Anyone Interested in a Free Personal Financial Dashboard That I Made?

LUrnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 13:00
Last edited 23/03/2023 - 16:19 by 1 other user

Hey, all first forum posts.

Not sure if people want it here in the forums or not. Technically, it is a freebie, let me know what you think.

It is easy to use and install and allows you to track your finances without manually sitting down at a table and pretending you are an accountant. The dashboard does it all for you. You can download data from your bank two years prior, and you might as well have a look and see if you are correct with your finances.

Features include:

✔️ Analytics
✔️ Compatible with multiple banks
✔️ Budget vs actuals
✔️ After installation, it takes 2 minutes total to update for current spending
✔️ Filter by the person (if you have a shared account)
✔️ Scalable
✔️ Easy to use and fun

The installation is easy, and the total time for installation is approximately 6 minutes (including reading the instructions)

Installation activities, broken down
· Download Power Bi and folders (2 minutes)
· Download Transaction history from the bank (2 minutes)
· File management and changing data source (2 minutes)

Compatible with the following banks: CommBank, ANZ, Bank West, ING, NAB, Suncorp, Up Banking, Westpac

Link to download
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BiKOUf9HLHI2A1x_rqJF992Yqbi…

Free Software/Websites

Comments

  • Bafranz on 23/03/2023 - 13:01
    +2

    Yup, here's my financial details ur nans leftnut :)

  • lostgoat on 23/03/2023 - 13:02
    -1

    Aren't you going to find it difficult for people to upload that kind of info in the current environment?

  • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 13:04
    +5

    You don't upload anything. Its moving files from your local computer

    • netjock on 23/03/2023 - 13:26
      +2

      I feel sorry for you that people don't realise download vs web app.

      • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 13:28

        eh idc. I kinda want everyone to shit on it and 1 guy to try it out and realise it's not a scam. Reading it again it 100% looks like a scam its a bit funny.

  • Kongzi on 23/03/2023 - 13:17
    +1

    No thanks

  • Mokr on 23/03/2023 - 13:25
    -1

    Send me the scripts on Google drive

  • mbck on 23/03/2023 - 13:25
    -1

    Yeah….nah

  • netjock on 23/03/2023 - 13:27
    +2

    Nice of you to put the work into it.

    Probably helpful for some people.

    I run a similar system that works out my excess cash and sweeps it into Ubank to make some interest on it (until my mortgage comes out of fixed and I can put it all into offset).

    • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 13:29
      +2

      Yea I made it for myself but I can share it wasn't that hard adding the other banks

  • kekw on 23/03/2023 - 13:29
    +8

    This is a power BI dashboard. It will be running locally in your pc. So OP is not stealing your data… Relax…

    • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 13:40

      Thanks! Exactly right

    • silenthillrocks on 23/03/2023 - 14:27

      Just because it's running on your computer doesn't mean it cant relay back to base

      • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 14:39
        +1

        The data you download from your bank doesn't contain any personal details only the last 4 digits of your card number.

        It contains last 4 digits, income, expenses, balance, and some dumb banks have account number at the top.

        I don't think anyone can hack you based off those anyway. You can trust me or not idc it's a free dashboard.

      • kekw on 23/03/2023 - 14:41
        +4

        is ok to be skeptical at this sadge modern society but this is power bi bruh.

        To put it bluntly, it can only receive data to display nicely for your eye ball to read not to expose data because it is a fuarken dashboard… OP is just being nice and send it out for everyone to use for free.

  • echelon6 on 23/03/2023 - 13:46
    +1

    You put alot of effort into this, nice.

    It looks like alot of steps for a budgeting tool. You basically need to beat an empty excel spreadsheet in terms of work, for something like this to be value adding.

    Like others have suggested, turn this into a web app, with minimal need for user input for them to get hooked, then when they are hooked give them customisation features. Allow for easy sign ups like sign in with Google oauth2.

    • Chandler on 23/03/2023 - 13:55
      +1

      As you can see in the comments above, a lot of people are wary about putting personal financial information into 3rd party applications, especially by random people on the internet. I think the way OP has gone about this will see greater initial adoption than setting up a web app. Maybe once they've got some advocates/evangelists on board they could roll-out a web app with some success (IMO).

  • Chandler on 23/03/2023 - 13:52
    +1

    I manage our finances via a spreadsheet, importing transactions via CSV exports from the bank, and have been interested in working out some analytics myself. Whilst I'm somewhat handy at Excel, never got super advanced - I can do some complex formulas and a lot of VBA, but never really got into pivot tables etc). Also have never look at Power BI, so this will be good to look at. Thank you!

    • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 13:57
      +1

      I highly recommend it. It's easy to learn and you can learn to automate it for free.

    • FirstWizard on 23/03/2023 - 14:13
      +1

      I use Google sheets together with Google App Scripts for Automatic categorisation etc. as well.

      Thanks though, It would be nice to see what other features I can port :D

      The main thing is I use Linux, and I don't (like to) use anything M$ and stay away from windows/office etc.

      • Chandler on 23/03/2023 - 17:18
        +1

        I use Google sheets together with Google App Scripts for Automatic categorisation etc. as well.

        I've got a fancy formula that does that for me (nested index/matches) - I like trying to keep my sheets code free. Code would be easier but!

        Thanks though, It would be nice to see what other features I can port :D

        Likewise.

        The main thing is I use Linux, and I don't (like to) use anything M$ and stay away from windows/office etc.

        Meanwhile uses Google Sheets haha… I understand but!

        • FirstWizard on 23/03/2023 - 17:27
          +1

          I know. You have to sell your soul to one Devil 😅

          It's been 100% Linux with the last few places I've worked in the (last 10 or so years), so I gave up using windows for my personal computer as well as it was convenient to stick to one platform.

          Was using a Libre office before, but eventually moved to Google sheets for convenience.

          • kiitos on 24/03/2023 - 08:41

            @FirstWizard: Does Google have BI tools as well?

            • FirstWizard on 24/03/2023 - 19:28
              +1

              @kiitos: I know Google has some sorts of Commercial BI tools available. But basic plots and graphs available with Google sheets is currently enough for my purposes.

              I use App scripts to import CSVs into my sheet. However, requires a little bit of manual help sometimes. I haven't perfected it yet.

      • knobbs on 24/03/2023 - 10:34

        I am interested in your auto categorisation. I too use Google sheets to do personal finance tracking, graphing, analysing but used to have Pocketbook do my auto categories until zip bought it and trashed it.
        Can you share with me how you are doing it?

        • FirstWizard on 24/03/2023 - 19:34

          After @Chandlers comment about index/match I rewrote my categorisation as a pure formula. It's actually pretty fast than my nested for loop script.

          Basically I have a sheet with a table of categories and related keywords. Same category can have multiple keywords. It just goes through the description and see if those keywords can be matched, and if it's a match then choose that category. I've just listed the names of I frequently go to as an entry in that table.

    • freefall101 on 23/03/2023 - 14:55

      Play around with Get and Transform in Excel, it'll change your mind about ever writing a VBA script again.

      • Chandler on 23/03/2023 - 17:20

        Yeah I generally try to make sheets without resorting to VBA, although VBA is frequently easier (although that could just be due to my familiarity with VBA).

        I think I have used Get & Transform on some sheets at work - not my home budget sheets but, since at home my Office is the 2007 version haha!

  • beyonddd on 23/03/2023 - 14:07

    Does this offer anything that something like the CompiledSanity Spreadsheet doesn't?

    • FirstWizard on 23/03/2023 - 14:25

      AFAIK Compiled sanity (when I looked at it then) did not track actual spending transactions from a bank CSV.

    • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 14:32
      +1

      Not sure never seen anything else. But I think mine is better than any paid option because it takes 2 minutes after you set it up and you get better analytics.

      Idk if CompiledSanity Spreadsheet is fully automated go with that but if it cost something save your money

  • harveyworld on 23/03/2023 - 14:38

    Thought I would take a looksy - but do you have any idea when I hit refresh I get the following message…

    File or Folder:
    We couldn't find the folder
    'C:\Users\Omur\Desktop\Personal Finance Dashboard\NAB*'.

    Even though I have selected Comm Bank and followed put my own data in that folder as per steps 7 to 10?

    I have not selected NAB and don't have any data in NAB?

    • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 14:41
      +2

      It's trying to find my file directory (I am omur)

      You have to match all the bank files even with the banks you are not with.

      Hope this helps

      • harveyworld on 23/03/2023 - 14:45

        Doh! sorted

        The bit where you emphasised and underlined to do it for all folders in point 10…. was somewhat missed by yours truly.

        I will hang my head in shame…

        Thanks for posting this. I will have a more detailed look now…

      • freefall101 on 23/03/2023 - 17:24

        If you work on this any further, you can use the "try" and "otherwise" functionality to see if the file exists and if it doesn't generate a blank table so it gets around this error.

        Also this is really helpful for relative data paths on multiple files - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52878319/load-data-into-…

  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 23/03/2023 - 18:52

    Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Up Bank already offer all this via the app?

    • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 18:55

      Yea probably, most banks do. This is more advanced.

  • Unclebully on 23/03/2023 - 19:32

    Just downloaded it and followed the instructions.

    "CHANGE THIS IF NEEDED
    The column 'Balance' of the table wasn't found."

    Any ideas what the fix is?

    • Urnansleftnut on 23/03/2023 - 20:48

      Not entirely sure, very hard to diagnose off that.
      Have a look at the troubleshooting section.

      Maybe one of the files in the other banks section has been deleted.

      No clue mate soz

  • Mechz on 23/03/2023 - 20:44
    +1

    I prefer the 'ignorance is bliss' method of financial management, where there is no tomorrow, only bargains I haven't spent the banks money on yet.

  • Aussie Paul 58 on 24/03/2023 - 15:39

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/user/453862
    How difficult is it to add other banks?
    It looks good to me but I bank with Great Southern Bank.
    Regardless I appreciate the philanthropy of you sharing your work.

    • Urnansleftnut on 25/03/2023 - 21:25

      It's not too hard 10 minutes. But I will have to be sus and ask for a sample of your data so that I can transform it to fit the dashboard.

      You can change the values if you want but not the format
      e.g. Starbucks | $12009. | -5.5 | 0 |xxx1633

      Can be changed to
      urnansplace | $123456. | -1.5 | 0 |xxx9999

      DONT change like this

      Mynansplace123 | 12009. | 5.5 | 7 | no

      Around 15 rows of data will be good
      1 row works but it won't be as accurate

      • Aussie Paul 58 on 29/03/2023 - 20:09

        I have made a sample that I believe complies with your guidelines above.
        I had private messaging in OZ Bargain disabled but I have enabled it now.
        It seems you have it disabled too.
        If you send me a private message I think i'll be able to privately share the file with you.
        Cheers,
        Paul

  • Hopscotchy on 25/03/2023 - 20:25
    +1

    Haven't given this a try just yet, but really nice of you share this OP!

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