Daftarche

Daftarche (دفترچه, "little account book") is a desktop app for personal bookkeeping. It imports bank statements in QFX/OFX format, sorts every transaction into income, expense or transfer with categories, sub-categories and tags, matches transfers between your own accounts, and shows where the money went: a dashboard, monthly charts, account balances over time and a searchable transaction table that exports to Excel.

Everything stays on your computer, in one SQLite file. Statements have been tested with CIBC's QFX downloads; other banks' QFX/OFX files use the same format.

The screenshots show invented data (tools/make_demo_db.py).

Installation

Python 3.10 or newer. With pipx (its own environment, recommended):

pipx install daftarche

or with pip, in an environment of your choice:

pip install daftarche

To start it with a double-click, run once:

daftarche install-app

This adds Daftarche to your Applications folder (macOS), the Start menu (Windows) or the applications menu (Linux), with its own icon. It starts the daftarche of the Python you ran the command with, and keeps working after updates.

To update, use Help → Check for Updates… (⌘U) in the app (it also checks quietly at start-up) or daftarche update in a terminal.

For development, install from a clone: git clone https://github.com/vahid-anari/daftarche.git, then pip install -e ".[dev]" in the folder; such a copy is updated with git pull.

Use

daftarche                     open the app
daftarche update              update from PyPI (asks first; --check only looks)
daftarche install-app         add the app to Applications / Start menu (--remove to undo)
daftarche --version

File → Import Statement… (⌘I, or drag the file onto the window) reads a QFX statement downloaded from your bank's website; the account is recognised from the file, transactions already imported are skipped, and saved rules fill in the merchant and category. Edit what is left in the preview, then Import New; the new rows then show in Transactions, and those still without a category wait in To review (⇧⌘R). Match Transfers in the Transactions tab pairs the two sides of a transfer between your accounts. Edit → Manage… (⇧⌘M) edits the types, accounts, categories and tags; Edit → Settings… (⌘,) changes the font, colours and theme, and View → Appearance switches between Same as System, Light and Dark. View → To Review (⇧⌘R) and View → Unmatched Transfers… (⇧⌘U) show what is still left to sort, all time; double-click a line to see those transactions.

Charts shows each month by category (lines or bars); hover a category to see its sub-categories, click to keep them.

Accounts shows each account's balance (or income, expense, transfers) month by month.

On the phone

Daftarche on the phone (Android) shows the same four tabs and your loans, read-only. Your Mac keeps it up to date through your own Google Drive, locked with a key only the phone has: Settings › Phone › Connect a Phone…, and scan the code with the phone's camera. Install it from the newest Phone release on GitHub; more in mobile/README.md.

User Guide

Help → User Guide (⌘?) opens the guide in the app: getting started, importing statements, sorting, the four tabs, transfers, loans and splits, settings, backups, and the shortcuts. Its sources are in docs/ (user_guide.tex with its own style, guide.sty); sh tools/build_docs.sh builds it with XeLaTeX into src/daftarche/data/user_guide.pdf.

Your data

Nothing personal is stored in the program folder or in this repository. The app keeps its files in one folder:

~/Library/Application Support/Daftarche/      (macOS)
    daftarche.db                     all transactions, accounts, categories
    config.json                      theme and view settings
    backups/daftarche-last.db        written at every start
    backups/daftarche-YYYY-MM.db     first start of each month; the last 12 are kept

On Windows the folder is %APPDATA%\Daftarche, on Linux ~/.local/share/daftarche. Set DAFTARCHE_HOME to use another folder, for example a test copy. File → Back Up Database… and Restore Backup… save and load a copy of the database by hand; File → Open Database… shows a backup (through a copy) without changing anything. The monthly snapshots sit on the same disk as the database; Settings → Extra backup folder also copies them to a folder of your choice (iCloud Drive, an external disk), and Time Machine covers the data folder too. Help → Show Data Folder opens it.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

The tests use only invented data (tests/data/sample.qfx) and a temporary data folder. python tools/make_icon.py redraws the icon and the splash image. python tools/make_demo_db.py makes a demo database with a year of invented transactions in its own folder (default ~/Desktop/daftarche-demo), for screenshots or trying the app without your own data: DAFTARCHE_HOME=~/Desktop/daftarche-demo daftarche. python tools/figures.py retakes the pictures and the animation in docs/figures/ from a new demo database (--list for the names); on macOS with the title bar and shadow, which needs Screen Recording permission for the terminal.

Two one-off tools fill in notes for past online purchases: python tools/export_shop_charges.py writes the Amazon and AliExpress transactions (only those, and only the columns needed) to shop_charges.csv; python tools/import_notes.py notes.csv shows the notes and categories a filled-in copy would write, and --apply writes them after backing up the database. python tools/list_categories.py prints every category and sub-category with its number of transactions and rules (--totals adds amounts). python tools/remap_categories.py export writes one line per sub-category to mapping.csv, to say where each goes (merchant, new category, money back); apply mapping.csv shows the moves and --apply makes them after backing up the database. Pushing a tag vX.Y.Z publishes a GitHub Release with that version's section of CHANGELOG.md; python -m build && twine upload dist/* puts it on PyPI.

Support

Daftarche is free, and I work on it in my spare time. If it's useful to you, you can buy me a coffee ☕

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

Author

Vahid Anari · GitHub · LinkedIn

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