How to Install Firefly III (Self-Hosted Personal Finance)

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Firefly III is a comprehensive, self-hosted personal finance manager — tracking income, expenses, budgets, and financial goals with detailed reporting, entirely under your own control.

What Firefly III Tracks

Multiple accounts (checking, savings, credit cards, cash)
Income and expense transactions with categorization
Budgets and spending limits
Bills and recurring transactions
Financial reports and visualizations

Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose installed

Step 1 — Create a Docker Compose Configuration

mkdir firefly-iii && cd firefly-iii
nano docker-compose.yml

version: '3'
services:
  app:
    image: fireflyiii/core:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8082:8080"
    env_file: .env
    volumes:
      - firefly-upload:/var/www/html/storage/upload
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: mariadb:lts
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD=yes
      - MYSQL_USER=firefly
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=CHANGE_ME_STRONG_PASSWORD
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=firefly
    volumes:
      - firefly-db:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  firefly-upload:
  firefly-db:

Step 2 — Create the Environment File

curl -o .env https://raw.githubusercontent.com/firefly-iii/firefly-iii/main/.env.example

nano .env

APP_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 32)
DB_HOST=db
DB_DATABASE=firefly
DB_USERNAME=firefly
DB_PASSWORD=CHANGE_ME_STRONG_PASSWORD

Step 3 — Start Firefly III

docker compose up -d

Step 4 — Access and Complete Setup

http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8082

Create your admin account through the setup wizard.

Step 5 — Add Your Accounts

Create entries for each of your real financial accounts (checking, savings, credit cards) to begin tracking.

Step 6 — Import Transaction History

Firefly III supports CSV import for bulk-loading historical transactions from your bank's exported statements, saving significant manual entry for getting started.

Step 7 — Set Up Budgets

Define budget categories and spending limits, then track actual spending against them over time.

Step 8 — Add HTTPS

See How to Install Nginx Proxy Manager with Docker — genuinely important given the sensitive financial data involved.

Security Considerations Given Financial Data Sensitivity

See VPS Security Checklist for Beginners and consider additional measures (2FA if supported, restricted network access via VPN) given that this application handles detailed personal financial information.

Automating Recurring Transactions

Set up recurring transaction rules for regular bills/income, reducing manual entry for predictable, repeating financial events.

Backing Up Firefly III (Critical Given Financial Data)

docker exec firefly-iii-db-1 mysqldump -u firefly -p'PASSWORD' firefly > firefly-backup.sql

Back up the database regularly and securely — see Backup Encryption: Protecting Your Backups from Unauthorized Access given the sensitivity of financial records.

Common Errors

CSV import doesn't correctly map columns — Firefly III's import wizard lets you manually map columns from your specific bank's export format; review this mapping carefully before completing the import.

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