The dashboard
The Dashboard is the first page you land on. It doesn't draw anything itself: every card on it is a widget contributed by a plugin, and the app only provides the grid and one control, the time range. Turn a plugin off and its widgets leave the dashboard. Turn it back on and they return.
Added in 0.1.0.
The time range
One control at the top right sets the period for the whole dashboard:
| Choice | Covers |
|---|---|
| This month | The current month |
| 3 months | The current month and the two before it |
| 6 months | The current month and the five before it |
| 12 months | The current month and the eleven before it (the default) |
| 24 months | The current month and the twenty-three before it |
| Year to date | January up to and including the current month |
There is one control, not one per card, on purpose. Two charts side by side that show different periods while looking alike is the way a dashboard misleads. Widgets read the range and can't change it, or see each other.
- Ranges end at the end of the current month, not today. A last bar that is a part-month and shrinks as you look at it invites comparing half a month with whole ones.
- Where a month starts depends on you, not the server: the month is worked out in your time zone.
- The choice is remembered in this browser, so it comes back the next time you visit. It is not tied to your account, so another browser or device starts on 12 months.
- Not every card uses it (see below). A card about a window of its own, such as Until payday, ignores the range.
The control only appears when at least one widget is installed.
The layout
Plugins say which of two areas a widget belongs in, how big it is and where it sits among the others; the app lays them out.
- The main area is two columns. Half-width cards (Until payday, Budget breakdown) sit side by side, and full-width cards (the two charts) take a row each.
- The second area holds smaller cards, which wrap to fit the width.
- On a phone or a narrow window (under 860 pixels wide) the main area is a single column.
You can't rearrange cards or hide one on its own. To remove a card, turn off the plugin that provides it, in Settings → Plugins (owners only). With no widgets at all the page says No widgets installed.
A card that throws while drawing shows "Plugin · Card failed to render", the error and a Try again button inside its own card. The others keep working.
What's on it
The bundled plugins contribute these, in the order they appear:
| Card | Plugin | Uses the range | What it answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Until payday | Upcoming | No | Will I make it to payday? |
| Budget breakdown | Budgets | No | How is this month's budget going? |
| Money in and out | Insights | Yes | Is more coming in than going out? |
| Spending trends | Spending Trends | Yes | What are my biggest categories doing? |
| Where it went | Insights | Yes | What did the money go on? |
| Debt-free date | Debt payoff | No | When will I be debt free? |
Budget breakdown
The current month's budget as a set of tiles, with the ones that need attention first. Each tile shows the category, what is left (or how much it is over), the amount spent of what is available, and a bar with a mark for today. A window shows as the whole pot, with its mark at how far through its dates you are, and an account allowance appears as "Account spending".
- Order: lines that are over come first, then those spending faster than the month is arriving, each worst first. Then the rest by how much of their budget is used, and lines with nothing spent last.
- Up to six tiles show. When there are more lines, an All N lines button opens the Budgets page.
- The footer says how many lines need attention out of how many there are (counting up to four), or that all are on pace, and how much of the month's available budget is spent, not counting allowances.
- It reads only lines you've saved for the current month. A month that is still a draft on the Budgets page shows No budget this month here, with a pointer to that page.
Money in and out
Income against spending by month. Income is drawn above a single zero line and spending below it, on one scale, so a bar of a given size is the same height whichever way it points and the gap between the two is the month's net. Every month in the range gets a slot, including empty ones, so March and September never sit side by side as if consecutive. Hover or focus a month for its figures, or press Show as table for the same numbers as a table.
Spending trends
Monthly spending stacked by category. The five largest categories over the range are named and the rest fold into Other. The chips above the chart are the legend and a filter: turn a category off and it leaves the bars and the axis refits.
Where it went
A donut of spending by category over the range, with a legend. The five largest categories are named and the rest fold into Other. The centre shows the total, or the figure for the slice you hover. Income isn't counted: this is a question about outflow.
What the charts count
The three charts read the same totals as the rest of the app:
- Transfers aren't counted, either transfer rows or a category that counts as a Transfer.
- A category's kind decides, so a refund in a spending category reduces spending rather than showing as income.
- An uncategorized transaction is counted by its sign, and appears under "Uncategorized", so a fresh import charts sensibly before you've sorted it.
- Split transactions count part by part, each part in its own category.
A chart with nothing to draw says so, for example "Nothing in the last 12 months" or "No spending in this range". Widen the range to look further back.
Cards that run in a frame
Where a card's code runs depends on its plugin. Insights (Money in and out, Where it went) and Spending Trends run in a sandboxed frame; the others run in the app's own page. You don't have to do anything about it: both sit in the same card on the grid. The sandbox is covered on Plugins.
What it doesn't do
- No drag, resize or per-card settings. The layout comes from the plugins.
- No cross-card interaction. Choosing a month in one chart doesn't filter another.
Where it connects
Every number on the dashboard comes from something you entered elsewhere: transactions and categories for the charts, the Budgets page for the breakdown, recurring items for Until payday, and Debt payoff for the debt-free date. CSV import is how most of it gets there.