Money

An open-source replacement for NCH MoneyLine. A fast, modern web app for personal finance management that reads and writes the same SQLite database format (.vdb files) — so your existing data works seamlessly.

Features

• Account management — Checking, Savings, Credit Card, and Investment accounts
• Transaction CRUD — Create, edit, and soft-delete transactions with running balance
• Payee autocomplete — Auto-creates new payees on the fly
• Category hierarchy — Income and expense categories with grouping
• Sortable columns — Click any column header to sort
• Date filtering — Period presets (This Month, Last 2 Months, This Year, etc.) or custom range
• Reports — Income & Expense, Expenses by Payee, Account Activity
• Keyboard shortcuts — n new, Enter edit, Delete delete

Tech Stack

• Backend: Node.js, Express, better-sqlite3
• Frontend: Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS (no framework, no build step)
• Database: SQLite (.vdb file, MoneyLine-compatible format)
• Deployment: Docker

Quick Start

With an existing database

Place your moneyline.vdb file in ~/Documents/Money/, then:

docker-compose up --build

Fresh start (no database)

Just run it — a new empty database will be created automatically in ~/Documents/Money/:

docker-compose up --build

Open http://localhost:3000

Data Storage

All user data lives in ~/Documents/Money/, separate from the codebase:

~/Documents/Money/
├── moneyline.vdb              ← database
└── backups/
    ├── moneyline-startup-*.vdb    ← created on each server start
    └── moneyline-*.vdb            ← scheduled backups (default every 24h)

macOS Dock App

A Money.app bundle is included. Copy it to /Applications and drag to the Dock. It opens the web app in your default browser.

cp -R Money.app /Applications/

Development

npm install
node server.js

Docker

The docker-compose.yml mounts ~/Documents/Money into the container as /data.

services:
  moneyline:
    build: .
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - ~/Documents/Money:/data
    environment:
      - DB_PATH=/data/moneyline.vdb
      - BACKUP_DIR=/data/backups