What it was
Managercash had wallets, budgets, recurring transactions and savings goals. The expense screen was a grid of category icons, with the running total on each. Tap the category and enter the spend, so logging something didn't take you through a stack of forms. Three of us built it over one university summer. It got far enough that people were entering their real expenses into it.
ManagercashBuild
- Native Android in Java, built in 2014. The screenshots still have the KitKat status bar.
- Each wallet has its own budgets, recurring transactions and savings goals.
- Expense categories appear as an icon grid with running totals. Logging a spend takes two taps.
Key decisions
Expense entry
I wanted recording a transaction to be quick. The category grid kept the common actions on the main screen, and it's the part of the app I'd still build the same way.
Design
We had a graphic designer involved from the start, working on the icons and the app's identity alongside the development.
Lesson learned
Final year started, the funding ran out and we stopped.the rest of it ↓fold it back up ↑
Final year started, the funding ran out and we stopped. The app was working, we'd just planned for the summer and given very little thought to how we'd keep it going afterwards.