Features we really use from personal finance web aplications

[vaibhav228]

Which features you really like from Mint.com or quicken.com or any personal finances application.

I am working on side project which involves personal finances. Could you please help me, if any features you guys really want and should be part of such type of applications.

Thanks.

[afarrell]

I really would like something that just automatically scrapes my bank website and credit card and texts me every day with how far off my discretionary spending target I am.

This requires:

- a plugin interface for bank scrapers, because you aren't going to write all of them.

- a UI with hotkeys for tagging expenses as discretionary/nondiscretionary

- a database-backed chron job with a twilio frontend

I've used YNAB, mint, and budgetsimple and Going through and sorting all my expenses into specific categories manually is just way too much time and doesn't help with decision-making.

[vaibhav228]

YNAB, MINT and BudgetSimple, they do have Bank account/ Credit card link. You can link your financial institution and get the daily transactions.

Why do we need to scrap? Is there any specific reason ?

[afarrell]

I assumed that those sites had web scrapers. Do most banks have an API for getting access to customers' transaction records?

[vaibhav228]

No..several third party applications can help you do that -

https://plaid.com/ http://www.ofx.net/

[bbcbasic]

When I budgeted I liked YNAB4 for ease of use etc. However I think a lot of budget programs miss the point. In ordinary life it is harder to bucket budget than in business. Too many unexpected expenses.

[vaibhav228]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it is hard to maintain each and every expense. But at least for large expenses like home loan, credit final payment amount(Grocery amount will comes under it), utility bills, gym etc.

[bbcbasic]

Some kind of AI to guess what category is for each expense would be helpful. For the bigger stuff there will be a 1-1 correspondence of payee to expense. However when you go to a supermarket it could be a mix, given then supermarkets kind of sell everything from clothes to computers. So working those out would be helpful.

It would be helpful if receipts were emailed to you by stores and can be parsed later - although there is no pressure on stores to provide such a service I guess.

[vaibhav228]

That would be an interesting service of AI to categorize expenditure.

[cdvonstinkpot]

I've been coming up empty in my search for a particular function that's be an instant sell to me should it turn up.

I'd like to set a goal date to have a dollar amount, & have a self-correcting weekly goal I'd have to deduct & set aside to meet the target. So if some weeks the paycheck is fat I can add more, & when it's slim, less. And always have a handle as to what I need to do to meet said goal(s).

[id122015]

Isnt quicken related to accounting, or how to pay more tax ?

Actually I understand something different by personal finance, something more like ethereum bitcoin