YNAB Debt Sync lets you quickly reconcile your shared debt category with another person. If you track the money you lend to someone with YNAB and they do the same, this web application automates the process of finding which transactions are missing from each other’s budget so the totals tally up.

This article on my blog explains when and why this is useful, while this one describes the algorithm (basically it’s an algorithm to find missing transactions, i.e. errors, in double-entry bookkeeping).

YNAB Debt Sync can compare budgets stored in Dropbox. Note that this requires a lot of trust between participants, as the other person is able to peruse your entire budget. Share your “YNAB” directory with someone who already uses YNAB (and have them share theirs with you), so that you have a “YNAB” directory (your budget) and a “YNAB (1)” directory (their budget). The server temporarily stores both budgets in RAM, so only use the Heroku-hosted app for dummy budgets.

• Python 2.7.9
• Node.js v0.10.26
• Semantic UI v2.0.7

Install the Python dependencies in a virtualenv:

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Install the Node.js dependencies:

$ npm install

Semantic UI is installed via npm, but may fail on the first attempt, during gulp install. If so, execute npm install again.

After successfully installing the Node.js dependencies, execute gulp build from the semantic directory:

$ cd semantic
$ gulp build

The CSS and JavaScript files will be created under ynabdebtsync/static/css.

From the virtualenv with all dependencies installed:

$ python run.py

Then visit http://127.0.0.1:5000 in a browser.

Read the HerokuSetup document.

From the project’s root, execute

$ nosetests