Fattern (Local-First Desktop Core)

Fattern is a modern, local-first invoicing and expense manager for freelancers and small Norwegian businesses. The desktop app stores everything in SQLite on the user's machine—no logins, no cloud dependency.

This repository currently contains the groundwork for the data layer described in PROJECT.md, including a reproducible SQLite schema and a helper script to create the database in the expected filesystem layout.

Getting started

1. Install dependencies:

   npm install

2. Initialize the local database (creates ~/Fattern/data/fattern.db and supporting folders):

   npm run init-db

3. The script will confirm the paths and ensure the schema tables exist:
   • companies
   • customers
   • products
   • invoices
   • invoice_items
   • expense_categories
   • expenses
   • invoice_expense_links
   • budget_years
   • settings

Database helpers

The FatternDatabase class wraps better-sqlite3 to apply the schema, ensure filesystem folders exist, and expose convenience helpers for the workflows described in PROJECT.md.

const { FatternDatabase } = require('./src/db/fatternDatabase');

const db = new FatternDatabase();
const category = db.createExpenseCategory({ name: 'Travel' });
const product = db.createProduct({ name: 'Workshop time', unitPrice: 1200, vatRate: 0.25, unit: 'hour' });
const customer = db.createCustomer({ name: 'Oslo Bikes AS', email: 'post@oslobikes.no' });
const invoice = db.createInvoice({
  customerId: customer.id,
  invoiceDate: '2025-01-10',
  dueDate: '2025-01-24',
  items: [
    { productId: product.id, description: product.name, quantity: 5, unitPrice: product.unit_price, vatRate: product.vat_rate },
    { description: 'Parts', quantity: 1, unitPrice: 800, vatRate: 0.25 },
  ],
});

const expense = db.addExpense({ vendor: 'Flytoget', amount: 220, date: '2025-01-08', categoryId: category.id });
db.linkExpenseToInvoice(invoice.id, expense.id);

const summary = db.getIncomeExpenseSummary();
console.log(summary);

db.close();

Helper highlights

• Filesystem safety: uses ~/Fattern/data, ~/Fattern/exports, and ~/Fattern/logs as outlined in PROJECT.md.
• Invoice numbers: sequential numbering with yearly (or budget-year) resets using the companies.invoice_count and invoice_reset_date columns.
• Products & expense categories: helpers to seed and list reusable products and nested categories.
• Budget years: auto-creates the current budget year if none exists, lets you switch the current year, and allows summaries scoped to a selected period.
• Offline-first: no external services; all state lives in SQLite on disk.

UI preview

The UI preview now uses the intended stack from PROJECT.md: React + Vite + TailwindCSS. The Vite root is src/ui, and the build output lands in dist/ui.

To explore the dashboard locally:

npm run ui:dev

Then open http://localhost:4173 in your browser. You can also produce a production bundle with:

npm run ui:build

The UI is fully connected to the SQLite database and includes:

• Dashboard with financial overview
• Full CRUD for invoices, products, customers, and budget years
• Sortable tables with visual indicators
• Toast notification system
• Custom invoice template editor
• PDF generation (default and template-based)

Desktop shell (Electron)

Electron is now wired up to host the Vite/Tailwind renderer. During development you can launch both the dev server and the Electron shell together:

npm run desktop:dev

For a production-like view that renders the built assets instead of the dev server:

npm run desktop:start

The Electron entry point is src/electron/main.js, and the preload hook lives in src/electron/preload.js.

Project direction

The intended stack for the desktop app is Electron + React (Vite) with TailwindCSS, Framer Motion, and better-sqlite3 for data storage (see PROJECT.md). Future work will connect the renderer and main processes to this schema via IPC while keeping the app fully offline and private.