Surplus: Expense Tracker

After a two month beta period which saw around 200 beta testers and over 120 pre-orders, the Surplus expense tracker app was released on the App Store!

The beta period provided invaluable testing and feedback. Some serious bugs were identified and some insights were provided with regards to what features worked and needed to be in the app.

The launch is just the beginning. I'm looking forward to discovering ways in which I can promote and market the app.

App Store Link:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/surplus-expense-tracker/id1578612881

I finally put together a beta of the app that is stable enough for public consumption!

The app was built using SwiftUI, a new approach to iOS development that I've been meaning to dive into for sometime. Surplus served as the perfect opportunity to build a product and also learn the ins and outs of the new framework.

The beta has been approved by Apple and is available for testing on TestFlight:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/L0KeKQ31

You can also pre order the app on the App Store using the link below:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/surplus-expense-tracker/id1578612881

The plan is to get as much feedback as possible and iterate over the next couple of months with a goal to release an official v1 in September/October.

I started to think about other things I'd like to have in a finance app such as privacy. I found it weird that pretty much all apps required an account, so I made it a goal that my app wouldn't need any sign up or collect or process personal information.

I also realized that subscriptions and installments have become a common method for purchasing services and products, making it a bit muddy when it came to how much money I actually had left for a current month. This led to the concept of a leftover spend tracker, that would factor in your current spend for the month and any upcoming payments, always giving you a good depiction of your leftover spend for the current month.

And thats how I came up with the name of the app: Surplus!

I put together a blue print for the MVP which was a dashboard that included:

1. A tally of your left over spend
2. A profile of your spend with regards to your needs, wants and savings
3. Tallies of your buckets

Then came the coding!

While looking over expenses and reading about budgeting methods, I realized the majority of the detailed information personal finance apps provide weren't actionable.

50/30/20 budget rules are a great way to prioritize and organize spending, but most banking apps focused category pie charts. I though it would be great if there was an app that let me categorize my transactions into buckets that best fit my spending habits . Those buckets would belong to a spending category (i.e need, or want) which the app would then use to provide an insightful breakdown of where my current spending fit within the 50/30/20 spectrum.

I decided to build it under the code name "Project Buckets"