What do you expect from a personal finance app?
I’m building Controol, a minimalist app to help people spend without guilt by knowing exactly how much they can afford — not just tracking what they already spent.
Most finance apps focus on graphs and past activity. My vision with Controol is different:
✅ You enter your income, and it’s automatically split into “boxes” based on percentages you define (like the 50/30/20 method).
✅ You register your expenses, and the app tells you if that expense fits the available amount in the right box.
✅ You don’t micromanage categories — you manage limits, clearly.
But what I’m most excited about:
🧠 AI chat built into the app. You can ask things like:
"Can I spend $80 on dinner today?"
"How much have I spent on non-essentials this week?"
"Are my percentages balanced based on my income?"
It gives quick, human-style answers. No dashboards. No friction.
🗣️ So I’m curious:
If you were to use a finance app, what would you really want from it?
What’s something that’s always frustrated you with others?
Whether you’re a builder or a user — I’d love to hear your honest thoughts.
Love this share. Can you plug it into real time banking apps using open banking (or similar) to also help budget?
Thanks a lot! That’s a great question.
Right now, Controol works manually (you input your income), which keeps it simple and flexible.
Just for insight, I use a spreadsheet to track my expenses. It has monthly bills etc and I update it every other day when a bill comes out. It's a real pain!
I totally get you — I used to do the same with a spreadsheet. It works, but it’s a pain 😅
That’s actually why I built Controol — just to have it on my home screen, open it, and quickly log something.
But honestly, what mattered most to me was knowing how much I could spend, not how much I had spent.
You could give it a try and maybe even share some feedback 😄
This is a super fresh take on personal finance — love the focus on spending clarity instead of just tracking the past. The built-in AI chat is a game changer! 🔥
One thing that might be cool to add: a multi-currency converter. Would be super helpful for people traveling or managing different currencies — helps them stick to their limits wherever they are.
Thank you so much — love that you captured the vision behind Controol so well!
The AI chat is definitely a key part of the experience, and it’s great to hear it resonates.
And that’s a brilliant idea! A multi-currency converter would really help for international users — especially digital nomads or frequent travelers. Noted for the roadmap!
Love the vision behind Controol—especially the AI assistant concept. Super smart! Since you're building something minimalist and user-focused, a clean and thoughtful logo can really boost first impressions and trust. I specialize in modern logo design for early-stage startups and would love to offer a few ideas if you're exploring branding soon. Happy to share examples if you're interested!
Thanks a lot — really appreciate your kind words about Controol!
I’ve been keeping everything super minimal (even the branding), but I agree that a thoughtful logo can go a long way.
I’d definitely be curious to see some examples of your work — feel free to DM me or drop a link!
Thank you so much! I’d be happy to share some logo samples with you.
If you don’t mind, could you please share your email or Gmail? I’ll send a few tailored examples of my recent work for Controol’s vibe.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
— Lisan A
I seen your post when it came up on producthunt, lovely ui!
Thanks so much! I really appreciate that.
I tried to keep the UI as clean and minimal as possible — glad it stood out!
Let me know if you end up trying it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
From a personal finance app, I expect budgeting tools, expense tracking, bill reminders, financial goal setting, investment insights, data security, and an easy-to-use interface that helps build smarter money habits.
Thanks a lot for sharing that — super helpful to hear what users actually want.
Controol right now is laser-focused on helping people know how much they can safely spend — through customizable "boxes" and AI-powered suggestions. It’s very minimalist by design, to reduce overwhelm.
But I love that list, especially financial goals and smart reminders. I’ll definitely consider adding more around that as the app evolves.
This is great idea. definitely this tool will be very helpful to someone who really in pain. Include AI is an amazing thing.
Thank you so much! 🙏
That’s exactly what I hoped for — to help people who feel overwhelmed or anxious about money get some peace of mind and clarity.
And the AI helps simplify things even more — so they don’t have to figure it all out alone.
I think this sounds like a great idea. I love the AI aspect. One thing that always get me to stop using budgeting apps is that every month seems to have outliers. A medical bill, a home repair, a one time purchase. Other things like mortgage, utilities, auto loans, insurance also aren’t things I can control on a monthly basis. I think setting a budget for just food, entertainment and shopping/services would be all I’d want to see. Let us exclude categories and purchases.
Thanks again! And I totally get what you mean about fixed expenses.
In Controol, you're actually free to create your own “boxes” — so if you only want to track things like food, entertainment, and shopping, you can just set up boxes for those and ignore the rest.
There’s no need to include your rent, insurance, or other fixed stuff if it’s not helpful for you. You stay focused only on what you can actually adjust.
This is such a smart angle, love the idea of an AI-powered budgeting tool that actually gives real-time, human-style feedback. Feels way more intuitive than traditional finance apps. Excited to see where you take this!
Thanks a lot! That means so much. I really wanted Controol to feel more like a conversation than a spreadsheet — glad that came through! Can’t wait to keep improving it and pushing the AI side even further.
Hi @Maxi Carreras, congrats on your project!
To answer your question, what I find frustrating is having to log every single expense manually — especially when one receipt includes items from different categories.
Hope that helps!
Thanks so much! I actually feel the same way — that’s one of the reasons why I built Controol. The app doesn’t focus on what you spent or force you to log every single receipt. Instead, you just input the total, and it helps you understand how much you can safely spend next time without going over budget. That’s the part that really matters.