Your guilt-free spending companion – Stop worrying about every purchase. PayFlow tells you exactly how much you can spend without missing rent, bills, or savings goals.
Perfect for anyone living paycheck-to-paycheck who wants simple, stress-free money management.
🌐
Most budgeting apps are overwhelming. They want you to categorize every transaction, set up complex envelopes, and track everything perfectly. But if you're living paycheck-to-paycheck, you don't need all that—you just need to know:
"Can I afford this coffee without missing rent?"
PayFlow answers that question in seconds. Enter your paycheck, add your bills and goals, and instantly see your guilt-free spending amount. That's it.
- 🎯 Guilt-free spending focus: See at a glance how much you can spend without worry
- 📊 Smart allocation: Cadence-aware bills with due date priority, paycheck variance cushioning, and bonus income modeling
- 🔄 One-time bills: Track non-recurring expenses like car repairs or medical bills (always allocated in full)
- 💡 Transparent breakdown: Clear waterfall calculation showing exactly where your money goes
- 🌊 Visual waterfall: Beautiful bucket-filling visualization showing bills and goals progress
- 🎨 Modern UI: Vibrant gradients, smooth animations, dark mode, and fully responsive mobile design
- � Mobile-first: Optimized layouts and touch targets for small screens (PWA-ready)
- 🔔 Smart notifications: Toast alerts for auto-adjusted paycheck ranges and important updates
- 💪 Positive messaging: Encouraging language when money is tight—no guilt, just facts
- 🌐 PWA Support: Install on your phone, works offline with service worker caching
- 🔒 Local-first: All data stays in your browser with localStorage persistence and automatic schema migrations
- 📤 Import/Export: Back up and restore your configuration as JSON with timestamp-based filenames
- ♿ Accessible: WCAG 2.1 AA compliant with keyboard navigation, ARIA labels, and screen reader support
- 🧪 Well-tested: 209 tests covering allocation logic, UI components, and data persistence
- 🔒 Privacy-first: No tracking, no ads, no account required—your financial data never leaves your device
No installation required! Just open your browser:
cd webapp
npm ci
npm run devRun tests:
npm test| Mobile View | Desktop View |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Responsive design that works perfectly on all devices
webapp/– Vite + React TypeScript single-page app containing the full experiencedocs/– Architecture documentation and archives.github/workflows/– CI definitions for the webapp pipeline
PayFlow uses standard JavaScript floating-point arithmetic, which is suitable for personal budgeting and typical paycheck amounts. For amounts under $100,000/month, cumulative rounding errors are negligible (<$0.01).
Perfect for:
- Personal budgeting and household finances
- Small business payroll
- Standard consumer finance tracking
Not recommended for:
- High-frequency trading or scientific calculations
- Legal/tax calculations with regulatory precision requirements
We welcome contributions! Here's how to get started:
- Fork the repository
- Clone your fork locally
- Create a feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature) - Make your changes
- Run the test suite (
npm test) - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add amazing feature') - Push to your branch (
git push origin feature/amazing-feature) - Open a Pull Request
Requirements:
- All tests must pass (
npm test) - Code must be formatted (
npm run format:check) - Build must succeed (
npm run build)
PayFlow is automatically deployed to GitHub Pages on every push to main:
- Live URL: https://blairmichaelg.github.io/paycheck_waterfall_app/
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions (runs tests, lints, builds, and deploys)
- Deploy time: ~2 minutes from push to live
- Cost: $0 forever (GitHub Pages free tier)
See .github/workflows/deploy-gh-pages.yml for the full deployment pipeline.
- ✅ Validate allocation math and import/export flows fully client-side
- ✅ Harden UI/UX, add schema validation, and automate CI
- ✅ Publish the final web app (deployed on GitHub Pages)
- ✅ Complete comprehensive code review improvements (transparency, simplicity, positivity, mobile-first)
- ✅ Progressive Web App (PWA) support with offline functionality
- ✅ One-time bill frequency for non-recurring expenses
- ✅ Enhanced calculation breakdown with transparent math visualization
Found a bug? Have a feature request?
- � Open an issue on GitHub
- 💻 Pull Requests: Always welcome!
Love PayFlow? Share it with someone who could use guilt-free spending in their life. That's the best support you can give!
Made with ❤️ for people living paycheck-to-paycheck. You deserve financial peace, not just spreadsheets.