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Finzen Documentation

website·Indexed 32 days ago

https://docs.finzen.org

User guides for Finzen, an all-in-one personal finance dashboard. Documentation covers envelope budgeting, portfolio tracking, and net worth reporting, including instructions for managing accounts, logging transactions, and analyzing cash flow and spending trends.

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What's inside Finzen

  1. Overview of Finzen personal finance dashboard

    Finzen is an all-in-one personal finance dashboard designed for financial awareness through manual tracking. Unlike automated tools, Finzen does not use bank connections or automatic syncing; users manually log transactions to build a consistent habit of financial engagement. The platform focuses on three core activities: Tending (daily transaction logging), Observing (analyzing visual reports), and Growing (turning awareness into intentional financial change).

  2. Understand how Finzen Achievements are earned

    Achievements in Finzen are badges earned by meeting specific financial conditions, such as reaching net worth milestones, maintaining logging streaks, or hitting monthly transaction counts.

    Many achievements are organized into chains (sequential milestones). In a chain, later tiers remain locked and cannot be earned until the previous tier in the sequence is completed (e.g., a net worth chain progressing from $1,000 to $10,000, then $50,000, and finally $100,000). Locked future tiers remain visible to users for planning purposes.

  3. Track investments and assets in Finzen

    Investment accounts allow users to track assets including stocks, crypto, commodities, and foreign currency positions with automatically updated live market prices. When adding an account, the user selects an asset class, searches for the specific asset, and enters the number of units held. These accounts feed into the Portfolio report (providing P&L, returns, allocation, and performance) and contribute to the overall net worth calculation.

  4. Analyze Net Worth trends and balance sheets

    The Monthly Overview provides two visual tools for tracking net worth:

    1. Net Worth Chart: A day-by-day chart tracing total assets minus total liabilities, displaying current net worth and P&L since the start of the month.
    2. Assets & Debts Chart: A side-by-side bar chart comparing assets and debts from the previous month to the current month, with an overlaid net worth line to visualize balance sheet improvement.

  5. Monitor Budget Health indicators

    Budget health is summarized by two rings on the Monthly Overview (which mirror the Budget page header):

    • Spent: The percentage of the total monthly budget spent to date.
    • Funds Budgeted: The percentage of liquid funds (balance across all on-budget accounts) assigned to envelopes. A value close to 100% indicates that all available funds have been allocated.

  6. Understand account types in Finzen

    In Finzen, an account is a manual container used to track financial positions. There are three primary account categories:

    • On-Budget: Used for day-to-day spending (e.g., Checking, PayPal). Transactions in these accounts feed directly into the envelope budget.
    • Off-Budget: Used for tracking net worth without affecting the budget (e.g., Savings, loans, debt).
    • Investment: Used for tracking portfolios (e.g., Stocks, crypto, commodities, forex). These live in the portfolio section of the app.

  7. Understand Finzen account types and their impacts

    Finzen uses three distinct account types to organize financial data. Each type affects different parts of the application:

    • On-Budget: Used for everyday accounts (checking, cash, PayPal). These power the envelope budget and spending reports. They affect both budget and net worth.
    • Off-Budget: Used for savings, loans, and debt. These track net worth but are excluded from the envelope budget. They affect only net worth.
    • Investment: Used for stocks, crypto, commodities, and forex. These power the Portfolio report and are driven by live market prices. They affect both net worth and the portfolio.

  8. Understand Portfolio Summary Card metrics

    The Portfolio report features four summary cards at the top providing a high-level overview of investment health:

    • AUM (Assets Under Management): The total real-time value of all holdings in investment accounts, converted to the primary currency. Includes a percentage change indicator since tracking began.
    • Returns: A breakdown of portfolio value including:
      • AUM: Current total value.
      • Cost Basis: Original purchase price or account value when first added to Finzen.
      • Unrealized Profit: Gains/losses on currently held positions.
      • Realized Profit: Gains locked in from sell transactions (calculated automatically upon recording a sell transaction).
      • Total Returns: The sum of unrealized and realized profits.
    • Volatility & Projections: Estimates based on historical data and normal distribution:
      • Annualized Returns: Average yearly return rate.
      • Annualized Volatility: Year-to-year value swings.
      • Projections: Forward-looking estimates at the 20th (Low), 50th (Mid), and 80th (High) percentiles. Note: Only the Mid projection is visible on small screens.
    • Risk-Adjusted Returns: A gauge based on the Sharpe ratio, measuring return efficiency relative to risk.

  9. Analyze spending patterns and trends

    The Monthly Overview offers two views for spending analysis:

    1. Daily Spending: A day-by-day bar chart of outflows that includes the average daily spending (marked as Ø) to help identify high-spend days or patterns.
    2. Spending Trends: A stacked bar chart comparing the current month's spending to the previous month, broken down by subcategory to identify exactly where spending increased or decreased.

  10. Understand the Envelope Budgeting method in Finzen

    Finzen uses a digital version of the 'envelope method,' a form of zero-based budgeting where every dollar of income is assigned a specific job. The goal is for income minus all allocations to equal zero, ensuring all money has a purpose before it is spent. This approach focuses on intentionality, preventing overspending by requiring users to prioritize allocations across different life categories.

  11. Analyze financial data using the Statistics reports

    The Statistics page transforms logged data into visual reports across several tabs:

    • Monthly Overview: High-level health check for the current month.
    • Spending: Breakdowns by category, tag, and trend.
    • Net Worth: Trajectory of net worth over time.
    • Portfolio: Investment performance, returns, risk metrics, and projections.
    • Cash Flow: Inflow vs. outflow, including a Sankey flow diagram.
    • Achievements: Tracking financial milestones and goals.

  12. Analyze spending by category using the donut chart

    The 'Spending by Category' section uses a donut chart to show the share of total spending per category.

    • Interaction: Hover over segments to see the category name and percentage of total spending.
    • Detail Level: Toggle between master categories and subcategories.
    • Sidebar: Displays a full ranked list of categories with exact amounts.
    • Independent Time Ranges: This chart has its own time range selector (This Month, Last Month, Latest 3 Months, This Year, Last Year, All Dates), which operates independently from the Spending Trends chart.