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What is strichliste?

strichliste ([ʃtʀɪçˈlɪstə], German for tally sheet) replaces the paper list next to the fridge in a hackerspace, club room or small office. Members pick their name on a shared screen, tap what they took or how much money they put in the cash box, and strichliste tracks everyone’s balance.

It runs on the same trust as a paper list: no logins, passwords or roles. Anyone at the kiosk can book on any account, just like anyone could make a pencil mark on paper. Over paper you gain correct arithmetic, an undo button, statistics, and an API for barcode scanners and phone apps.

The user list — what the screen by the fridge shows by default

Feature tour

  • User accounts — anyone can add themselves with just a name (optionally an e-mail). Users inactive for a while move to an “inactive” tab and reappear on their next booking.
  • Deposit / dispense — put money in or take it out, via configurable one-tap buttons or a free amount field. Balances may go negative down to a limit you set.
  • Articles with barcodes — keep a product list (“Club-Mate, 1.50 €”) and buy with one tap. A USB barcode scanner works on a user’s page without drivers or setup.
  • Undo — every transaction has an undo button for a configurable grace period.
  • Transfers and split invoice — send money to another account with an optional comment, or split one order across several members in one step.
  • Statistics — a system metrics page (sum of all balances for cash-box reconciliation, transaction volume, top articles) and a personal metrics page per user.
  • Search — find users and articles from the header on every page.
  • PayPal top-up (optional) — users can settle their balance via paypal.me-style payment links, with a configurable percentage fee passed on to the payer.
  • Touch-friendly UI — touch targets sized for fingers, a dark theme that follows the device’s dark-mode preference, a booking sound, and an idle timer that returns the screen to the user list.
  • Localization — English and German, with the configured currency used everywhere.
  • REST API + OpenAPI docs — everything above is scriptable; see the API documentation.

A user’s page with the buy tab open

The metrics page: sum of all balances, transaction volume and top articles

Architecture

strichliste is one application — one thing to install, one thing to update (PHP 8.4+, Symfony 8.1). It serves two faces:

  • The web UI — server-rendered pages for a wall-mounted touchscreen. It is fully operable without JavaScript — every action is a real HTML form, so old donated tablets still work. JavaScript only adds comfort: snappier navigation, the barcode listener, the idle timer.
  • The REST API at /api/* for third-party clients (Android apps, DIY hardware, automation scripts). It is stable, so existing integrations keep working.

Switching databases is a one-line setting: SQLite for a single kiosk in a small space, PostgreSQL or MariaDB/MySQL when several devices write at once. All money is integer cents — no floating-point anywhere.

Development happens in the strichliste-backend repository.

Demo

A public demo runs at demo.strichliste.org.

Troubleshooting

Found a problem? File an issue on the GitHub issue tracker.