Transaction transfers, payments, and matching #883

gavin · 2024-06-18T02:35:31+08:00

zachgoll commented

2024-06-18 02:35:31 +08:00

(Migrated from github.com)

https://github.com/maybe-finance/maybe/assets/16676157/a1cde494-b89f-466a-8c74-da194934288a

Overview

This PR enables transaction transfers and subsets (payments).

Additionally, I have cleaned up some of the snapshot fixtures to make them easier to modify and more clear to read.

What is a "Transfer"?

A transfer represents a pair of transactions that:

Have opposite amounts (net zero)
Come from different accounts
Are generally (but not always) posted on the same day
Represent an outflow from one account and inflow to another account
Do not affect income or expense calculations

Transaction Matching

In a personal finance app like Maybe, we cannot guarantee the user will have both accounts "connected" to the app. Because of this, a transfer can also be represented by a single outgoing/incoming transaction to/from some external account. Even in these cases, the user generally will not want these transactions to be included in any "budgeting" calculations like income/expense.

Because we cannot guarantee both sides of the transfer can be found within the user's data, transaction "matching" must happen in two separate steps:

Mark a transactions as a transfer by setting marked_as_transfer: true
Create a Transfer record by asking the user to confirm both transactions for the identified transfer

The marked_as_transfer is a slightly denormalized convenience field that serves a few purposes:

Allows a user to easily mark 1+ transactions as "transfers" without having to manually confirm the details.
In the future, allows the system to auto-classify transfers without having to confirm that the match is correct
Improved query performance in both aggregation queries (summing income/expense and excluding transfers) and listing transactions in the global transactions view (no need to join to display a transaction row)

https://github.com/maybe-finance/maybe/assets/16676157/a1cde494-b89f-466a-8c74-da194934288a ## Overview This PR enables transaction transfers and subsets (payments). Additionally, I have cleaned up some of the snapshot fixtures to make them easier to modify and more clear to read. ## What is a "Transfer"? A transfer represents a pair of transactions that: - Have opposite amounts (net zero) - Come from different accounts - Are _generally_ (but not always) posted on the same day - Represent an _outflow_ from one account and _inflow_ to another account - Do not affect income or expense calculations ### Transaction Matching In a personal finance app like Maybe, we cannot guarantee the user will have _both_ accounts "connected" to the app. Because of this, a transfer can also be represented by a single outgoing/incoming transaction to/from some _external_ account. Even in these cases, the user _generally_ will not want these transactions to be included in any "budgeting" calculations like income/expense. Because we cannot guarantee both sides of the transfer can be found within the user's data, transaction "matching" must happen in two separate steps: 1. Mark a transactions as a transfer by setting `marked_as_transfer: true` 2. Create a `Transfer` record by asking the user to confirm both transactions for the identified transfer The `marked_as_transfer` is a slightly denormalized convenience field that serves a few purposes: - Allows a user to easily mark 1+ transactions as "transfers" without having to manually confirm the details. - In the future, allows the system to auto-classify transfers without having to confirm that the match is correct - Improved query performance in both aggregation queries (summing income/expense and excluding transfers) and listing transactions in the global transactions view (no need to join to display a transaction row)

🎉 1

gavin approved these changes 2024-06-18 10:16:52 +08:00

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Reference: gavin/maybe#883