User Guide

A practical reference for using ExMint day-to-day: connecting banks, categorizing transactions, reading reports, and keeping your data clean.

Overview

ExMint is a self-hosted personal finance dashboard. All your financial data stays on your own server. The application connects to your bank accounts using the Plaid API, pulls in transactions automatically, and gives you tools to categorize, analyze, and budget your spending.

First Login

Register an Account

Navigate to your ExMint instance URL and click Create an account on the login page. Fill in your name, email address, and a password (minimum 8 characters).

Approval Workflow

On instances where the admin has enabled registration approval, new accounts land in a Pending Approval state after registration. The admin receives an email with one-click approve/reject links. You will receive an email notification once your account is approved or rejected.

Registration can also be closed entirely by the admin, in which case the "Create an account" link is hidden on the login page.

Connect Your Banks

Plaid Link Flow

After logging in, click Connect a bank on the dashboard. This opens the Plaid Link modal — a secure, embedded flow hosted by Plaid that handles authentication with your institution directly. ExMint never sees your banking credentials.

Sandbox Credentials

If the instance is running in Plaid Sandbox mode (typical for demos and testing), use the following credentials in the Plaid Link modal to simulate a successful bank connection:

Sandbox accounts contain simulated transactions from fictional institutions (e.g. "First Platypus Bank"). No real money or real banks are involved.

Syncing Transactions

ExMint receives new transactions in two ways:

• Webhooks (automatic): When PLAID_WEBHOOK_URL is configured, Plaid pushes new transaction data to your server in real time (usually within minutes of a transaction posting).
• Manual sync: Click the Sync button next to any connected institution on the dashboard to pull the latest transactions on demand.

Transactions

The Transactions view is the main working area of ExMint. It displays all transactions across your connected accounts, newest first.

Filtering & Search

Use the filter bar at the top of the Transactions view to narrow the list:

Assigning Categories

Click the category badge on any transaction row to open the category picker. Select a custom category from the dropdown. The change is saved immediately.

To remove a category assignment, click the badge and choose Uncategorized.

Splitting a Transaction

Some transactions span multiple spending categories (e.g., a grocery run that also includes a pharmacy purchase). To split a transaction:

Export to CSV / Excel

Click the Export button above the transaction list to download the currently filtered view. Choose CSV for plain-text export or Excel (.xlsx) for a formatted spreadsheet. The export respects all active filters (date range, account, category, search).

Custom Categories

ExMint does not impose a fixed category taxonomy. You create exactly the categories that match how you think about your spending.

Creating Categories

Navigate to Categories in the sidebar (or via My Account → Manage Categories). Click New Category and provide:

• Name — e.g., "Groceries", "Rent", "Subscriptions"
• Color — a hex color used for badges and chart segments
• Icon (optional) — emoji displayed next to the category name

Click Save. The category is immediately available in the transaction category picker and filter bar.

Auto-Apply Rules

Rules automatically assign a category to incoming transactions whose description matches a keyword or pattern. This saves manual work for recurring merchants.

To create a rule, open a category and click Add rule. Enter a keyword (case-insensitive substring match) such as NETFLIX or STARBUCKS. Future transactions containing that string in their description will be categorized automatically.

Spending Reports

The Reports view gives a hierarchical breakdown of spending: Year → Month → Category. Each level is clickable to drill down further.

• Click a year row to see the monthly breakdown for that year.
• Click a month row to see spending per category for that month.
• Click a category row to jump to the Transactions view filtered to that category and month — so you can see exactly which individual transactions make up that total.

The report respects your custom categories. Uncategorized transactions appear in a separate "Uncategorized" group.

Cash Flow Chart

The Cash Flow view displays a 12-month line chart comparing total income (credits) vs. total expenses (debits) month by month. The difference between the two lines is your net cash flow for each month.

Use the Category filter above the chart to scope the chart to a specific category. This is useful for tracking a single spending area (e.g., "Dining Out") across time without other categories inflating the numbers.

Budgets

Budgets let you set a monthly spending target for each category. The Budgets page shows:

To set or update a budget, click the amount in the Budget column for any category, enter a new value, and press Enter or click outside to save.

Categories with no budget set appear at the bottom of the list and can be ignored or given a target at any time.

Maintenance

Access maintenance tools from My Account → Maintenance in the top-right dropdown menu.

Duplicate Transactions

Duplicate transactions can appear when:

• A supplementary (authorized user) card generates a separate Plaid transaction ID for the same underlying charge.
• A sync runs twice during a brief window and imports the same transaction.

The duplicate scanner detects groups of transactions that share the same account, date, amount, and description (cross-account matching handles the supplementary-card scenario).

CSV Backup

The Download CSV Backup button in the Maintenance modal exports all transactions to a .csv file, including transactions that have been marked as removed. This provides a full audit trail and a safe restore point before bulk operations.

My Account

Click your username in the top-right corner to open the account dropdown. Available options:

Admin Panel

The Admin Panel at /admin is accessible only to users with role = 'Admin'. It provides:

UPDATE user SET role = 'Admin' WHERE email = 'your@email.com';