Building in Public: How I replaced UI dashboards with a WhatsApp AI billing engine

Hey Hackers,

I have been working on Regulus, a full-stack client management portal aimed at technical professionals. One core hypothesis I wanted to test was whether users actually want another dashboard to log into, or if they just want their problems solved immediately contextually.

Today, I pushed a live update that takes a strictly headless approach to billing.

Using an Express.js webhook backend combined with an LLM text parser, users can now handle their entire billing pipeline directly inside WhatsApp. The engine parses lines like "Web design $200, Full-Stack Design $600", reconciles it with the client account database, and spits back an active payment link hooked directly into a checkout gateway.

The technical workflow is fast, minimizes friction, and keeps freelancers where they already spend most of their time communication-wise.

I am building this out completely in public and am eager to hear how you handle conversational interface flows or if you see this replacing traditional UI workflows for specific operations.

Check out the product live: [https://www.regulus.com.ng](https://www.regulus.com.ng)