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Integrate with Actual Budget

Support level: Community

What is Actual Budget​

Actual Budget is a web-based financial management software. It helps users track and manage their income, expenses, and budgets in real time. The software compares actual spending with planned budgets to improve financial decisions.

-- https://actualbudget.org/

This guide explains how to configure Actual Budget to use authentik as the OAuth provider for logging in to the Web GUI.

Preparation​

The following placeholders are used in this guide:

  • actual.company is the FQDN of the Actual Budget installation.
  • authentik.company is the FQDN of the authentik installation.
note

This documentation lists only the settings that you need to change from their default values. Be aware that any changes other than those explicitly mentioned in this guide could cause issues accessing your application.

authentik configuration​

To support the integration of Actual Budget with authentik, you need to create an application/provider pair in authentik.

Create an application and provider in authentik​

  1. Log in to authentik as an admin, and open the authentik Admin interface.
  2. Navigate to Applications > Applications and click Create with Provider to create an application and provider pair. (Alternatively you can first create a provider separately, then create the application and connect it with the provider.)
  • Application: provide a descriptive name, an optional group for the type of application, the policy engine mode, and optional UI settings.
  • Choose a Provider type: select OAuth2/OpenID Connect as the provider type.
  • Configure the Provider: provide a name (or accept the auto-provided name), the authorization flow to use for this provider, and the following required configurations.
    • Note the Client ID,Client Secret, and slug values because they will be required later.
    • Set a Strict redirect URI to https://actual.company/openid/callback/.
    • Select any available signing key. Actual Budget only supports the RS256 algorithm. Be aware of this when choosing a signing key.
  • Configure Bindings (optional): you can create a binding (policy, group, or user) to manage the listing and access to applications on a user's My applications page.
  1. Click Submit to save the new application and provider.

Actual Budget configuration​

  1. Sign in to Actual Budget with a browser of your choice and access your budget by clicking on its name.

  2. Click your budget in the top-left corner to open the dropdown menu and select Settings.

  3. Scroll to the bottom and select Show advanced settings. Scroll again and select I understand the risks, show experimental features.

  4. To enable the option OpenID authentication method select the checkbox next to it.

  5. Scroll up to the new option Authentication method... and click Start using OpenID.

  6. Set the following values from the authentik provider:

    • Set OpenID Provider to authentik
    • Set OpenID provider URL to https://authentik.company/application/o/actual/
    • Set Client ID to client-id
    • Set Client secret to client-secret
warning

The first user to log into Actual Budget via OpenID will become the owner and administrator with the highest privileges for the budget. For more information on how to create additional users, see the Note below.

Test the login​

  • Open a browser of your choice and navigate to https://actual.company.
  • Select the OpenID login method in the dropdown menu and click Sign in with OpenID.
  • You should be redirected to authentik (with the login flows you created), and then authentik will redirect you back to the https://actual.company URL.
  • If you are redirected back to the https://actual.company URL and can see the budget file selection page, the setup was successful.
info

Users are not automatically created when logging in with authentik. The owner must manually create each user in Actual Budget. To do so, click Server online at the top next to your name and select User Directory. Add a new user. The Username must match the one in authentik. You can now grant the new user access to your budget by clicking Server online next to your name at the top and selecting User Access.