Reading your budget
Every command opens your budget's local copy, fetching the latest changes from the server first. Reading never changes anything.
Accounts#
fob-actual accounts list # open accounts (--all includes closed ones)
fob-actual accounts show Checking
fob-actual accounts balance Checking --as-of 2026-06-30
ID NAME BALANCE OFFBUDGET CLOSED
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4d61a451-07d6-4b44-ac58-92644ec1f883 Checking 6,735.77 no no
76cfdef5-4a5b-41f9-a14e-dd1e783370fb Credit Card -512.99 no no
Anywhere a command takes an account, you can give its name (any capitalisation) or its ID. If two accounts share a name, fob-actual asks for the ID instead of guessing.
Transactions#
fob-actual transactions list --account Checking # the last 30 days
fob-actual transactions list --account Checking --from 2026-09-01 --to 2026-09-30
DATE PAYEE CATEGORY NOTES AMOUNT
----------------------------------------------------------------
2026-09-15 Employer Inc — Salary 3,500.00
2026-09-05 Corner Grocery Groceries — -84.23
2026-09-01 Landlord Rent September rent -1,800.00
--account is required: transactions are listed one account at a time. To search across accounts, use Query.
The monthly budget#
fob-actual budgets months # every month the budget covers
fob-actual budgets month 2026-09 # one month, by category group
Month: 2026-09
Budgeted: 0.00
To budget: 0.00
Total spent: -1,947.22
…
--- Monthly Bills ---
CATEGORY BUDGETED SPENT BALANCE
-----------------------------------------
Groceries 0.00 -147.22 -147.22
Rent 0.00 -1,800.00 -1,800.00
Budget files#
fob-actual budgets list # every budget this token can see
fob-actual budgets show "Household Budget"
budgets list works before a profile is bound to a budget, which is how you find a sync ID.
Categories, payees, tags, rules and schedules#
fob-actual categories list
fob-actual category-groups list
fob-actual payees list
fob-actual tags list
fob-actual rules list
fob-actual schedules list
Each also has show <id>. Rules and schedules are complex objects; show --json prints the full structure, which is also the format their create and edit commands take (Changing your budget).
Server#
fob-actual server info # server URL and Actual version
fob-actual auth status # is the token valid, and which budget is bound