money/README.md

# money

A personal finance tracker built around bank statements rather than manual entry.

You keep a **data directory with one folder per account**, drop statement exports
into those folders, and run `money import`. Transactions are extracted and
tagged by glob rules you write.

## Layout

```
~/money/                     # the data root (see "Where the data root lives")
  rules.toml                 # tag rules and transfer definitions, in order
  index.db                   # SQLite index (rebuildable; safe to delete*)
  checking/
    account.toml             # currency + which parser reads this bank's exports
    2026-01.csv
    2026-02.csv
  savings/
    account.toml
    2026-01.csv
```

\* Nothing lives only in the index: it is derived entirely from the statements
plus rules.toml, so deleting it and re-importing gets you exactly what you had.
It is a cache and nothing more, which is why it is never migrated — if a new
build changes its shape, delete it and run `money import` again.

## Where the data root lives

Checked in order, first one wins:

1. `--root DIR` on the command line
2. `$MONEY_ROOT`
3. the `root` key in `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/money/config.toml`, which is
   `~/.config/money/config.toml` unless `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` says otherwise
4. `~/money`

So the usual setup is to write the config file once and never pass a flag again:

```toml
# ~/.config/money/config.toml
root = "~/documents/finances"
```

A leading `~` is expanded and relative paths are made absolute. `money config`
prints the resolved root and which of the four rules chose it.

## Install

```
go install ./cmd/money
```

Give it the package path, not `cmd/money/main.go`. Naming the file puts the go
tool in file mode: it names the binary after the source file (`main`) and
compiles only the files listed, which breaks the moment the package has two.

## Usage

```
money                        # open the TUI (default)
money import                 # extract new transactions from every statement
money import --force         # re-parse statements even if unchanged
money retag                  # re-apply rules.toml: retag, and re-pair transfers
money ls --untagged          # what neither a rule nor a transfer has claimed
money ls --untagged --uniq   # the same, one row per distinct description
money ls --wide              # also show type and reported balance
money ls --account checking --month 2026-01
money report --month 2026-01 # spending by tag
money accounts               # balances
money parsers                # available statement parsers
money config                 # which data root is in use, and why
```

An account folder appears in the app only once its statements have been
imported — creating an `account.toml` is not enough on its own. Run
`money import` (or press `i` in the TUI) after adding one.

`--uniq` turns `ls` into a list of patterns still to write rather than a list of
rows to read: one line per distinct description, since fifty visits to the same
shop are one glob, not fifty lines. Descriptions print exactly as a glob sees
them — upper-cased with whitespace collapsed — so two statements that worded the
same payee differently collapse into the one row they deserve, and a pattern
written from the list matches what the list showed you.

```
$ money ls --untagged --uniq
DESCRIPTION
INTEREST PAID
KAUFLAND 4412 SOFIA
LIDL SOFIA 4412

3 distinct descriptions
```

The account is not part of what makes a row distinct. A rule matches on the
description and only optionally narrows to an account, so one payee seen on two
accounts is still one pattern to write — and it is one row in the rule builder
on `4`, which groups the same way. Pass `--account` to scope the listing
instead.

It composes with the other filters (`--account`, `--month`, `--search`), and
`--limit` caps the rows printed, saying how many it held back. It cannot be
combined with `--wide`, whose columns all belong to a single transaction.

### TUI keys

| Key | Action |
| --- | --- |
| `1` `2` `3` `4` `5` `6` `7` / `tab` | accounts · transactions · report · rule builder · rules · transfer builder · transfers |
| `enter` | open the selected account (accounts view) |
| `/` | filter by description |
| `u` | show only untagged transactions (matched transfer legs are not among them) |
| `a` | clear the account filter |
| `i` | import · `r` re-apply rules · `q` quit |

There is no key that tags a transaction. Tags come from `rules.toml` and
nowhere else, so tagging what you are looking at means writing a rule for it on
`4` — which is why that screen shows you what a glob catches before you save.

### Rule builder (`4`)

Writing rules by hand means guessing what a glob will catch. This screen shows
the answer as you type: the form is on the left, and on the right the
still-untagged descriptions the glob currently matches, marked `▸`, grouped and
sorted alphabetically, under a running "*n* of *m* descriptions match" count.

The list narrows as you type, so what is on screen is what the rule would
claim — nothing else is left there to read past. The count keeps the context
the rows no longer can: *m* is everything still in view, so `2 of 7` says the
glob picked two descriptions out of seven, and `0 of 7` says the glob is wrong.
With the glob still empty there is nothing to filter by, and the list is every
untagged description in the data — which is the other question this screen
answers, and where you go looking for the next thing to write a rule for.

```
  glob                            Untagged description              N
╭────────────────────────────╮   ▸  LIDL SOFIA 4412                 2
│ *LIDL*                     │   ▸  LIDL VARNA 9911                 1
╰────────────────────────────╯
  vs. the description

  account
╭────────────────────────────╮
│ blank = every account      │
╰────────────────────────────╯
  blank = all accounts

▸ tag
╭────────────────────────────╮
│ groceries                  │
╰────────────────────────────╯
  tab completes · ctrl+n: 1 more

  note
╭────────────────────────────╮
│ optional                   │
╰────────────────────────────╯
  why this rule exists

  2 of 7 descriptions match
```

Only `gro` was typed in the tag field; `ceries` is the ghosted completion.

`tab` / `↑↓` move between the glob, account, tag and note fields, `pgup` /
`pgdn` scroll the list, and `enter` appends the rule to `rules.toml` and retags
immediately, so the rows it caught disappear from the list. `esc` goes back.
On a short window the form gives up its spacing and then its hints, so all four
fields stay on screen.

The account and tag fields complete as you type: the rest of the match is
ghosted in grey after the cursor, and `tab` (or `→` at the end of the line)
takes it. When several candidates share the prefix, the hint under the box says
how many, and `ctrl+n` / `ctrl+p` cycle through them. Nothing is committed until
you accept it, so a new tag is still just typed out in full. Accounts come from
the folders on disk and the index; tags from every tag in use plus any named in
`rules.toml`, so a tag is completable from the moment a rule mentions it —
which is what stops `groceries` acquiring a `grocery` twin.

Leaving the account blank applies the rule everywhere; filling it in also
narrows the preview to that account. The preview lists only transactions no
existing rule has already tagged, so it answers "what is still waiting for a
rule" rather than "what would this rule win". Those differ when the new rule is
narrower than an existing one: a `*LIDL SOFIA*` written while `*LIDL*` is
already tagging those rows previews as nothing and still takes them on save,
because the more specific rule wins. Legs of a matched transfer are left out
too: they are already accounted for by the definition that paired them, and the
report leaves them out anyway.

### Rules (`5`)

Every rule in file order — the order they are written in, not the order they
are tried in — with the number of transactions it actually claims. Rules that
claim none are marked `✗`.

```
money · rules · 5 rules · 2 match nothing

#      Pattern                Account     Tag         Txns  Note
1      *LIDL SOFIA*           (all)       groceries    3     the weekly shop
2   ✗  *LIDL*                 (all)       shadowed     0
3   ✗  *OLD BANK NAME*        (all)       dead         0     closed in 2025
4      *ZARA*                 (all)       clothes      1
5      *КАУФЛАНД*             checking    groceries    1     4412 is the branch
```

The count is how many transactions the rule *wins*, not how many its glob could
match. Rule 2 above matches `LIDL SOFIA 4412` perfectly well, but rule 1 spells
out more of it and so claims it first; with nothing else here that says `LIDL`,
rule 2 is dead weight — which is the point of the screen. A rule can therefore
reach zero either by matching nothing or by being shadowed, and both are worth
deleting. Note that shadowing has nothing to do with the numbering: rule 2 would
be just as dead written above rule 1, because precedence is decided by how
specific a rule is and not by where it sits.

`d` deletes the selected rule, `p` deletes every rule marked `✗` at once, and
both ask for a `y` first. `r` recounts against what is currently in the index,
which is what you want after an import has added rows; `rules.toml` itself is
read at startup and whenever you save a rule from the builder, so an edit made
in another window needs a restart. Deleting edits `rules.toml` textually, so your
comments, ordering and formatting survive; a comment sitting directly above a
deleted rule goes with it, while one separated by a blank line is treated as a
section heading and left alone.

### Transfer builder (`6`)

Same idea as the rule builder, for money moved between your own accounts. Both
sides are named, and the preview on the right shows what the pair would be:
`▸` for a movement it matches end to end, `⚠` for a leg it catches on one side
and cannot pair with anything on the other.

```
  from account                     Date        Amount   Movement            Description
╭────────────────────────────╮  ⚠  2026-04-01   500.00  checking → ?        TRANSFER TO SAVINGS
│ checking                   │  ▸  2026-03-01   500.00  checking → savings  TRANSFER TO SAVINGS
╰────────────────────────────╯
  money leaves here

▸ from desc
╭────────────────────────────╮
│ *TO SAVINGS*               │
╰────────────────────────────╯
  glob vs. the leaving leg

  to account
╭────────────────────────────╮
│ savings                    │
╰────────────────────────────╯
  money arrives here

  to desc
╭────────────────────────────╮
│ *FROM CHECKING*            │
╰────────────────────────────╯
  glob vs. the arriving leg

  tolerance %
╭────────────────────────────╮
│ 0                          │
╰────────────────────────────╯
  0 = amounts must match exactly

  note
╭────────────────────────────╮
│ optional                   │
╰────────────────────────────╯
  why this transfer exists

  1 pairs · 1 unpaired
```

The account fields complete exactly as the rule builder's do. `tab` / `↑↓` move
between fields, `pgup` / `pgdn` scroll the list, `enter` appends the definition
to `rules.toml` and re-pairs immediately, and `esc` goes back. Saving keeps both
account names in place and clears the two globs, since the next transfer you
write is usually the same route in the other direction. The tolerance is cleared
with them: carried over silently it would loosen a route that never asked for
one. Six fields need more room than the rule builder's four, so on a short
window this form gives up its spacing, then its hints, then the borders on the
fields you are not editing — every field stays on screen.

`tolerance %` is the one field worth previewing before you save. Type a
percentage and the pairs it buys appear immediately, showing both amounts —
`500.00 → 495.00` — with what they cost summarised beside the counts:

```
  1 pairs · 0 unpaired · 5.00 in fees
```

A half-written definition previews too: fill in one side and its legs show up as
unpaired, which is the quickest way to see that a glob is wrong before you have
written the other half.

### Transfers (`7`)

Every definition in file order, with what it currently pairs.

```
money · transfers · 4 definitions · 1 leg(s) unpaired

#      From                       To                        Pairs  Unpaired  Tol    Note
1   ⚠  checking *TO SAVINGS*      savings *FROM CHECKING*    11     1                monthly saving
2      checking *TO BROKER*       traderepublic *FROM NLB*    4     0
3      checking *WIRE TO SAVINGS* savings *WIRE FROM CHECK*   2     0        1.5%   the bank keeps a fee
4   ✗  checking *TO OLD BANK*     savings *FROM OLD BANK*     0     0               closed in 2025
```

The two counts mean different things, which is the point of the screen. `⚠` is a
definition catching legs it cannot complete: a wrong glob on the other side, a
statement not imported yet, or a movement that genuinely went missing. `✗` is a
definition matching nothing at all, which is just dead weight.

`Tol` is the definition's `tolerance_pct`, and it qualifies the counts beside
it: row 3's two pairs were matched on slack rather than on the amount agreeing.
It is blank for every definition that requires the exact amount — which is the
default, so an empty column means nothing here is pairing on a mismatch.

`d` deletes the selected definition and `p` deletes every `✗` one at once, both
after a `y`. Definitions marked `⚠` are never pruned — they are doing something,
just not finishing it, and deleting one would hide the problem rather than fix
it. `r` re-pairs against what is currently in the index.

## rules.toml

**The most specific rule wins**, so `*NIKOLA*` claims what it names even with a
broad `*NIK*` sitting above it, and a catch-all can be written anywhere without
swallowing the file. Patterns are globs (`*` and `?`) matched case-insensitively,
with whitespace collapsed.

Specificity is measured on what a rule spells out, in this order:

1. how many literal characters its patterns pin down — `*LIDL SOFIA*` (10)
   beats `*LIDL*` (4), and a bare `*` (0) is tried last of all. A rule setting
   both `match` and `type` has to satisfy both, so both count.
2. how few `*` it uses, the only wildcard that swallows a run of any length:
   `LIDL` fixes both ends where `*LIDL*` does not, so it goes first. (`?` is
   not counted either way: it fixes a length, not a character.)
3. whether it names an `account`, which is a narrowing the unscoped rule with
   the same patterns does not have.

Rules that tie on all three fall back to file order, and the earlier one wins —
which is what keeps appending a rule from disturbing one already written.

A rule matches on `match` (the description) and `type` (the bank's own
classification). Setting both is an "and": both must match.

`note` is free text for you, never for the matcher: why the rule is there, or
what the unrecognisable payee behind the glob actually is. It shows in the last
column of the rules screen. Ordinary `#` comments still work and are preserved
on delete; a `note` differs in that it survives a round trip through the tool,
so the rule builder can write one and the rules screen can show it.

```toml
[[rule]]
tag   = "groceries"
match = "*LIDL*"

[[rule]]
tag   = "salary"
match = "*ACME PAYROLL*"
note  = "paid on the 4th; the December one lands early"

# A rule can be limited to one account, and can require several patterns.
[[rule]]
account = "checking"
tag     = "rent"
match   = "*STANDING ORDER 4471*"

[[rule]]
type  = "CARD_PAYMENT"
match = "*LIDL*"
tag   = "groceries"
```

Every tag comes from this file, so a tag is never something you have to keep
safe: `money retag` recomputes all of them from the current rules and is safe
to run whenever you change it. A transaction no rule matches simply stays
untagged, and shows up under `money ls --untagged`, the `u` view, and
`(untagged)` in the report — unless it is one leg of a matched transfer, which
is already spoken for and is left out of all three.

### Transfers

Money moved between your own accounts is one movement the statements show
twice: an outflow leaving one account and an inflow arriving in another. A
`[[transfer]]` block names both legs, in the same file and with the same globs
as everything else.

```toml
[[transfer]]
from_account = "checking"
from_desc    = "*TO SAVINGS*"
to_account   = "savings"
to_desc      = "*FROM CHECKING*"
note         = "monthly saving, usually lands the next working day"

# Such movements are often only identifiable by the other side's account
# number, whatever the rest of the description happens to say. Every bank
# parser keeps that number in the description, so an ordinary glob finds it.
[[transfer]]
from_account = "checking"
from_desc    = "*SI56*"
to_account   = "traderepublic"
to_desc      = "*FROM NLB*"
```

All four `_account` / `_desc` keys are required; `note` and `tolerance_pct` are
optional, and `note`, as on a rule, never takes part in matching. `from_desc` is
matched against outflows on `from_account` and `to_desc` against inflows on
`to_account`, so a definition written backwards pairs nothing.

Two legs are the same movement when they match one definition and are dated no
more than **5 days** apart. Within one currency they must also be the exact
opposite amount, because a movement that arrives short is not obviously the same
movement leaving.

#### When the bank takes a fee

Some routes charge, and then the two statements really do disagree: 500.00
leaves and 495.00 arrives. `tolerance_pct` says how far short (or over) the
arriving leg may be, as a percentage of the leg that left:

```toml
[[transfer]]
from_account  = "checking"
from_desc     = "*WIRE TO SAVINGS*"
to_account    = "savings"
to_desc       = "*WIRE FROM CHECKING*"
tolerance_pct = 1.5
note          = "the bank keeps a wire fee"
```

It belongs to that one definition and loosens nothing else — every other route
still needs the exact amount. It defaults to 0, which is what every definition
written without the key means, and it must stay under 100: at 100% any amount
would pair with any other and the dates would be deciding alone. Keep it as
tight as the fee actually requires. Every percent of slack is also a percent
more chance of pairing two unrelated movements that happen to fall in the same
five days, and where two candidates are the same number of days away the nearer
amount wins.

**The difference is not forgiven, it is reported.** A pair leaves the report
entirely, so a fee hidden inside one would be spending that appears nowhere at
all. `money report` names it on the excluded line and the TUI's report gives it
its own row (see below). Across currencies there is no fee to compute — the two
numbers are in different units — so a tolerance there means nothing and is
ignored.

**Across currencies the amount is not checked at all.** An exchange between two
of your own accounts — the same money in EUR and in BGN — has two unrelated
numbers, and the tool holds no exchange rates, so the dates carry the pairing on
their own and the nearest one wins. That is a weaker rule than the
same-currency one, deliberately: use the same route twice inside one window and
it will pair the wrong two legs. The transfer builder shows both amounts for
such a pair (`500.00 → 977.90`), which is the only place the rate the bank
actually used appears.

Definitions are evaluated in file order and each transaction belongs to at most
one transfer, so — exactly as with rules — the first definition to claim a leg
keeps it.

**A matched pair leaves the report entirely.** Both legs go together, so a
report over everything is unchanged in total by money you shuffled between your
own accounts, and `money report` says what it held out, per currency and per
direction — an exchange puts its two legs in different currencies, so each side
reports only the leg it saw:

```
transfers excluded: 4 legs in EUR, 2000.00 out, 1500.00 in
transfers excluded: 1 legs in BGN, 0.00 out, 977.90 in
```

Where a `tolerance_pct` definition let a fee through, the line says so too, and
that is the number your spending is short by:

```
transfers excluded: 2 legs in EUR, 500.00 out, 495.00 in, 5.00 in fees
```

The report screen (`3`) shows the same thing under its `TOTAL`, the fee on its
own row:

```
TAG          CUR  OUT     IN      NET      N
groceries    EUR   20.00    0.00   -20.00  1
TOTAL        EUR   20.00    0.00   -20.00
(transfers)  EUR  500.00  495.00    -5.00  2
  ⤷ fees     EUR    5.00            -5.00  1
```

The fee is counted only for pairs whose legs are *both* in the report you are
looking at, for the same reason the line counts legs and not transfers: filter
to one account or one month and you usually have one side of a movement, and
half a pair cannot say what the other half received.

A paired leg shows as `(transfer)` in the tag column of the transaction list
and of `money ls`, so it reads as accounted for rather than as a blank waiting
for a rule. That label is display only — nothing writes it to the index, and it
is never offered as a tag to complete against. A rule tag wins where there is
one, since that is your own word for it.

An *unpaired* leg is not a transfer and still counts, tagged like anything
else. That is deliberate: money that left an account and cannot be shown to
have arrived is exactly what you want to see, not something to quietly drop.
`money import` and `money retag` report unpaired legs on stderr, and the
transfers screen (`7`) shows which definition they belong to.

The pairing is derived state, like the tags: it lives in the index, is
recomputed wholesale by `money retag` and after every import, and disappears
with the definition that made it.

## account.toml

Every account folder needs one. `currency` and `parser` are required.

```toml
name     = "Main Checking"
currency = "EUR"
parser   = "nlb"
# minor_digits = 2       # decimal places for this currency
# include = ["*.csv"]    # only treat matching files as statements
```

### Parsers

Three are built in, ported from the original Python extractors. A statement
layout is described in Go rather than in a table of column indexes, so there is
nothing else to configure — `parser` names one of these and that is all.

| `parser` | Statement | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `nlb` | NLB izpisek PDF | Wrapped descriptions are folded in from continuation lines, and the IBAN column is appended to the description. |
| `traderepublic` | Trade Republic PDF | Handles both the single-line and the stacked layout by measuring column positions. |
| `revolut` | `account-statement*.csv` | Skips non-COMPLETED rows, folds the fee into the amount. |

```toml
name     = "Trade Republic"
currency = "EUR"
parser   = "traderepublic"
```

The two PDF parsers shell out to `pdftotext -layout` (poppler-utils), exactly
as the Python versions did; its layout reconstruction is what makes the
column-based parsing work.

Amount parsing is shared and deliberately tolerant: `1.234,56`, `-45.20`,
`45,20-`, `(45.20)` and `45.20 EUR` all work, whichever parser reads them.

**Revolut and multiple currencies.** One export can hold several currencies,
but an account here has exactly one. Rows in other currencies are skipped and
reported at import. To keep them, give that currency its own account folder
with its own `currency` and `minor_digits` (JPY wants `minor_digits = 0`) and
put a copy or symlink of the export in it.

## Adding a parser

A new bank means a new parser. Drop it in `internal/parser` and register it —
no other package changes:

```go
func init() {
	parser.Register("bankx", func(acc *config.Account) (parser.Parser, error) {
		return &bankXParser{digits: acc.Digits()}, nil
	})
}

func (p *bankXParser) Parse(path string, acc *config.Account) ([]parser.RawTxn, error) {
	// ... return date (YYYY-MM-DD), description, and signed minor units
}
```

It becomes usable by setting `parser = "bankx"` in an account.toml. Use
`parser.ParseAmount` for the decimal handling rather than rolling your own.

## Balance checks

Statements that report a running balance are verified on import: each balance
must equal the previous one plus the transaction amount, the same check all
three original scripts made. A break means a row was missed or misparsed, and
is reported as a warning without stopping the import.

## Deduplication

Each transaction gets a fingerprint from its date, amount, normalised
description, and its ordinal among identical lines in the same statement. So
two identical purchases on one day are both kept, while re-importing an
overlapping statement adds nothing. Unchanged files are skipped by checksum
before parsing.

## Development

```
go build ./... && go test ./...
```