Using the Setup Panel
The Setup Panel at http://localhost:8010/setup is the primary way to create, edit, and manage your scenarios. It has six tabs and a global action bar. Timeline decisions such as retirement, Social Security claiming, and the modeled end of plan live in Events, not in the person profile.
Quick Start
Section titled “Quick Start”- Start the editor:
.venv/bin/python admin_app.py(Linux/macOS) or.venv\Scripts\python.exe admin_app.py(Windows) - Open http://localhost:8010/setup
- Click New from Template
- Choose Single-Person or Couple / Two-Person, enter a name, and click Create
- You’re now in the Setup Panel for your new scenario. Work through the tabs below; the first five cover the normal workflow, while Raw TOML remains available for advanced inspection or bulk edits.
- Click Save to save your changes
- Click Validate to check for configuration errors
- Click Re-render to generate the projection
Tip: The Withdrawal / Surplus Order settings in the Metadata tab control the priority of account buckets. Feel free to leave the defaults — they’re sensible for most households.
The Six Tabs
Section titled “The Six Tabs”Metadata Tab
Section titled “Metadata Tab”This tab holds your scenario’s high-level settings:
- Plan name, description, and household type — identify the scenario and whether it is single-person or couple
- People — names, dates of birth, take-home income, and current employment assumptions
- Cash targets and assumptions — reserve targets, market assumptions, plan years, display basis, and state-tax selection
- Advanced disclosures — withdrawal/surplus order, spending and tax settings, RMD controls, and simulation/Monte Carlo settings
Social Security Tab
Section titled “Social Security Tab”- Enter each person’s age-to-monthly-benefit table from their SSA estimate.
- Add the actual claim timing as a SocialSecurity event on the Events tab. The editor asks for an age and saves the corresponding year from the person’s date of birth.
- NWN resolves the benefit from the table at render time; it does not store a monthly benefit on the event.
Income & Contributions Tab
Section titled “Income & Contributions Tab”- Employment income — take-home pay, real raises, and whether contributions are already excluded from take-home pay
- Contributions — flat-dollar or percent-of-gross inputs, annual increases, employer matching, 401(k)/IRA routing, and traditional/Roth splits
- Ownership — RMD and Roth ownership shares for pooled balances
Accounts Tab
Section titled “Accounts Tab”Changes based on your selected data source:
- Manual Entry: Structured form for investable balances (taxable, traditional IRA, Roth, cash), non-investable assets, named properties, and named liabilities
- Monarch Money: Account table with category, owner, disabled, and basis controls plus Refresh from Monarch
- CSV Import: File upload, parsed account preview, category/owner assignment, and import
Events Tab
Section titled “Events Tab”Create, edit, delete, sort, or disable the event-driven timeline. Use it for Retire, SocialSecurity, and EndOfPlan as well as income, expenses, property changes, career events, spending changes, and contribution changes. See Events & the Event System for the modeling rules.
Raw TOML Tab
Section titled “Raw TOML Tab”A text editor for the complete scenario file. Every structured control is stored here. Use it for bulk edits or advanced configuration; after hand editing, choose Validate before rendering.
Editing a Sample
Section titled “Editing a Sample”Bundled sample scenarios are deliberately read-only. You can render and inspect them, but must use Clone or New from Template before saving changes.
Actions
Section titled “Actions”Global Action Bar
Section titled “Global Action Bar”At the bottom of the panel:
| Button | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Save | Saves current changes |
| Validate | Runs semantic validation on your config |
| Save + Re-render | Saves and renders the current scenario |
| Save + Render All | Saves and re-renders every scenario |
| New from Template | Creates a new scenario from a starter template |
Scenario Management
Section titled “Scenario Management”- Scenario dropdown at the top — switch between your plans. User scenarios appear first, then a separator, then sample scenarios
- Rename — change the slug via the edit button next to the slug
- Default checkbox — mark a scenario as the default (appears first in the projection shell)
- Clone — duplicate the current scenario (changes to suggested slug if the name exists)
- Delete — remove the scenario with confirmation