Line Item - Finances for Couples
Hello!
I've been working on a way for couples to manage their finances together.
It started because my fiancee and I were trying to figure out how we would split the rent while living together and we realized we needed something that would help us manage our money together. We wrote an initial iteration of the product for just us, but we realized this could be something others would want!
It's called Line Item. Although its designed for couples, it's a full-fledged double entry accounting system businesses can use too.
To help motivate us, we've decided to build in public, so for now Line Item is in Early Access.
But I'm curious, is this something folks can see themselves using someday? Any tips for what would make it more useful?
It's definitely our first time trying to build anything like this, so feedback is welcome!
I voted no for two reasons, these are both personal and not a bash of your idea.
I don't like connecting anything 3rd party to my bank account. I'm old fashioned like that lol
My partner and I already know how to sort out our finances, when she worked we paid equally into a joint account and household bills etc came out of this. When I was the only one working I paid into it alone... But that just works for us. Good luck
Thank you!!
I can't imagine how I would use this, but am curious - how do you and your spouse use it?
Every month, we import the transactions from our various bank accounts and credit cards and each categorize into various categories. Then, we sit down together, pull the Income Statement report and see how much money we’re bringing in and how much we’re spending. We try to hit a certain target of spending and if we spent too much, we take a closer look at which categories were high and how we can do better next month. Occasionally, we even catch a fraudulent transaction or one that should have been refunded but was not!
The main value for us is that Line Item serves as a way for us to talk about our finances because it puts all the relevant information in front of us. And when we talk about it, we can set goals and expectations!
Thanks for asking! We’re going to write up our process in much more detail into a guide/blog post so others know how we do it.