What is Actual Budget?
Actual is a local-first personal finance tool. It is 100% free and open-source, written in NodeJS, it has a synchronization element so that all your changes can move between devices without any heavy lifting. -https://github.com/actualbudget/actual
Installing NodeJS
- Log into the Linux device
- Run the following commands in a terminal window
# add nodejs software repository
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_20.x | sudo bash -
# install nodejs
sudo apt install nodejs -y
# test node & npm are working
node -v && npm -v
Installing Actual
- Continue with the following commands:
# install git
sudo apt install git -y
# create working directory
sudo mkdir /usr/local/actualbudget -p
# set folder ownership
sudo chown -R "$USER":"$USER" /usr/local/actualbudget
# clone actual github repo
git clone https://github.com/actualbudget/actual-server.git /usr/local/actualbudget
# cd into git clone
cd /usr/local/actualbudget
# checkout the latest tagged release
git checkout "$(git tag --sort=v:refname | tail -n1)"
# install yarn
sudo npm install -g yarn
# install dependencies
yarn install
# create a service file
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/actualbudget.service - Paste the following configuration
[Unit]
Description=Actual Server
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/yarn start
WorkingDirectory=/usr/local/actualbudget
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
Restart=always
# Restart service after 10 seconds if node service crashes
RestartSec=10
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target - Press CTRL+O, Enter, CTRL+X to write the changes
- Continue with the following commands
# reload services
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
# start and enable actual budget service
sudo systemctl enable actualbudget.service --now - Open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP:5006
- Enter and confirm an admin password
- Click the link to create an account
- Click Start Fresh
- Welcome to Actual Budget