[Feature] Read only access #1343

New Issue

GiteaMirror · 2026-02-28T19:40:56-06:00

GiteaMirror commented

2026-02-28 19:40:56 -06:00

Originally created by @turt2live on GitHub (Aug 16, 2024).

Verified feature request does not already exist?

I have searched and found no existing issue

💻

Would you like to implement this feature?

Pitch: what problem are you trying to solve?

A (very) small non-profit I work with is just getting into "proper" budgeting, and has been enjoying Actual so far. As we slowly build up better policy and process, some of our more financially-inclined members are looking to audit our finances, which they have an ability to do with our organization structure. We'd like to avoid them having the ability to accidentally make changes as they take a look around though, and in particular not conflict with our custom importers and reporting.

These members aren't technically inclined, so giving them access to our existing instance would be best (rather than having them run a local copy or similar).

Describe your ideal solution to this problem

Operators could configure a readonly password for the budget, as an advanced feature. By default there would only be the single password to access the budget.

When the readonly password is used to access the budget, the user is presented with the exact same UI as an existing user, though all edit/add/delete functions are disabled. This means no importing, no adding transactions, no adding accounts, no allocating budget, no deleting any of that, etc.

Failing that, I suppose we could run two instances with a nightly job to copy budget files to the member-facing copy, similar to how the project's demo site appears to work.

Bonus functionality would be being able to configure this over SSO as well, though at least in our case we're not likely to have SSO set up any time soon.

I'm not too familiar with the code myself, but I'd be willing to give it a go if folks feel this is useful.

Teaching and learning

This would be documented as a subsection on https://actualbudget.org/docs/advanced/ - typical users would not expect or find this feature. As part of our organization's effort to help other organizations similar to us though, we would likely supplement the documentation with "here's how you give your members access to your financial data".

The documentation should contain a note/warning that while edits are disabled, users with the readonly password would be able to see full transaction details.

Originally created by @turt2live on GitHub (Aug 16, 2024). ### Verified feature request does not already exist? - [X] I have searched and found no existing issue ### 💻 - [X] Would you like to implement this feature? ### Pitch: what problem are you trying to solve? A (very) small non-profit I work with is just getting into "proper" budgeting, and has been enjoying Actual so far. As we slowly build up better policy and process, some of our more financially-inclined members are looking to audit our finances, which they have an ability to do with our organization structure. We'd like to avoid them having the ability to accidentally make changes as they take a look around though, and in particular not conflict with our custom importers and reporting. These members aren't technically inclined, so giving them access to our existing instance would be best (rather than having them run a local copy or similar). ### Describe your ideal solution to this problem Operators could configure a readonly password for the budget, as an advanced feature. By default there would only be the single password to access the budget. When the readonly password is used to access the budget, the user is presented with the exact same UI as an existing user, though all edit/add/delete functions are disabled. This means no importing, no adding transactions, no adding accounts, no allocating budget, no deleting any of that, etc. Failing that, I suppose we could run two instances with a nightly job to copy budget files to the member-facing copy, similar to how the project's demo site appears to work. Bonus functionality would be being able to configure this over SSO as well, though at least in our case we're not likely to have SSO set up any time soon. I'm not too familiar with the code myself, but I'd be willing to give it a go if folks feel this is useful. ### Teaching and learning This would be documented as a subsection on https://actualbudget.org/docs/advanced/ - typical users would not expect or find this feature. As part of our organization's effort to help other organizations similar to us though, we would likely supplement the documentation with "here's how you give your members access to your financial data". The documentation should contain a note/warning that while edits are disabled, users with the readonly password would be able to see full transaction details.

GiteaMirror added the needs votes feature labels 2026-02-28 19:40:56 -06:00

GiteaMirror closed this issue

2026-02-28 19:40:57 -06:00

GiteaMirror commented

2026-02-28 19:40:57 -06:00

@github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Aug 16, 2024):

✨ Thanks for sharing your idea! ✨

This repository uses lodash style issue management for enhancements. That means enhancement issues are automatically closed. This doesn’t mean we don’t accept feature requests, though! We will consider implementing ones that receive many upvotes, and we welcome contributions for any feature requests marked as needing votes (just post a comment first so we can help you make a successful contribution).

The enhancement backlog can be found here: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues?q=label%3A%22needs+votes%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc+

Don’t forget to upvote the top comment with 👍!

@github-actions[bot] commented on GitHub (Aug 16, 2024): :sparkles: Thanks for sharing your idea! :sparkles: This repository uses lodash style issue management for enhancements. That means enhancement issues are automatically closed. This doesn’t mean we don’t accept feature requests, though! We will consider implementing ones that receive many upvotes, and we welcome contributions for any feature requests marked as needing votes (just post a comment first so we can help you make a successful contribution). The enhancement backlog can be found here: https://github.com/actualbudget/actual/issues?q=label%3A%22needs+votes%22+sort%3Areactions-%2B1-desc+ Don’t forget to upvote the top comment with 👍!