First of all, I want to say sorry. There's no excuse to wait months between releases, and I'm really sorry about that. This is a big release and everything ended up being wrapped into it, but I took it slowly because making sure your data is safely upgraded and works smoothly is of utmost importance to me.
A completely new budgeting backend
This release has a totally new budgeting backend. I'll blog about this soon, but basically the entire budget used to be implemented internally as a spreadsheet, even with it's own custom language! The original idea was to expose this to the user and allow customization of the budget formulas, but I've learned a lot since then. I still have ideas related to this, but it was silly how complex the previous implementation made everything.
It made everything in the budget slow. If you had a couple years worth of data, adding a category would lag between the time you pressed enter and it actually showed up in the budget. Same with deleting a category, or anything else.
This has been completely fixed. Now, all of the interactions with the budget are instant. The backend is insanely faster, and the frontend has been meticulously optimized to make it feel even faster.
The new budgeting backend should be transparent to you - the budget should work exactly the same way as it did before, and your data should be exactly the same. Let me know if it's not.
This release also has a few other huge features, such as syncing between any devices (desktop-to-desktop), and API, and more!
Brand new site
Along with all these big changes, a new website has been release! This is a total redesign and reflect Actual's values a lot more accurately.
The main reason this happened is I need to write documentation for the API. One thing led to another and now there is a full documentation site about how to use Actual. This will be expanded more over time.
Desktop
Big improvements in the budget UI
While the budgeting backend allows the budget to update much faster, on the frontend I optimized it even more. The whole UI is now optimistically updated, which means when you make a change it doesn't even wait for the server. It just instantly updates the UI locally.
Additionally, the hover state for budget rows was removed. This allows more specific interactions with the values themselves. When you hover over a budget amount, a faded textbox will appear making it clear that you can edit it. The values in the balance column are now more clearly clickable. This tweaks will always feel instant regardless of the number of categories. (Previously, the row hover state would lag with a huge amount of categories)
Revamp how you interact with categories
You can now edit categories and category groups by hovering and clicking the the drop down menu to reveal several actions. This will make it easier to add more actions in the future, and fixes the confusing interaction of renaming category groups.
A big thank you to Henri Maurer who has helped contribute on this release and implemented this feature!
API
Another major feature: Actual now has an API! Read the docs on the website.
This gives you full access to your data. The main use case is to write custom importers (if your bank gives you transactions in a specific format), but you can write anything on top of it. This is considered experimental and will stabilize over time.
Improved syncing setup (including desktop-to-desktop)
Previously, only the mobile app could discover a desktop device by reading a QR code with the camera. That flow is simplified now, and Actual uses something called multicast DNS to discover devices. The desktop app puts itself into "broadcasting" mode and another desktop or mobile app will automatically discover it when setting up a new synced file.
See Setting up syncing.
Option to disable auto-update
If you want to stay with a certain version of the app for any reason, you can now disable auto-updating in the settings.
Support for Catalina
The new macOS version Catalina requires apps to be signed in another way, which is funny because the app is already properly code signed. I guess Apple really wants to control everything. Now the app is "notarized" by Apple which means they won't freak out when you try to run it.
Bugfixes
- Fix highlighting new transactions when importing
- Fix various styling issues with reports
- Tooltips/dropdowns are now dismissed with mouse down instead of mouse up (thanks Henri!)
- Remove shortcuts for moving left/right in the budget, tab/shift-tab now move up and down (thanks Henri!)
- Fix off-by-one date errors with OFX/QFX files if importing from certain timezones
- Cash flow graph doesn't include off-budget accounts in the balance line
- Improved YNAB4 import support. The import should be very robust now and import all of your data correctly.
Mobile
The mobile app benefits from the new budgeting backend as well. The performance problems were even worse on mobile devices, but now loading a large budget from another device is far faster, as well as working with the budget.
Ability to reorder categories
To celebrate the new budgeting backend, the mobile app can now reorder categories. Move them around and even move them between groups. Just go into edit mode and drag them around. It sounds silly, but previously it was just too slow on mobile devices to do anything with categories. Now that it's all fixed, you'll be able to do everything on mobile. (deleting a category on mobile is coming soon)