Why • Features • Usage • How • MCP Server • Translate • Caveats and Warnings • Built with

WYGIWYH (What You Get Is What You Have) is a powerful, principles-first finance tracker designed for people who prefer a no-budget, straightforward approach to managing their money. With features like multi-currency support, customizable transactions, and a built-in dollar-cost averaging tracker, WYGIWYH helps you take control of your finances with simplicity and flexibility.

Managing money can feel unnecessarily complex, but it doesn’t have to be. WYGIWYH (pronounced "wiggy-wih") is based on a simple principle:

Use what you earn this month for this month. Any savings are tracked but treated as untouchable for future months.

By sticking to this straightforward approach, you avoid dipping into your savings while still keeping tabs on where your money goes.

While this philosophy is simple, finding tools to make it work wasn’t. I initially used a spreadsheet, which served me well for years, until it became unwieldy as I started managing multiple currencies, accounts, and investments. I tried various financial management apps, but none met my key requirements:

1. Multi-currency support to track income and expenses in different currencies.
2. Not a budgeting app as I dislike budgeting constraints.
3. Web app usability (ideally with mobile support, though optional).
4. Automation-ready API to integrate with other tools and services.
5. Custom transaction rules for credit card billing cycles or similar quirks.

Frustrated by the lack of comprehensive options, I set out to build WYGIWYH, an opinionated yet powerful tool that I believe will resonate with like-minded users.

WYGIWYH offers an array of features designed to simplify and streamline your personal finance tracking:

• Unified transaction tracking: Record all your income and expenses, organized in one place.
• Multiple accounts support: Keep track of where your money and assets are stored (banks, wallets, investments, etc.).
• Out-of-the-box multi-currency support: Dynamically manage transactions and balances in different currencies.
• Custom currencies: Create your own currencies for crypto, rewards points, or any other models.
• Automated adjustments with rules: Automatically modify transactions using customizable rules.
• Built-in Dollar-Cost Average (DCA) tracker: Essential for tracking recurring investments, especially for crypto and stocks.
• API support for automation: Seamlessly integrate with existing services to synchronize transactions.

You can try WYGIWYH on wygiwyh-demo.herculino.com with the credentials below:

Keep in mind that any data you add will be wiped in 24 hours or less. And that most automation features like the API, Rules, Automatic Exchange Rates and Import/Export are disabled.

To run this application, you'll need Docker with docker-compose.

From your command line:

# Create a folder for WYGIWYH (optional)
$ mkdir WYGIWYH

# Go into the folder
$ cd WYGIWYH

$ touch docker-compose.yml
$ nano docker-compose.yml
# Paste the contents of https://github.com/eitchtee/WYGIWYH/blob/main/docker-compose.prod.yml and edit according to your needs

# Fill the .env file with your configurations
$ touch .env
$ nano .env # or any other editor you want to use
# Paste the contents of https://github.com/eitchtee/WYGIWYH/blob/main/.env.example and edit accordingly

# Run the app
$ docker compose up -d

# Create the first admin account. This isn't required if you set the enviroment variables: ADMIN_EMAIL and ADMIN_PASSWORD.
$ docker compose exec -it web python manage.py createsuperuser

If you want to run WYGIWYH locally, on your env file:

1. Remove URL
2. Set HTTPS_ENABLED to false
3. Leave the default DJANGO_ALLOWED_HOSTS (localhost 127.0.0.1 [::1])

You can now access localhost:OUTBOUND_PORT

Features are only added to main when ready, if you want to run the latest version, you must build from source or use the :nightly tag on docker. Keep in mind that there can be undocumented breaking changes.

All the required Dockerfiles are here.

nwithan8 has kindly provided a Unraid template for WYGIWYH, have a look at the unraid_templates repo.

WYGIWYH is available on the Unraid Store. You'll need to provision your own postgres (version 15 or up) database.

To create the first user, open the container's console using Unraid's UI, by clicking on WYGIWYH icon on the Docker page and selecting Console, then type python manage.py createsuperuser, you'll them be prompted to input your e-mail and password.

WYGIWYH supports login via OpenID Connect (OIDC) through django-allauth. This allows users to authenticate using an external OIDC provider.

To configure OIDC, you need to set the following environment variables:

Callback URL (Redirect URI):

When configuring your OIDC provider, you will need to provide a callback URL (also known as a Redirect URI). For WYGIWYH, the default callback URL is:

https://your.wygiwyh.domain/auth/oidc/<OIDC_CLIENT_NAME>/login/callback/

Replace https://your.wygiwyh.domain with the actual URL where your WYGIWYH instance is accessible. And <OIDC_CLIENT_NAME> with the slugfied value set in OIDC_CLIENT_NAME or the default openid-connect if you haven't set this variable.

Check out our Wiki for more information.

IZIme07 has kindly created an MCP Server for WYGIWYH that you can self-host. Check it out at MCP-WYGIWYH!

• I'm not an accountant, some terms and even calculations might be wrong. Make sure to open an issue if you see anything that could be improved.
• Pretty much all calculations are done at run time, this can lead to some performance degradation. On my personal instance, I have 3000+ transactions over 4+ years and 4000+ exchange rates, and load times average at around 500ms for each page, not bad overall.
• This isn't a budgeting or double-entry-accounting application, if you need those features there's a lot of options out there, if you really need them in WYGIWYH, open a discussion.

WYGIWYH is possible thanks to a lot of amazing open source tools, to name a few:

• Django
• HTMX
• _hyperscript
• Procrastinate
• Bootstrap
• Tailwind
• Webpack
• PostgreSQL
• Django REST framework
• Alpine.js