The First Commit

Jerome Leclanche writes "Add CRA frontend" — a Create React App skeleton. The very next day, Jessica Mortimer starts building the accounting core: ledger accounts, account categories, and the double-entry transaction model. The DNA of the app is there from day one — this is a real bookkeeping system, not a spreadsheet with a UI.

• Ledger accounts with categories (Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenue, Expenses)
• Transactions with legs — proper double-entry from the start
• Tax calculation on transaction line items
• Dinero.js for safe currency arithmetic

The Next.js Pivot

After 6 months of CRA, Jerome starts a Next.js version. In a 48-hour sprint (Dec 6–8), he ports the entire app: account fetching, transactions, file uploads, attachments. Material UI becomes the component library.

The Team Assembles

The team grows from 2 to 8 contributors. Eugene DiBenedetto builds the first Plaid integration. Shinyuy becomes the most prolific contributor of the year with 461 commits — building everything from the balance sheet to the login flow.

• Balance Sheet and Income Statement reports
• Plaid, Stripe, and Wise integrations
• Login, registration, organization management
• VAT assessment and deduction rules

The Great Rewrite

258 commits in a single month. Jerome systematically replaces every Material UI component with Tailwind CSS. The Next.js app directory replaces the pages router. Axios is removed in favor of native fetch. Server components are adopted. The entire auth system moves from localStorage to cookies.

• Material UI → Tailwind CSS + headlessui
• Pages Router → App Router
• Axios → native fetch
• TypeScript strict mode enabled

Shelved

The longest gap in the project’s history. Only 4 commits in 23 months — dependency upgrades and an invitation flow. The Django backend still powers everything. The product exists, works, but the project is effectively shelved. Priorities shift, the team disperses, and Financica sits dormant.

The Supabase Migration

The biggest architectural decision in the project’s history. The entire Django/Python backend is removed and replaced with Supabase — PostgreSQL with Row Level Security, Supabase Auth, Storage, and Edge Functions. shadcn/ui replaces the custom Tailwind components.

• Django removed — Supabase becomes the entire backend
• PostgreSQL RLS policies for row-level authorization
• shadcn/ui component library
• Database-generated TypeScript types

The AI Sprint

The shelved project roars back to life. 907 commits in March 2026 alone — an AI-assisted coding sprint that transforms Financica from a dormant accounting ledger into a complete, production-ready business finance platform. AI coding tools accelerate development by orders of magnitude, but every feature is reviewed, tested, and hardened.

• Full invoicing system with UBL XML parsing
• AI transaction categorization and assistant
• Peppol e-invoicing (outbound, inbound, MLR)
• Exthand PSD2 bank connections
• Stripe billing with trial and plans
• Extensive pentesting and security audit
• Row-level security, CSRF, rate limiting

The Great Cleanup

Remove Plaid, Tink, Wise, and TrueLayer integrations — a bold pruning. After building integrations with five different banking providers, the decision is made to consolidate on Exthand and Stripe. Deleting working code because the architecture is stronger without it.