosted customer—who also self hosts MANY things across about 10 severs (dedicated, VPSes, and VMs running on Synology), I wouldn’t switch to self hosting the services I get from Elfhosted. They just work with very little effort configuring things, and the support the owner and his team provides is second to none. Plus I love being part of a fledgling—but quickly growing—enterprise.

/u/jatguy. (Reddit)

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Before this, I had my own setup with a NUC, NAS, and tools like Sonarr and Radarr. It worked pretty well for a while, and my internet speed was high enough to stream without any buffering. But in the end, it wasn’t worth the time or headache of managing all the storage and keeping everything running smoothly.

Now, with this service, everything runs smoothly in 1080p+ with no buffering issues. The interface is really easy to use, which makes managing everything a breeze. Plus, having a whole community of smart people available for guidance is a huge bonus.

I was sold from the start, which is why I quickly upgraded from a 1-month to a 3-month subscription, and I’m planning to switch to a 1-year plan soon. This service totally pays for itself, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. It’s been really impressive.

@seapound (Discord)

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@hashmelters (Discord)

(responding to a discussion re the cost of ElfHosted vs mainstream streaming / self-hosting):

I didn't know that the goal of this project was to compete with large companies running/renting entire DCs. I was under the impression that the goal of this project was to manage the updating of almost selfhosted applications on a shared platform with other users. Basically, be my sysadmin for me.

That being said, paying for services is the 'easy button'. There is a real world cost incurred for the time saved. Time is money. Time is the most valuable currency that exists. Once time is spent, it's forever lost, one cannot retrieve it again (yet). In my mind, there are 3 options for use of time with respect to: mainstream, selfhosting, elfhosted.

mainstream - my time is valuable and I don't want curated content and I don't care what content that I have the ability to consume. I only like what's popular.

elfhosted - my time is valuable, I want my own curated content without being forced to browse past the same damn entry 500 times just to find out that I can't watch the movie I want because it's not available in my current location or was removed last week from mainstream providers.

selfhost - I care about costs and I have nothing but time to waste or I want to learn about the backend of the systems involved. I'll pay for my own VPS/homelab, electricity, manage the OS, manage app updates, figure out how to make the apps talk nice to each other, create my own beautiful frontend.

I know how much my time is worth, does that reddit poster know how much their time is worth? Without knowing what you are worth, you can't make effective capital expenditures with respect to the time it will take to recoup the capital.

I know I don't need elfhosted at all for my use case. I choose to stay with elfhosted because it's my 'easy button'. It's an efficient capital expense for the amount of time it saves me managing my own hardware, apps and saves me electricity costs. I'm also in a situation where I don't have upload bandwidth from my home to serve HD content to myself remotely. If I lived back in a city, I would still be here. My time is worth $$/hr.

@cobra2 (Discord)

"Just wanted to check in here and let @Darth-Penguini and anyone/everyone else know...WOW. I have been struggling with storage for years, maintenance of Docker containers, upkeep, all of it. Elfhosted is so freeing. It's an amazing service that I hope to be a member of for a long, long time!"

@Fingers91 (Discord)

"I would recommend ElfHosted to anyone. It has been great so far and made life a lot easier than running my own setups. If you’re in the fence give them a try and help support this great community."

Zestyclose_Teacher20 (Reddit)

"thanks for the help and must say this is the best host I every had for my server 🙂 10/10 🙂 All other places I have try have I got a lot buff etc. Your host can even give me full power on a 4K Remux on 200GB big movie file . That's damn awesome 😄"

@tjelite (Discord)

"What an amazing support system these guys have Chris and Layzee i think it was! Both are very patient with me even though I am a newbie at all this. Very thorough and explained everything step by step with me

I couldn’t ask for anything better than the service I have received by these guys! Happy happy client❤️"

@dead.potahto (Discord)

"Very happy customer. Great service"

@ronney67 (Discord)

"Very good customer service, frequent updates, and excelent uptime!!!!!"

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"I had my own plex-arrs setup on hetzner for years. Yesterday I deleted everything as elfhosted has gone above and beyond it. And it has a fantastic, active community as well! Very friendly, helpful and like-minded folks always willing to help and improve the system. Top notch!"

@alon.hearter (Discord)

"Absolutely Amazed with the patience and professionalism of all Elf-Venger Staff including bossman penguin❤️"

@dead.potahto (Discord)

"@BSM went above and beyond to make sure I had all the one on one support needed with my sub. Thank you for your patience! Elfhosted continues to be Elftastic !!"

@bfmc1 (Discord)

"really enjoying the service from elfhosted. The setup is really easy from the guides on the website. And the help on the discord channel is really quick."

@jrhd13 (Discord)