QuietLedger

Money without noise.

QuietLedger is a calm, local-first personal finance ledger for people who want to understand their money without connecting bank accounts, feeding a brokerage funnel, or being shamed by a dashboard.

It runs in the browser, stores the active ledger locally, supports CSV import and JSON backups, and keeps the product surface quiet: accounts, monthly snapshots, manual entries, transaction history, financial memory, and upcoming obligations.

Live app: https://quietledger.vercel.app

Quick Links

Link	Description
Live app	Production deployment on Vercel
Architecture notes	Current data model, storage, and privacy notes
Security policy	Reporting guidance and current security limitations
Contributing	Local setup, checks, and contribution expectations
Changelog	Notable project changes
License	AGPL-3.0-or-later

Current Status

QuietLedger is an early public MVP. It is useful today as a browser-local ledger, but it is not a bank-connected finance platform and should not be treated as secure long-term storage for sensitive records.

What exists now:

• Manual transaction entry with edit, duplicate, and delete actions.
• Local account management with create, edit, and archive flows.
• Client-side CSV import with flexible column mapping, preview warnings, duplicate detection, and basic categorization.
• Local persistence through localStorage.
• JSON export/import for backups and recovery.
• PWA manifest and service worker shell.
• Public Vercel deployment.

What does not exist yet:

• No hosted user accounts or auth.
• No backend database.
• No encryption-at-rest for local browser storage.
• No bank login, Plaid, Flinks, brokerage, or aggregation connection.
• No multi-device sync or conflict resolution.
• No native desktop/mobile builds.

Screenshots

Overview	Filtered insight/search state

Features

Area	Current support
Accounts	Create, edit, archive, starting balance, account type
Transactions	Manual add/edit/delete/duplicate, notes, merchant, category
CSV import	Client-side parsing, flexible header mapping, preview warnings
Categorization	Basic keyword inference for common spending groups
Dashboard	Accounts, monthly snapshot, insights, memory, forecast, life-cost map
Persistence	Schema-versioned browser localStorage
Backups	JSON export/import
PWA	Manifest, icon, service worker registration
Hosting	Vercel production deployment

Privacy Model

QuietLedger is intentionally local-first in its current form:

• Ledger data is stored in the browser using localStorage.
• CSV parsing happens locally in the browser.
• JSON backup import/export happens locally in the browser.
• No bank credentials are requested.
• No Plaid, Flinks, brokerage, or bank aggregation service is connected.
• No backend, database, analytics pipeline, or server sync is connected.

Important limitation: localStorage is convenient, but it is not encrypted secure storage. Browser data can be cleared by site-data settings, private browsing, cleanup tools, profile changes, or device migration. Export JSON backups regularly and store them somewhere you control.

Install Or Use

Use The Hosted App

Open https://quietledger.vercel.app.

The app can be installed as a PWA from supported browsers. Browser installation prompts and labels vary by platform.

Run Locally

Requirements:

• Node.js 20.11 or newer
• npm

git clone https://github.com/sparshsam/quietledger.git
cd quietledger
npm install
npm run dev

Then open http://localhost:3000.

Build From Source

npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm run build
npm run start

The production server uses Next.js. For Vercel deployment, the default Next.js preset is sufficient.

CSV Import

QuietLedger starts with CSV instead of bank aggregation because CSV keeps the user in control. Export from your bank, inspect the file, import locally, and back up the ledger as JSON.

Supported mapping targets:

• date
• description
• merchant
• amount
• account
• category
• type / debit / credit

Example with signed amounts:

Date,Description,Merchant,Amount,Account,Category
2026-05-03,Internet bill,Northline Internet,-69.99,Chequing,Utilities
2026-05-04,Payroll deposit,Acme Studio,2715.00,Chequing,Income
2026-05-06,Uber Eats,Uber Eats,-31.40,Credit cards,

Example with debit/credit type:

Posted Date,Transaction Description,Debit/Credit,Transaction Amount,Account Name
05/07/2026,Grocery Store,Debit,84.12,Chequing
05/08/2026,Salary,Credit,2715.00,Chequing
05/09/2026,Streaming Bundle,Debit,18.99,Credit cards

Backups

Use Export JSON after meaningful edits or imports. Use Import JSON backup to restore a previously exported QuietLedger ledger.

The backup format currently includes:

• schemaVersion
• exportedAt
• accounts
• transactions
• importedTransactions
• importMetadata
• monthlySnapshots
• memories
• forecastItems

Deployment

QuietLedger is deployed on Vercel:

https://quietledger.vercel.app

No custom vercel.json is required for the current Next.js app.

Recommended deployment flow:

npm install
npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm run build
npx vercel --prod

Roadmap

QuietLedger should remain a personal ledger, not a financial product funnel. The roadmap expands clarity, portability, and privacy without adding bank surveillance, brokerage prompts, or shame-based finance dashboards.

Near-Term

• Broader CSV format coverage — support more bank/export layouts through fixtures, mapping presets, and regression tests.
• Transaction search and richer filtering — search by merchant, note, account, category, date range, and amount range.
• Editable categories and category rules — custom categories, local keyword rules, and manual override memory.
• Subscription radar — identify repeating obligations and upcoming charges without connecting to bank APIs.
• Calm forecast improvements — clearer upcoming cash-flow view, recurring bills, and simple month-ahead projections.
• Import/export schema migration tests — keep old JSON backups restorable as the app evolves.
• Backup reminders — gentle local-only prompts after major imports or edits.

Mid-Term

• Optional encrypted local storage — user-controlled passphrase encryption for browser-local ledgers.
• IndexedDB storage engine — move beyond localStorage for larger ledgers, safer migrations, and better performance.
• Local-first PWA mode — stronger offline shell, cached app assets, and no required network after load.
• Rules-based categorization — transparent local rules rather than opaque AI categorization.
• Monthly closing flow — let users freeze a monthly snapshot and compare future changes against it.
• Debt and obligation tracker — simple balances, payment targets, and due-date awareness without lending/refinancing ads.
• Printable reports — clean PDF-style exports for monthly summaries, taxes, household planning, or personal review.

Long-Term Vision

• Self-hosted sync option — optional Supabase/Postgres sync for users who want multi-device access while controlling their own infrastructure.
• End-to-end encrypted sync research — explore sync designs where hosted infrastructure cannot read ledger contents.
• Desktop wrapper — package QuietLedger as a local desktop app for people who prefer filesystem-backed records.
• Portable finance archive — durable export format for accounts, transactions, snapshots, rules, notes, and forecast items.
• Open ledger schema — a documented, app-agnostic schema that other personal finance tools can import or export.
• Household mode — shared ledgers for families/roommates with careful permission boundaries.
• Quiet financial memory — plain-language notes about major money events, obligations, and recurring patterns without pretending to be an advisor.

Optional Base / OpenProof Direction

Any Web3 feature should support integrity and portability, not speculation.

Possible proof-oriented features:

• Ledger integrity receipts — hash a JSON backup locally and optionally anchor the hash through an OpenProof-style flow.
• Monthly snapshot proofs — prove that a specific monthly ledger snapshot existed at a certain time without publishing its contents.
• Portable backup verification — verify that an imported backup matches a previously saved receipt.
• Onchain audit trail for public templates — anchor hashes of public category-rule packs or import presets so users can verify they were not silently altered.

What should never happen:

• no wallet required to use the app
• no token
• no yield product
• no lending funnel
• no bank-login requirement
• no public onchain storage of personal financial data
• no financial advice claims

Base, if used, should be a quiet notary for hashes. The ledger itself stays private and user-controlled.

Future Philosophy

QuietLedger belongs to a broader family of calm tools around ownership, proof, privacy, and restraint.

The direction is:

• Money without surveillance — understand finances without handing over bank credentials.
• Records without lock-in — export, inspect, migrate, and back up your own ledger.
• Clarity without shame — dashboards should inform, not scold.
• Proof without exposure — hashes can verify backups or snapshots without revealing transactions.
• Local-first before cloud sync — useful offline first, optional infrastructure later.
• Base as infrastructure, not speculation — verification only, never a reason to financialize the app.

QuietLedger should feel less like a finance casino and more like a small wooden desk with a clean notebook, a lamp, and no one peeking over your shoulder. 🕯️

Contributing

Contributions are welcome if they preserve the project's privacy-first and calm-UX direction.

Start with:

npm install
npm run lint
npm run typecheck
npm run build

Before opening a pull request, please read CONTRIBUTING.md. For vulnerability reports, use SECURITY.md.

License

QuietLedger is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

This matters for hosted or network-accessible modifications: the AGPL is intentionally stronger than a permissive license. If you run a modified version for others over a network, you need to provide the corresponding source under the AGPL terms.

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Last updated: June 2026

Tech Stack

Layer	Choice
Framework	Next.js (App Router)
Language	TypeScript
Styling	Tailwind CSS
Data	Local-first (IndexedDB)
Deployment	Vercel