Using Fava (Web UI)

Fava is the standard web interface for Beancount. It transforms your text file into an interactive financial dashboard.

Installation & Start

pip install fava
fava main.beancount

Open http://localhost:5000 in your browser.

Tip: Press ? anywhere in Fava to see keyboard shortcuts.

The Dashboard (Indicators)

The dashboard shows your Net Worth and upcoming events.

Up-to-Date Indicators

Fava can show colored dots next to accounts to indicate if they have been reconciled recently.

To enable this, add metadata to your open directive:

2000-01-01 open Assets:Bank:Chase
  fava-uptodate-indication: TRUE

• 🟢 Green: The last entry is a passed balance check.
• 🔴 Red: The last entry is a failed balance check.
• 🟡 Yellow: The last entry is not a balance check.
• ⚪ Grey: No activity for a long time (default 60 days).

Filtering

Fava’s filter bar is extremely powerful.

Time Filter

Supports natural language and intervals:

• 2024: The whole year.
• 2024-Q1: First quarter.
• 2024-03: March.
• year - 1: Last year.
• month: This month.

Account Filter

Accepts regular expressions to match account names:

• Assets:US matches all US assets.
• ^Assets matches only Assets (no Income/Expenses).

Advanced Filter

Filter by tags, links, metadata, or amounts.

• #vacation: Only show transactions with this tag.
• payee:"Starbucks": Filter by payee.
• units > 100: Only transactions larger than 100.
• any(account:"Expenses:Food"): Entries where at least one posting hits food.
• all(-account:"Expenses"): Exclude all expenses.

The Editor

Fava includes a full Beancount text editor in the browser.

• Auto-complete: Type an account name or payee to see suggestions.
• Validation: Errors are highlighted in red immediately.
• Formatting: Use Align Amounts to clean up your file.

Importing Data

Fava provides a GUI for beangulp importers.

1. Configure your importers in python (see Writing Importers).
2. Add the configuration to your file:

   custom "fava-option" "import-config" "my_import_config.py"
   custom "fava-option" "import-dirs" "/path/to/downloads"
   

3. Go to the Import tab in Fava.
4. Drag and drop CSV files onto the importer name.
5. Fava will extract transactions and let you review/accept them before writing to your file.

Configuration Options

Fava has its own set of options defined using the custom directive.

Fiscal Year

Change the start of your year (e.g., UK tax year starts April 6).

custom "fava-option" "fiscal-year-end" "04-05"

Invert Signs

If you prefer to see Income/Liabilities as positive numbers (Net Profit view):

custom "fava-option" "invert-income-liabilities-equity" "true"

Language

Force a specific language (default is auto-detected).

custom "fava-option" "language" "fr"