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Budget File Tools

Budget File Tools are read-only diagnostics for the exported budget snapshot: Budget File Health (metadata and health checks) and the Data Browser (raw SQLite tables and rows). Both process the snapshot locally in your browser and never write anything back to your budget.

Open Budget File Health and Data Browser from the Tools sidebar section.

Load a budget snapshot

Section titled “Load a budget snapshot”

The first time you open either tool, Actual Bench downloads and opens the active budget’s exported snapshot. It is then cached across navigation (with a “loaded X ago” label and a Reload button) and shared between Budget File Health and the Data Browser — so once loaded, the other tool opens instantly.

Snapshot opening shows a staged progress rail with retry on failure, plus a reminder that the contents stay local but may include personal budget data.

Budget File Health

Section titled “Budget File Health”

A workspace with top-level Overview and Diagnostics tabs.

Review snapshot metadata

Section titled “Review snapshot metadata”

The Overview tab summarizes export metadata, snapshot object counts, ZIP and SQLite sizes, and source details, with a button to download the exported ZIP.

Run diagnostics

Section titled “Run diagnostics”

The Diagnostics tab runs deterministic checks over the snapshot — schema, relationships, metadata, and SQLite health — and summarizes findings by severity. You can:

  • Run a full SQLite integrity check (a longer-running operation).
  • Export findings to CSV.

No diagnostics action writes anything back to your budget.

Data Browser

Section titled “Data Browser”

The Data Browser (/data-browser) opens the snapshot’s raw SQLite objects. It reuses the cached snapshot, so it opens instantly once the budget has been loaded anywhere.

Browse tables, views, and schema

Section titled “Browse tables, views, and schema”
  • Lists tables, views, indexes, and triggers grouped by Actual Budget domain; v_transactions is selected by default when present.
  • The row browser paginates through table/view rows with sticky headers, horizontal scrolling, worker-side sorting, and URL state for the object, page, page size, and sort.
  • The Schema tab shows object type, parent table, row count, inferred row key, columns, indexes, and the raw CREATE … SQL.
  • Indexes and triggers are listed but marked as not row-browsable.

Inspect rows and follow relationships

Section titled “Inspect rows and follow relationships”
  • Row actions copy a row’s JSON to the clipboard (BLOBs serialized as base64) and open a stackable row-details panel.
  • Relationship-aware drill-in turns known linked cells into navigable references, using the same relationship map as diagnostics.
  • Cell rendering keeps raw money-like integers, formats dates and obvious budget months, marks BLOBs as binary with a hex-preview tooltip, and preserves raw values in tooltips.

Export tables and views

Section titled “Export tables and views”

Full table/view CSV export streams rows through worker-owned cursors, preserves UTF-8 for Excel, neutralizes formula-like text values, keeps numeric negatives raw, and caps BLOB cells as base64 previews.

Safety and limitations

Section titled “Safety and limitations”
  • These tools are strictly read-only; they never modify your budget.
  • Very large snapshots depend on available browser memory.
  • The full SQLite integrity check can take a while on large files.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”
  • Export or snapshot won’t open — retry from the progress rail; check browser memory for large files.
  • An object shows no rows — indexes and triggers are not row-browsable.
  • The snapshot looks stale — use Reload to fetch a fresh export.
  • A CSV opens oddly in a spreadsheet — exports are UTF-8 with formula-injection protection; open them as UTF-8.
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