I Built a Money Management App Because I Couldn't Answer One Simple Question

I’m self-employed.

And like a lot of self-employed people, I’ve had weeks where money comes in and it looks like everything is going well.

Then reality kicks in.

Tax needs putting aside.

National Insurance needs accounting for.

Fuel costs money.

Bills still need paying.

The car needs maintaining.

Maybe there's an insurance renewal coming up.

And if you want to save anything, that needs to come out too.

So I started asking myself a very simple question:

“I've earned the money… but how much can I actually spend?”

And honestly, I found that question surprisingly difficult to answer.

The problem wasn't earning money

There are plenty of apps that can show you how much money came into your account.

There are expense trackers.

Budgeting apps.

Accounting software.

Tax tools.

Spreadsheets.

But I wasn't looking for another place to record numbers.

I wanted something that could help me understand the bigger picture.

What have I earned?

What do I need to put aside?

What's already committed?

And what's actually mine to spend?

That became the idea behind FiAmanila.

So I built it

FiAmanila is a money management platform designed primarily for self-employed people.

The idea is simple:

Bring the important pieces of your financial life together in one place.

Income.

Expenses.

Bills.

Tax and National Insurance set-asides.

Savings.

Business costs.

Renewals.

And ultimately:

Safe to Spend.

That's the number I wanted to see.

Not simply:

“You have £1,000.”

But:

“You have £1,000, but after everything you've told us you need to account for, here's what you can actually spend.”

That's a very different question.

Built for real self-employed life

FiAmanila is particularly aimed at people whose income and expenses can change from week to week.

Sole traders.

Freelancers.

Taxi and private-hire drivers.

Uber drivers.

And other self-employed workers.

Because when your income isn't the same every week, traditional monthly budgeting can feel very different.

One week might be great.

The next might be quiet.

The bills don't necessarily care.

I'm not trying to build another complicated accounting system

This is important.

FiAmanila isn't designed to replace an accountant or become complicated accounting software.

It's about giving the person earning the money a clearer picture of what's happening with it.

Earn it. Track it. Plan for it. Know what's safe to spend.

That's the philosophy.

And yes… I even made a theme tune 😂

At some point during this journey I somehow ended up making a FiAmanila theme tune.

“FIA-MA-NI-LA!” 🎶

My kids heard it twice and started singing it around the house.

So naturally, I had to put it on social media.

😂

Building a product as a one-person operation has been a strange journey.

I've had things that worked.

Things that didn't.

Events where hardly anyone stopped.

Ideas that sounded brilliant until I actually tried them.

And plenty of moments where I've wondered whether anyone would even want what I'd built.

Then something interesting started happening

People I'd never met started giving me feedback.

Some liked the idea.

Some criticised the website.

Some questioned the installation process.

Some suggested improvements.

And instead of being annoyed by that, I realised something:

This is exactly what I needed.

Not people telling me the app was amazing because they knew me.

Real people who had no reason to be polite.

That feedback has changed how I'm building FiAmanila.

I'm learning that building the product is only half the job.

People actually have to find it, understand it and use it.

So what's next?

I'm focusing on getting FiAmanila in front of genuine self-employed people and learning from what happens.

Not trying to pretend I've built the next billion-pound company.

Not pretending everything is perfect.

Just building, testing, listening and improving.

One step at a time.

Because ultimately, I built FiAmanila around one simple idea:

You worked for the money. You should know what you can actually do with it.

FiAmanila — Money management for self-employed people.

🌐 FiAmanila.com