Manage Transactions Daily
Open Source Bookkeeping
A self-hosted Django application for tracking income and expenses. Built for developers, freelancers, and anyone who wants full control over their financial data. Perfect for UK sole traders—or adapt it for anywhere.
Your data. Your server. Your rules.
MTDify is a Django-based bookkeeping application you host yourself. No subscriptions, no third-party access to your financial records, no vendor lock-in. Clone the repo, spin up Docker, and you're running.
Originally built for UK sole traders preparing for Making Tax Digital, the "Manage Transactions Daily" name now reflects what it actually does—help you stay on top of your finances with a simple, privacy-first tool.
Whether you're a developer tracking side-project income, a freelancer managing client payments, or a student learning Django—MTDify is yours to run, modify, and extend.
Django + SQLite
Familiar stack. Single-file database. Easy to back up, easy to migrate.
Docker Ready
One command to deploy. Works on any server, VPS, or your local machine.
MIT Licensed
Fork it, modify it, build on it. Use it for yourself or your clients.
Built For People Who Can Self-Host
- ✓ Developers who want a real Django project to learn from or extend
- ✓ Sysadmins comfortable with Docker and basic server management
- ✓ Freelancers who'd rather host their own tools than pay subscriptions
- ✓ Privacy-conscious people who want financial data on their own hardware
What You Get
Income & Expense Tracking
Log transactions with dates, categories, notes, and receipt attachments. Everything in one place.
UK Tax Year Quarters
Transactions auto-sort into April-to-April quarters. See totals by period at a glance.
VAT Support
Handle 0%, 5%, and 20% VAT rates. Track what you've charged and what you can claim.
Export Your Data
Download reports anytime. Your figures, ready for your accountant or your HMRC submission.
Why Not Just Use a Spreadsheet?
You could. Many people do. But spreadsheets don't give you automatic categorisation, quarter sorting, or a proper audit trail. And cloud accounting tools? They cost money every month and store your data on someone else's servers.
MTDify sits in the middle—more structured than a spreadsheet, simpler than full accounting software, and entirely under your control.
Get Running in Minutes
git clone https://github.com/djangify/mtdify.git
cd mtdify
cp .env.example .env
docker-compose up -d
Then open http://localhost:8000 and create your account.
Originally Built for UK Sole Traders
MTDify follows UK tax year conventions and supports HMRC-compliant record keeping. If you're self-employed in the UK, this gives you the digital records you need for Self Assessment—without the monthly fees.
Not in the UK? The codebase is MIT licensed. Fork it and adapt the tax year logic for your region.
Contributions Welcome
Found a bug? Want to add a feature? MTDify is open source and actively maintained. Check the issues, submit a PR, or just star the repo if you find it useful.
GitHub Repository