Run Actual Budget - Open Source Finance Management - in Docker 🌱

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 Docker

  1. Log into the Linux based device
  2. Run the following commands in the terminal
    # install prerequisites
    sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates git curl software-properties-common gnupg-agent -y
    # add docker gpg key
    curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/$(awk -F'=' '/^ID=/{ print $NF }' /etc/os-release)/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
    # add docker software repository
    sudo add-apt-repository "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] https://download.docker.com/linux/$(awk -F'=' '/^ID=/{ print $NF }' /etc/os-release) $(lsb_release -cs) stable"
    # install docker
    sudo apt install docker-ce docker-compose containerd.io -y
    # enable and start docker service
    sudo systemctl enable docker && sudo systemctl start docker
    # add the current user to the docker group
    sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
    # reauthenticate for the new group membership to take effect
    su - $USER

Running Actual

  1. Now that Docker is installed, run the following commands to setup the Actual Docker container and run it
    # create working directories
    mkdir ~/docker/actualbudget/data -p
    # create config.json
    touch ~/docker/actualbudget/config.json
    # write empty config file
    echo "{}" > ~/docker/actualbudget/config.json
    # set owner of working directories
    sudo chown "$USER":"$USER" ~/docker -R
    # allow the container to write to working directories
    sudo chmod a+rwx -R ~/docker/actualbudget
    # run actual budget container
    docker run -d --name actualbudget -p 5006:5006 -v ~/docker/actualbudget/config.json:/app/config.json -v ~/docker/actualbudget/data:/data --restart=unless-stopped actualbudget/actual-server
  2. Open a web browser and navigate to http://DNSorIP:5006
  3. Click on the Advanced Options link
  4. Check the "I understand the risks" box > Click Open Actual
  5. Enter and confirm an admin password
  6. Click Start Fresh
  7. Welcome to Actual running in Docker

Source: https://actualbudget.org/docs/install/docker/