configuration.md

Configuration

This tool can be configured using a .budget-cli.json file in the root of this project. This file is ignored by git so you can keep your local configuration and still make contributions, should you be so kind. An exmample file is below:

{
  "outputFile": {
    "YYYY": "/absolute/path/to/data.csv"
  },
  "subCategories": {
    "income": [
      "income_subcategory_1",
      "income_subcategory_2",
      "income_subcategory_3"
    ],
    "expense": [
      "expense_subcategory_1",
      "expense_subcategory_2",
      "expense_subcategory_3"
    ]
  },
  "expenseTypeMapping": {
    "parent-1": "want",
    "parent-2": "want",
    "donation": "want",
    "health": "need",
    "childcare": "need"
  },
  "expenseAllowance": {
    "YYYY": {
      "expense_subcategory_1": {
        "allowance": 300,
        "carryover": 0
      },
      "expense_subcategory_2": {
        "allowance": 300,
        "carryover": 125
      }
    }
  },
  "moveFilesAfterImport": {
    "AccountTranslatorName1": "/path/to/destination/directory/for/TranslatorName1",
    "AccountTranslatorName2": "/path/to/destination/directory/for/TranslatorName2"
  },
  "defaultImportDir": "/path/to/default/import/directory",
  "autoCategorization": [
    {
      "descriptions": [
        "Description 1",
        "Description 2"
      ],
      "amount": {
        "lt": 150,
        "lte": 125,
        "gte": 75,
        "gt": 50
      },
      "categorization": {
        "category": "expense",
        "subCategory": "family",
        "expenseType": "need",
        "notes": "Notes here"
      }
    }
  ],
  "wantNeedTracking": true
}

All keys are optional and will provide defaults.

• outputFile: This can be set to a string to use a single file for all transactions or an object with years as keys and paths as values to set a different file for different years.
• subCategories: This can be set to an object with income and expense as keys. Each of those keys must be set to an array of strings indicating the sub-categories to use for each. When importing transactions, the tool will prompt you to select one.
• expenseTypeMapping: The keys in the object are expense categories and the values are an expense type of "need" or "want" to automatically map expense categories to types.
• expenseAllowance: This can be set to an object with keys indicating a specific year. Each year should be set to an object with expense sub-categories as keys. Each sub-category should be set to an object with the keys allowance, indicating how much is allowed per month, and carryover, indicating any rollover from the previous year (or 0 if none).
• moveFilesAfterImport: This can be set to an object with keys indicating an account name and values indicating an absolute path to a local directory. If a destination path is set for a specific account, the CSV file will be moved there after successful import.
• defaultImportDir: This can be set to a directory where the import command will look for CSV files. If this is not present then the command will require a directory path in the input flag.
• autoCategorization: This can be set to a specifically-shaped object that will be used to auto-categorize transactions.
  • descriptions is an array of one or more strings that are used to match the incoming transaction description in an "or" strategy.
  • amount is an object that should have at least one of the following keys:
    • gt (greater than)
    • gte (greater than or equals)
    • lt (less than)
    • lte (less than or equals)
  • categorization is the object that is merged with the transaction data if the conditions are met.
• wantNeedTracking: Set this to false to turn off the want/need tracking. This will keep a column in your CSV output but not ask during import or display in transactions or reports. Default true.