# Firefly III / Akaunting

Spending you host. Firefly III is AGPL-3.0 books; Akaunting is open-source accounting — Expensify without the report seat.

**Replaces:** Expensify

**Tier:** Easy

## Problem

Expensify sells expense reports as a subscription. Firefly III is AGPL-3.0 personal and small-business finance (accounts, bills, receipts you upload). Akaunting is the PHP ledger already on /stacks/invoice-ninja-books. This is not Expensify's receipt-OCR-and-reimburse product — it is books you own.

## Stack

- [Firefly III](https://www.firefly-iii.org) — AGPL-3.0 personal and small-business finance
- [Akaunting](https://akaunting.com) — Open-source accounting (already on the QuickBooks stack)

## Estimated SaaS cost saved

| You stop paying | Typical / year | Self-host instead |
|---|---:|---|
| Expensify (small team) | $1,200 | Firefly III or Akaunting |

**About $1,200 / year** on a small team, before you count lock-in.

## Deploy on Railway

Placeholder: Firefly III + a database and a volume for attachments, or reuse Akaunting on /stacks/invoice-ninja-books. SMTP via Resend.

[Start on Railway](https://c17.io/go/railway/firefly-expenses?from=%2Fstacks%2Ffirefly-expenses.md)

[Akaunting / Invoice Ninja if the pain is invoices, not expenses](https://c17.io/stacks/invoice-ninja-books)

## AGENT_PROMPT

```
Replace Expensify with Firefly III (books and receipts) or Akaunting (ledger).

- Database + a volume for attachments. Bind HTTP to 0.0.0.0:$PORT. Import a bank CSV. Complete one expense category.
- Do not claim SmartScan / receipt OCR parity. Invoices stay on /stacks/invoice-ninja-books.
- Write AGENT_PROMPT.md.
```

## FAQ

### Will this reimburse employees like Expensify?

It records spending. Approval-and-reimburse workflows are a different product. Start with books; add a form (Formbricks) if someone must submit a report.

### Why not Invoice Ninja?

/replace/quickbooks is invoices and a ledger. This page is expenses. Akaunting appears on both because a ledger covers both jobs — pick one box.

Source: https://c17.io/stacks/firefly-expenses