Coin Memo — Obsidian Expense Tracker

A daily expense tracking plugin for Obsidian that automatically recognizes and tallies accounting records from your daily notes. Supports one-tap bill import via screenshot OCR.

Features

Feature	Description
🔍 Auto-detection	Parses expense records from daily notes automatically
📊 Statistics	Income/expense summaries, category breakdowns, date-range queries
🏷️ Category management	Custom keyword-to-category mapping
📅 Date filter	View records by date range
💰 Income & expenses	Track income and spending separately, calculate balance
📋 Quick copy	Copy a past record to today with one tap
🧾 Bill screenshot import	OCR text written to bill.md, auto-parsed into records
📄 Export	Export to PDF or Markdown
🔄 Batch reclassify	Bulk-correct categories by note keyword, with auto-run support

Installation

Option 1: From Obsidian Community Plugins (Recommended)

Open Obsidian Settings → Community Plugins → Browse, and search for Coin Memo or fengshuzi to install directly.

Option 2: From GitHub Release (recommended)

1. Go to the Releases page and download the latest version.
2. Download main.js, manifest.json, styles.css, and config.json.
3. Create the plugin folder in your vault: .obsidian/plugins/coin-memo/.
4. Copy the downloaded files into that folder.
5. Restart Obsidian and enable Coin Memo in Settings → Community plugins.

Option 3: Build from source

cd /path/to/your/vault/.obsidian/plugins
git clone https://github.com/fengshuzi/coin-memo.git
cd coin-memo
npm install && npm run build

Quick Start

Step 1: Configure the journal folder

Open Settings → Community plugins → Coin Memo, and set the journal folder path (default: journals).

Step 2: Add records in your daily note

In journals/2024-01-10.md:

- #cy Tofu 15.5
- #cy Spicy hotpot 45
- #gw Supermarket 128
- #sr Salary 8500

Step 3: View statistics

Click the calculator icon in the left sidebar to open the expense tracker view.

Record Format

Basic syntax

#keyword description amount

Format rules

• ✅ Description first, amount last (recommended)
• ✅ Amount can also come first
• ✅ Currency symbols (¥, 元, 块) are ignored automatically
• ✅ When a line contains multiple numbers, the first number is used as the amount

Default keywords

Keyword	Category	Note
cy	Dining	Food & drinks
gw	Shopping	Online & in-store
dk	Loans	Mortgage, auto loans
jf	Utilities	Water, electricity, gas, internet
qt	Other	Uncategorized expenses
sr	Income ⭐	Special keyword — marks income

Quick Copy

Quick Copy lets you duplicate a past record to today — handy for recurring expenses.

How to open

Method	Instructions
Sidebar icon	Click the 📋 icon
Command palette	Cmd/Ctrl + P → "Quick Copy"
Advanced URI	obsidian://advanced-uri?vault=VaultName&commandid=coin-memo:quick-copy

Workflow

1. A modal opens showing records from the last 14 days (auto-deduplicated).
2. Search or filter by category.
3. Click "Copy" to write the record to today's note as-is, or "Edit" to modify first.
4. Your today's daily note opens automatically.

iOS: Back Tap shortcut

1. Install the community plugin Obsidian Advanced URI.
2. Create a Shortcuts action that opens: obsidian://advanced-uri?vault=VaultName&commandid=coin-memo:quick-copy
3. Go to Settings → Accessibility → Touch → Back Tap and assign the shortcut.

Bill Screenshot Import

Screenshot from WeChat / bank app → Shortcuts OCR → write to bill.md → run command to auto-import

Workflow

Payment screenshot
  ↓ iOS Shortcuts (OCR)
journals/bill.md
  ↓ Command "Import from Bill"
Auto-parse → confirmation dialog → write to today's note → delete bill.md

bill.md format

Multiple records separated by ###. The plugin only parses the last section:

20:58
5G
豆磨坊（**飞)
·19.40
完成
###
12:42
Manner
使用建设银行储蓄卡（0511）支付
·10.00
完成

Supported screenshot types

Type	Detection pattern
💚 WeChat Pay success page	Contains "支付成功" or "返回商家"
💚 WeChat Pay bill page	Contains "我的账单" + "支付服务"
💙 Alipay success page	Contains "完成" + "付款方式"
🟡 CCB transaction alert	Contains "动账提醒" or "变动提醒"

Merchant auto-classification

Open Settings → Bill Import — Merchant Auto-Classification. One rule per line:

merchant_keyword=category_keyword=description

Example:

豆磨坊=cy=买豆腐
麦当劳=cy=麦当劳
盒马=gw=买菜
物业=jf=物业费

• Merchant keyword: matched via substring (no exact match needed).
• Description: optional; if omitted, the description field in the dialog is left blank.

💡 Run an import once without configuring mappings first — the dialog shows the actual OCR merchant text, which you can then use as the key.

Triggering the import

Method	Action
Command palette	Cmd/Ctrl + P → "Import from Bill"
Advanced URI	obsidian://advanced-uri?vault=VaultName&commandid=coin-memo:bill-import

Commands

Open the command palette with Cmd/Ctrl + P:

Command	Command ID	Description
Open Daily Accounting	open-accounting	Open the expense tracker view
Refresh Accounting Data	refresh-accounting	Re-scan daily notes
New Entry	quick-entry	Open the new-entry dialog
Quick Copy	quick-copy	Open the quick-copy dialog
Import from Bill	bill-import	Parse bill.md and show confirmation
Export PDF	export-pdf	Export the current view as PDF
Export Markdown	export-markdown	Export the current view as Markdown
Batch Reclassify	reclassify	Open the batch reclassify page

Advanced URI format: obsidian://advanced-uri?vault=VaultName&commandid=coin-memo:<command-id>

Batch Reclassify

Use case: many records are imported via screenshot OCR and default to #cy. You need to bulk-correct categories based on the description text.

How to open

Click the "Batch Reclassify" button in the tracker view toolbar, or run the command from the palette. It opens in a new tab so it doesn't disrupt the current view.

Workflow

1. Add a rule: Click "+ Add Rule" and fill in the note keyword and target category.
2. Preview: Click "Preview" to scan all daily notes and show matching records grouped by rule.
3. Select: All records are selected by default; uncheck any you don't want to change.
4. Execute: Click "Execute" and confirm — changes are written to the files.

Rule fields

Field	Description
Note keyword	If the note contains this keyword (case-insensitive), the rule matches
Target category	The category to change to
Auto	When checked, the rule runs silently each time the tracker view opens (only affects the last 7 days)

Example: note contains maner → change category to 悦己奖励 (yj)

Auto-classify

When the "Auto" checkbox is enabled, the rule runs silently every time you open the tracker view:

• Only processes records from the last 7 days, so historical data is untouched.
• If the target category is already correct, the file is not modified (preserves timestamps).
• Shows a notification: "Auto-classify complete: X records updated."

Date range filter

Enable "Date range filter" to limit manual preview/execution to a specific date range, preventing accidental changes to older records.

Export

Export PDF

Click "Export PDF" in the tracker view, choose a date range, and export. The PDF includes a summary, category totals, and detailed records.

Export Markdown

Click "Export MD" to generate a Markdown-formatted expense report.

FAQ

Q: No records showing up? Check that your daily notes are in the configured folder, filenames follow YYYY-MM-DD.md, and the record format is correct.

Q: How do I add a new category? Click the "Configure Categories" button in the tracker view.

Q: Where is my data stored? All data lives in your Obsidian notes (daily note files + config.json) — fully local.

Q: What if bill.md gets deleted accidentally? It is only deleted after you confirm the import or when parsing fails. Check the developer console (Cmd+Option+I) for [bill-import] logs if needed.

Q: OCR merchant name doesn't match the actual name? Use the text shown in the import dialog to configure your merchant keyword — OCR may produce slight errors.

Development

npm run dev      # Watch mode with sourcemaps
npm run build    # Production build
npm run deploy   # Deploy to local vaults
npm run release  # Publish to GitHub

License

MIT

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☕ Support the author

If this plugin helps you, consider buying me a coffee!

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💡 Tip: The hardest part of tracking expenses isn't the method — it's consistency. By integrating bookkeeping into your daily notes, recording spending becomes a natural extension of journaling.