GnuCash Financial Radar

Financial Radar is an open-source suite of modern, local-first dashboard reports for GnuCash 5.x. It transforms fragmented accounting ledger data into cohesive, visually rich financial overviews covering monthly spending, debt payoff strategies, and YNAB-style sinking funds.

The Problem & Motivation

GnuCash is an incredibly robust, double-entry accounting engine, but its built-in reporting tools can feel visually dated and fragmented for everyday financial planning. Most modern solutions require moving to cloud-based platforms that compromise data privacy.

I built Financial Radar to bring a modern executive dashboard experience directly inside GnuCash. Operating entirely local-first and read-only, it respects standard GnuCash workflows. Instead of trying to replace the database engine, it leverages existing account structures and metadata to build predictive, actionable planning tools.

Key Reports & Features

• Financial Radar Dashboard: A consolidated command center tracking budget vs. actual spending, net worth trends, cash flow shifts, and future balance projections by scanning register data and upcoming scheduled transactions.
• Debt Repayment Planner: An interactive tool to model payoff schedules (Snowball, Avalanche, or custom priority). It reads variables like APR and minimum payments natively from GnuCash account notes to project exact debt-free dates without modifying the underlying book.
• Sinking Funds Budget Report: Provides a digital envelope-budgeting view (similar to YNAB or Actual Budget) featuring cumulative rolling balances, carry-forward overspending protections, and compact visual progress bars for future savings targets.

Technical & Compatibility Engineering

• Dual Rendering Engine: Developed distinct builds to gracefully handle GnuCash’s internal evolution—providing a fallback version (financial-radar.scm) for older WebKitGTK/portable environments, and a modern CSS layout (financial-radar-5.15.scm) leveraging WebKitGTK 2.42+ capabilities.
• Metadata Parsing Extensibility: Configured advanced parameters by turning native GnuCash “Account Notes” into plain-text key/value stores (e.g., parsing target=2600 and apr=28.49), effectively creating a custom configuration layer on top of a legacy database architecture.

Tech Stack

• Language: Scheme (GNU Guile / GnuCash API)
• Frontend: HTML5, Modern CSS (UI Injection via WebKitGTK)
• License: GNU GPL v2+