Vertlas - Simple Personal Finance
I built a thing! The thing is an iOS app called Vertlas. You can find it here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vertlas-simple-finance-tools/id1546771447
I wanted a tool that allowed me to track my checking account balance in real time, as well as project some cash flows out into the future. I wanted to know that I have enough money in my account today, tomorrow, and that things looked okay financially for the next couple months. This MVP is the result. I've got a lot more planned for this bad boy, but I would love to hear if anyone gets any value out of this as it is today.
I'm not afraid of honest criticism, so don't be shy! Thanks so much for taking the time to look. And, if you have feature requests please let me know of that too. At the end of the day I'm trying to create value for others, so I would love to know what I can do to make this more valuable for you.
Interesting. There are a number of similar apps that let you track your spending habits and manage your household budget. What makes this one different?
It sounds like you believe the users of the app will care about stopping overdraft fees, i.e. not having enough in their savings account when the bills come due. How does your app help your users avoid overdraft fees? Does it alert them somehow? I don't think that's explained clearly in your copy.
Financial planning is hard for a lot of people. If your app identifier recurring spending automatically, that could be interesting.
It's pretty opinionated about how you manage your money, and it optimizes for that opinion. The app expects you to have a checking account, a rewards credit card that you use for the majority of your spending, and monthly expenses + salary. I haven't been able to work on this for a couple months (I need a new job), but I once I pick this back up in another month or so I'm going to keep optimizing for that opinion. Hopefully this appeals to a niche market and solves their problem quite nicely.
Also, I plan to do a lot more 3rd party integrations so this ONE app can be a portal to all of your financial accounts. The eventual hope is that Vertlas is just a service layer that sits on top of all financial instruments. Why login to Chase, Wells Fargo, and Vanguard when you can do everything from Vertlas? Obviously, that is a loooong way off, but that's the hope!
Good start. I think there is something interesting there, but the core value prop is so basic that it doesn't stand out from other apps yet. You need to work on that a bit more; talk to some people about pain points, and refine your ideas a bit more.
Also on the 3rd party integration side, there are APIs that abstract over financial service systems. Plaid is a big one, for example. Another one is Yodlee. All apps use one or the other. When you get to that phase, it should be easy to make that integration.
But you'll have to have to find product-market fit with your niche first.
Good luck.
Yes, totally agree. I've already made it possible so you can link your checking account using Plaid and I am in the process of adding credit cards now.
Once I have those two linked I'm going to spend a lot of time working on the pain points and improving the account link features, like you said. I use this myself, so hopefully that should help me improve the app over time, in addition to user feedback.
Anyways, thanks for your comments. I appreciate it!