Firefly III is a self-hosted manager for your personal finances. It can help you keep track of your expenses and income so you can spend less and save more. Firefly III supports the use of budgets, categories and tags. Using a bunch of external tools, you can import data. It also has many neat financial reports available. Firefly III should give you insight into and control over your finances. The Firefly III data importer does not connect to your bank directly. Instead, it uses Nordigen and SaltEdge to connect to over 6000 banks worldwide. These services are free for Firefly III users, but require registration. Keep in mind these services have their own privacy and data usage policies. The data importer can import CSV files you’ve downloaded from your bank. You can run the data importer once, for a bulk import. You can also run it regularly to keep up with new transactions. In this step by step guide I will show you how to install Firefly III with Importer on your UGREEN NAS using Docker & Portainer.
STEP 1
Please Support My work by Making a Donation.
STEP 2
Install Portainer using my step by step guide. If you already have Portainer installed on your UGREEN NAS, skip this STEP. Attention: Make sure you have installed the latest Portainer version.
STEP 3
⚠️Mandatory: Enable HTTPS on your UGREEN NAS.
STEP 4
Create a new hostname on the noip website using your noip account. For example, I have created fireflymarius as hostname and I use the free ddns.net domain. In the IP Address area, type in your own IPV4 IP address from your ISP, then click Create/Add Hostname. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 5
Go to File Manger and open the docker folder. Inside the docker folder, create one new folder and name it firefly. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.
STEP 6
Now create four new folders inside the firefly folder that you have previously created at STEP 5 and name them db, importer, redis, upload. Follow the instructions in the image below.
Note: Be careful to enter only lowercase, not uppercase letters.
STEP 7
Follow my step by step guide on how to activate SMTP for your Gmail account. This step is mandatory. Note: If you don’t want to use the easiest way for SMTP with Google and you already have SMTP details from your own Mail Server, you can just skip this STEP and use your personalized email SMTP details instead.
STEP 8
Log into Portainer using your username and password. In the left sidebar in Portainer, click on Stacks then + Add stack. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 9
In the Name field type in firefly. Follow the instructions in the image below.
services:
redis:
image: redis
container_name: Firefly-REDIS
hostname: firefly-redis
security_opt:
- no-new-privileges:true
read_only: true
user: 999:10
healthcheck:
test: ["CMD-SHELL", "redis-cli ping || exit 1"]
volumes:
- /volume1/docker/firefly/redis:/data:rw
environment:
TZ: Europe/Bucharest
restart: on-failure:5
importer:
image: fireflyiii/data-importer:latest
container_name: Firefly-Importer
hostname: firefly-importer
security_opt:
- no-new-privileges:false
volumes:
- /volume1/docker/firefly/importer:/var/www/html/storage/upload:rw
ports:
- 6192:8080
restart: on-failure:5
depends_on:
firefly:
condition: service_healthy
db:
image: mariadb:11.4-noble #LTS Long Time Support Until May 29, 2029.
container_name: Firefly-DB
hostname: firefly-db
security_opt:
- no-new-privileges:false
volumes:
- /volume1/docker/firefly/db:/var/lib/mysql:rw
environment:
TZ: Europe/Bucharest
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: rootpass
MYSQL_DATABASE: firefly
MYSQL_USER: fireflyuser
MYSQL_PASSWORD: strangepass
restart: on-failure:5
firefly:
image: fireflyiii/core:latest
container_name: Firefly
hostname: firefly
security_opt:
- no-new-privileges:true
healthcheck:
test: curl -f http://localhost:8080/ || exit 1
env_file:
- stack.env
volumes:
- /volume1/docker/firefly/upload:/var/www/html/storage/upload:rw
ports:
- 6182:8080
restart: on-failure:5
depends_on:
db:
condition: service_started
redis:
condition: service_healthy
cron:
image: alpine:latest
command: sh -c "echo \"0 3 * * * wget -qO- http://firefly:8080/api/v1/cron/9610001d2871a8622ea5bf5e65fe25db\" | crontab - && crond -f -L /dev/stdout"
container_name: Firefly-Cron
hostname: firefly-cron
security_opt:
- no-new-privileges:true
environment:
TZ: Europe/Bucharest
restart: on-failure:5
depends_on:
firefly:
condition: service_started
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value numbers for user with your own UID and GID values. (Follow my step by step guide on how to do this.) 999 is my personal UID value and 10 is my personal GID value. You have to type in your own values.
Note: Before you paste the code above in the Web editor area below, change the value for TZ. (Select your current Time Zone from this list.)
Note: The number 3 in command means cronjob gets triggered everyday at 3 o’clock in the morning so Firefly can do its recurring transactions job. You can change the number according to your preferences.
STEP 10
Click the Upload button after Web editor. Download the stack.env file by clicking the blue link below and then upload it from your computer in the “Load variables from .env files“. Follow the instructions in the image below. 🔒Note: Support my work to unlock the password. You can use this password to download any file on mariushosting forever!
STEP 11
Note: On the Environment variables change the value for APP_KEY and add your own App Key. MariushostingMariushostingMari13 is an example for an APP_KEY. You should invent your own Value. Add 32 random characters, both letters and numbers. 🔵
Note: On the Environment variables change the value for APP_URL. Type in your own DDNS hostname with https at the beginning that you have previously created at STEP 4. 🟡
Note: On the Environment variables change the value for TZ and add your own TIMEZONE. (Select your current Time Zone from this list.) 🟢
Note: On the Environment variables change the value for DEFAULT_LANGUAGE. Examples: en_US for English, de_DE for German, fr_FR for French etc. (Select your current Default Language from this list.) 🔴
STEP 12
Scroll down the page a little bit, then add your own SMTP details.
Note: On the Environment variables change the value for MAIL_FROM and add your own Gmail address. 🔴 STEP 7.
Note: On the Environment variables change the value for MAIL_USERNAME and add your own Gmail address. 🔴 STEP 7.
Note: On the Environment variables change the value for MAIL_PASSWORD and add your own Gmail App password. 🔵 STEP 7.
STEP 13
After you make the changes, scroll up the page a little bit then click the Web editor button. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 14
Scroll down on the page until you see a button named Deploy the stack. Click on it. Follow the instructions in the image below. The installation process can take up to a few minutes. It will depend on your Internet speed connection.
STEP 15
If everything goes right, you will see the following message at the top right of your screen: “Success Stack successfully deployed“.
STEP 16
Open your Nginx Proxy Manager container that you have previously installed at STEP 3. Click Add Proxy Host. A new pop up window will open. Add the following details:
Domain Names: Type in your own noip domain name that you have previously created at STEP 4.
Scheme: http
Forward Hostname/IP: Type in the local NAS IP of your UGREEN NAS.
Forward Port: Type in the Firefly local Port that is 6182
Check Block Common Exploits
Check Websockets Support
Click the SSL tab. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 17
After you click the SSL tab, add the following details:
SSL Certificate: Request a new SSL Certificate
Check: Force SSL
Check: HSTS Enabled
Check: HTTP/2 Support
Email Address for Let’s Encrypt: Type in your own Email Address.
Check: I Agree to the Let’s Encrypt Terms of Service.
Click Save. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 18
In the Proxy Hosts area, if everything goes right, you will see that your hostname has been generated. Click on it. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 19
Now open your browser and type in your HTTPS/SSL certificate like this https://yourownhostname.ddns.net In my case it’s https://fireflymarius.ddns.net If everything goes right, you will see the Firefly registration page. Add your own Email and Password, confirm the Password, then click Register. Follow the instructions in the image below.
⚠️Warning: Password should be 16 characters, it’s mandatory.
STEP 20
After click Register at STEP 19, you should receive a Welcome to Firefly III! email.
STEP 21
Add your own Bank details then click Submit. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 22
Your Firefly dashboard at a glance!
STEP 23
Activate the data Importer. On the left sidebar of Firefly III, click Profile, OAuth tab, then Create New Client. On the Name field, type in Importer. On the Redirect URL field, type in the following address:
http://192.168.0.188:6192/callbackNote: Before you paste the code above, change 192.168.0.188 with your local NAS IP. 192.168.0.188 is my local NAS IP.
Uncheck the Confidential field, then click Create. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 24
Copy your client ID number. You will need this number on the next STEP. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 25
Now open your browser and type in http://ugreen-ip-address:6192 Type in your DDNS Firefly III URL address and the Client ID that you have previously copied at STEP 24, then click Submit. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 26
Click Authorize. Follow the instructions in the image below.
STEP 27
Import your data!
Enjoy Firefly III on your UGREEN NAS!
⚠️Mandatory Add Read & Write Permissions to the Docker Folder. If you have already added the Read and Write Permissions to the Docker Folder, skip this STEP.
This post was updated on Sunday / March 9th, 2025 at 1:37 AM