Import from Actual
How to export your budget from Actual Budget and migrate its accounts, transactions and envelope budget into Forbidden Finance.
Overview
If you're switching from Actual Budget, you can move your accounts, your full transaction history and your envelope budget into Forbidden Finance in one step. Actual exports a .zip file that contains your budget database, and the Migrate from another app wizard reads it directly. There's no column mapping to do.
Nothing is written to your account until you've seen a preview and tapped Import.
How to Export from Actual
Open the budget you want to move
In Actual, open the budget file you want to bring across. If you have more than one budget, export each one separately.
Export your data
Go to Settings, find the Export section, and choose Export data.
Keep the .zip as it is
Actual downloads a .zip file. Don't unzip it. Forbidden Finance needs the whole archive, because the budget database is inside it.
Expected File Format
Forbidden Finance looks inside the .zip for Actual's SQLite database (usually named db.sqlite). It reads these parts of it:
| In Actual | Becomes in Forbidden Finance | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts | Manual accounts | The account type is guessed from the name. Names containing words like "savings", "credit" or "card", "loan" or "mortgage", or "brokerage", "IRA" or "401" get that type. Anything else becomes a checking account. |
| Payees | Merchant name | Shown as the transaction's merchant. |
| Notes | Description | Kept on the transaction. |
| Categories | Categories | Matched to your existing categories by name, or created new. You can change each match before importing. |
| Budgeted amounts | Envelope budget, monthly | One period per month of history. |
| Split transactions | Separate transactions | Each part of a split comes in on its own, with its own category. The split's overall total isn't added again. |
Items you deleted in Actual are left out.
How to Import into Forbidden Finance
Open the migration wizard
Go to Settings > Data Import and tap Migrate from another app. New accounts can also start it from the setup wizard's Import from another service step.
Choose Actual Budget
Under Which app are you coming from?, tap Actual Budget. The How to export box repeats the export steps above.
Upload the export
Tap Choose file, pick the .zip you downloaded, and tap Start import.
Review the preview
Here's what we'll import shows how many accounts and transactions it found, and a Budget: Envelope line with the number of categories and months of history. Any rows it had to skip are listed underneath.
Check categories and accounts
Open Categories to review each match, or tap Accept all suggestions. If your plan can't keep every account active, choose which ones stay active. The rest import as view-only.
Import
Tap Import. You can leave the screen while it works through Creating your accounts, Importing transactions and Rebuilding your budget. When it's done, tap View budget to see the result.
How the Budget Comes Across
Forbidden Finance sets your imported budget up as an Envelope budget with monthly periods, using the amounts you budgeted in Actual for each category and month.
Actual doesn't store each category's available balance, so Forbidden Finance works it out. For each category it starts at your earliest month and carries forward what you budgeted minus what you spent, month by month. Income categories don't count as spending.
If you already have an active budget, choose Keep mine, import as inactive or Replace it.
Common Issues
It says it couldn't recognize the file
The upload has to be the .zip from Actual's Export data, with the database still inside. A .csv export, a single unzipped file, or an export from a different app won't work. Export again from Actual and upload the .zip as downloaded.
It says it couldn't read the export
The database opened but had no usable accounts or transactions. Check that you exported the right budget file, not an empty or new one.
Some transactions were skipped
The preview reports transactions that had no account or no readable date. These usually come from damaged or half-deleted entries in Actual. Check them in Actual, fix them, and export again if you need them.
My account types are wrong
Types are guessed from account names, so a card called "Sapphire" becomes checking. An account's type can't be changed once it exists, so check your names in Actual before you migrate (see the tip below).
My budgeted amounts are all zero
The importer reads Actual's envelope budget. If you used Actual's tracking budget instead, your spending history comes across but the budgeted amounts don't. Set your amounts in Forbidden Finance after importing.
Closed accounts came across
Every account in the file is imported, including closed and off-budget ones, so your history stays complete. Hide the ones you don't need. See Hidden Accounts and Duplicates.
Transfers show as two separate transactions
A transfer between two Actual accounts arrives as one transaction in each account. They aren't linked as a transfer automatically. Link them afterward with transfer linking.
It says I've tried too many times today
You can start 5 migrations in any 24 hours. Wait and try again the next day.
Tips
Related Articles
Data Import Hub
Every way to bring data in.Import from YNAB
Migrating from YNAB instead?Envelope Budgeting
How the imported budget method works.CSV Import Errors
Fixing problems with file imports.Need more help? Email us at [email protected] and we will get back to you.