actual-helpers/README.md

Actual Budget Helper Scripts

This is a collection of useful scripts to help you manage your Actual Budget.

• Requirements
• Configuration
• Installation
• Scripts:
  • Sync Remote Banks
  • Loan Interest Calculator
  • Tracking Home Prices (Zillow's Zestimate)

Requirements

• Actual Budget
• Node.js (21.6.2+)
  • @actual-app/api
  • dotenv
  • jsdom

Configuration

Create a .env file in the root directory with the following content:

ACTUAL_SERVER_URL="https://<Actual Budget server URL>"
ACTUAL_SERVER_PASSWORD="<Actual Budget server password>"
ACTUAL_SYNC_ID="<Actual Budget sync ID>"

# optional, for encrypted files
ACTUAL_FILE_PASSWORD="<file password>"

# optional, if you want to use a different cache directory
ACTUAL_CACHE_DIR="./cache"

# optional, name of the payee for added interest transactions
IMPORTER_INTEREST_PAYEE_NAME="Loan Interest"

Installation

Run npm install to install any required dependencies.

Scripts

Note that most of the scripts utilize account notes to set configuration on each account. The scripts will find all accounts that are configured and update them all in a single call.

Sync Remote Banks

This script will sync all remote banks that are configured in Actual Budget. This can be used in place of clicking the "Sync" button in the Actual Budget app and will ensure your accounts are always up-to-date with GoCardless/SimpleFIN.

To run:

$ node sync-banks.js

It is recommended to run this script once per day or week.

Loan Interest Calculator

This script calculates the interest for a loan account and adds the interest transactions to Actual Budget.

For each account that you want to automaitcally calculate interest for, you need to edit the account notes and add the following tags:

• interestRate:0.0X sets the interest rate to X percent (note: be sure to enter the rate as a decimal and not a percentage)
• interestDay:XX sets the day of the month that the interest is calculated

As an example, if your loan is at 4.5% interest and you want to insert an interest transaction on the 28th of the month, set the account note to interestRate:0.045 interestDay:28.

You can optionally change the payee used for the interest transactions by setting IMPORTER_INTEREST_PAYEE_NAME in the .env file.

To run:

$ node apply-interest.js

It is recommended to run this script once per month.

Tracking Home Prices (Zillow's Zestimate)

This script tracks the Zillow Zestimate for a home. It adds new transactions to keep the account balance equal to the latest Zestimate.

To use this script, you need to create a new account in Actual Budget and set the account note to zestimate:<Zillow URL>. You can find the Zillow URL by searching for the home on Zillow and copying the URL from the address bar.

For example, if you want to track the Zestimate for a home with the URL https://www.zillow.com/homes/123-Example-St-Anytown-CA-12345/12345678_zpid/, set the account note to zestimate:https://www.zillow.com/homes/123-Example-St-Anytown-CA-12345/12345678_zpid/.

Optionally, you can also specify if you only own a portion of the home by adding an ownership:0.0X tag to the account note. For example, if you own 10% of the home, add ownership:0.10 to the account note. The script will then use that percentage to track the home's value.

You can optionally change the payee used for the transactions by setting IMPORTER_ZESTIMATE_PAYEE_NAME in the .env file.

To run:

$ node zestimate.js

It is recommended to run this script once per month.