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An app that tracks shared expenses and manages automatic deductions from linked credit cards

An app designed to track shared expenses, managing automatic deductions from linked credit cards to eliminate the discomfort of payment discussions.

Overall Viability
8
Market Need
8.5
User Interest
8
Competitive Landscape
7
Monetization Potential
8.2

Keyword Search Analysis

Keyword Monthly Search Volumes

KeywordAvg SearchesDifficultyCompetition
expense tracking app290032LOW
shared bills management10N/AN/A
automate bill payments190016LOW
split expenses app19009LOW
best budget app4050040MEDIUM
expense tracker2710054MEDIUM
business expense tracker360051MEDIUM
mileage tracker app660034MEDIUM

Problem Statement

Reddit users frequently discuss the inconveniences and discomfort associated with managing shared expenses, particularly in contexts like cohabitation, co-parenting, and group travel. Current solutions often fail to address the need for seamless tracking and automatic deductions.

  • Example Discussions:
    • A user shared frustration over the unequal financial burden in shared living arrangements, highlighting the need for better expense management solutions.
    • In another discussion, a website creator gained positive feedback for a tool to manage co-parenting expenses, emphasizing the demand for seamless management without intermediaries like children.
  • Existing Solutions and Limitations:
    • Splitwise, while popular for splitting bills, often is noted for being insufficient for automatic transaction management.
    • Current financial tracking apps like Mint and YNAB, although useful for individual finances, lack robust, automatic features for handling shared expenses efficiently.

Target Audience Insights

Analyzing the discourse, it is evident that the target audience spans various demographics, including young professionals, cohabitating couples, parents, travelers, and roommates.

Demographics:

  • Age Range: 18-45 years old.
  • Geographical Spread: Predominantly urban dwellers in the United States but interest extends globally.
  • Income Levels: Varying from low to high income, generally leaning toward middle-class and above.

Interests and Behaviors:

  • Financial Awareness: Users are keen on budgeting, financial tracking, and often discuss solutions for better money management.
  • Collaborative Tools: Utilize apps for shared purposes but demand advanced features for automating and reducing manual intervention.
  • Technological Adeptness: Comfort with technology and openness to trying new applications.

Sentiments:

  • Pain Points: Shared expenses often cause relational stress, fears of financial inequality, and discomfort in manual tracking and reminding others to pay their share.
  • Needs: Automation, transparency, simplicity, and equitability in managing shared finances.

Competitor Analysis

Major Competitors:

  • Splitwise
  • Mint
  • YNAB (You Need A Budget)
  • OurFamilyWizard
CompetitorStrengthsWeaknesses
Splitwise- Easy bill-splitting feature<br>- User-friendly interface- Lacks automatic deduction functionality<br>- Limited automation in tracking payments
Mint- Comprehensive financial tracking <br>- Good automation for individual expenses- Poor categorization accuracy<br>- Lacks focus on shared expenses
YNAB- Focus on budgeting<br>- Strong community support- Manual tracking required<br>- Lacks automated expense handling
OurFamilyWizard- Comprehensive co-parenting tools<br>- Financial features included- Expensive subscription<br>- Niche market focused primarily on divorced/separated parents

Business Model

Monetization Strategies:

  1. Freemium Model:
    • Free Tier: Basic features such as manual tracking and limited number of expense shares.
    • Premium Tier: Advanced features including automatic deductions, detailed analytics, and unlimited shares. ($4.99/month or $49.99/year)
  2. Transaction Fee: Charge a small fee (e.g., 1%) per automated transaction for users on the free tier.
  3. Ad Integration: Non-intrusive ads for users on the free tier with the option to opt for an ad-free premium version.

Cost Structure:

  • Development Costs: Initial app development, ongoing maintenance, and feature updates.
  • Marketing Costs: Digital marketing campaigns, social media promotions, and influencer partnerships.
  • Operational Costs: Customer support, cloud hosting, and administrative expenses.

Partnerships and Resources:

  • Financial Institutions: Collaboration for secure transaction processing.
  • Tech Partners: Integrations with popular banking apps and accounting software.
  • User Community: Beta testers and feedback groups for continuous improvement.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Plan

Core Features:

  1. Expense Tracking: Manual input and tracking of shared expenses.
  2. Automatic Deductions: Setup rules for automatic credit card deductions.
  3. Expense Sharing: Split bills among multiple users with detailed views.
  4. Notifications: Reminders for pending payments and automatic alerts.

Development Timeline:

  • Month 1-2: Planning and design phase, defining features, and user flows.
  • Month 3-4: Backend development for expense tracking and sharing functionality.
  • Month 5-6: Integration of automatic deduction features and user interface development.
  • Month 7-8: Beta testing with early user feedback and iterative improvements.
  • Month 9: Launch MVP to a broader audience.

Success Metrics:

  • User Acquisition: Track the number of downloads and active users.
  • Retention Rate: Percentage of users returning to the app.
  • Transaction Volume: Number and total value of automatic deductions processed.
  • User Satisfaction: Customer feedback and app store ratings.

Go-to-Market Strategy

Marketing and Sales Strategies:

  1. Social Media Campaigns: Leveraging platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to target specific demographics.
  2. Influencer Partnerships: Collaborate with financial bloggers and influencers to reach a broader audience.
  3. Content Marketing: Publish articles, guides, and tutorials on managing shared expenses effectively.
  4. Referral Program: Incentivize existing users to refer the app to friends and family.

Primary Channels:

  • App Stores: Apple App Store and Google Play Store for easy access.
  • Online Communities: Engage with relevant forums and groups on Reddit, Facebook, and financial blogs.
  • Partnerships: Collaborate with other financial apps and co-living platforms to cross-promote services.

By addressing the clear discomfort and challenges mentioned by Reddit users, this solution aims to provide an efficient, automated approach to managing shared expenses, ultimately reducing financial stress and improving relationships.

Relevant Sources

Expense Tracking Apps

post

Which expense tracking app has the best automated expense tracking?

r/personalfinance - May 6, 2023

I have been using Intuit Mint for 5 years ever since coming to the US...I am curious, for people who heavily rely on automated expense tracking for similar purpose as I described, what tool/app are they using?

comment

r/personalfinance - May 6, 2023

Instead of dealing with fixing categories in Mint I prefer to use YNAB, which is much more manual, but I just categorize transactions as they come in, so it's not much work.

post

I built a free SwiftUI app that beautifully combines expense tracking and budgeting.

r/apple - October 2, 2022

I’m Rafael, a 18 year old student from Singapore, and Dime is the culmination of my first foray into iOS programming. Dime is a beautiful expense tracker and budgeting tool built with iOS design guidelines in mind.

comment

r/apple - October 2, 2022

Nice work! Is there any way to add shared expense tracking? My partner and I are looking for a good option that we can both use separately but have a section that tallies up shared expenses.

post

I made a website that helps co-parents easily track their children's shared expenses.

r/InternetIsBeautiful - December 3, 2022

This is so great. When I was a kid, my divorced parents had me make spreadsheets for spending by each parent then they would argue disputes through me. It sucked...If even one kid avoids that stress, I'm glad your website exists.

comment

r/InternetIsBeautiful - December 3, 2022

What if no co-parents contribute? Hahaha...☹️

post

Best bank for expense tracking - via app

r/SwissPersonalFinance - March 25, 2024

Hi all, newbie to this group...I need to save more (hard to change habits after years of having way more discretional spending) and checking on the phone before shopping etc is what I think will help.

comment

r/SwissPersonalFinance - March 25, 2024

The best one I've used is Revolut, I think their budget/expense categorization has no real competition here in Switzerland...

post

Blazor MAUI App Published - Shared Expense Tracker

r/Blazor - February 16, 2024

Shared expenses are often difficult to track, from remembering who paid their portion, to remembering how much they might have owed in the first place...Expenmo offers a solution for shared expenses.

comment

r/Blazor - February 17, 2024

Nice looking app. Great job!

post

How detailed are your expenses that you write down in expense tracking apps?

r/budget - June 18, 2024

I am tracking my expenses in an app with quite a lot of details IMO. When I buy something in a supermarket I write down each item individually instead of just one big expense for grocery...

comment

r/budget - June 18, 2024

I used to. Every single transaction I would add notes with exactly what I bought. For a few years. Then I would export each year to archive as a spreadsheet so it showed a complete list of everything I purchased in detail...

Managing Shared Expenses

post

Managing shared expenses and use of joint account

r/PersonalFinanceCanada - September 12, 2023

My husband and I have been together since high school...Is it the best idea to combine all of our money or is there a better way?

comment

r/PersonalFinanceCanada - September 12, 2023

My wife and I have been together for 8 years and doing the separate finances the whole time similar to you...You will need to work with your husband to figure out what you both want and come up with a strategy that fits...

post

How do you manage shared expenses?

r/AusFinance - June 5, 2022

Partner and myself have recently purchased an apartment in Sydney and are looking to understand the best way to split our shared expenses.

comment

r/AusFinance - June 5, 2022

Get a joint account in both of your names that you both have a card to and put the money for the shared expenses in there.

post

What is a fair amount for my girlfriend to contribute to shared expenses?

r/PersonalFinanceCanada - November 23, 2023

Currently live with my girlfriend of 6 months in a house I bought before we got together...Based on all of that what is a fair amount that she contributes towards living expenses?

comment

r/PersonalFinanceCanada - November 23, 2023

You know your numbers and your own lifestyle choices. That's a good start, but it's not the whole picture. What are her numbers?...There are lots of ways to figure out what is fair during co-habitation, but that's primary a relationship question.

post

How are you managing shared child expenses with your co-parent?

r/Divorce - March 28, 2023

I'm using google Sheets & bank app. Are there better ways to do it?

comment

r/Divorce - March 28, 2023

We used Google sheets. It works for us. We still have a joint account that we keep just a little money in. We use it to transfer money to each other and transfer money to our kids.

Automatic Deduction and Payment

post

After almost 3 years, OOP updates on a husband who expects "equality" in expense sharing

r/BestofRedditorUpdates - November 7, 2022

OP explains that her husband earns significantly more than her but insists on splitting all costs 50/50 despite the obvious disparity in their financial situation.

comment

r/BestofRedditorUpdates - November 7, 2022

She may have agreed to the 50/50 lifestyle and having a baby, but did she agree to be the only one cooking for the family, cleaning for the family, doing laundry for the family?...Had I seen her original post I would have suggested that she make him consider those hours in lieu of some of her contribution.

post

If you use a period tracking app and are American, delete your app NOW

r/TwoXChromosomes - May 4, 2022

When Roe v Wade gets overturned, the government could use data from your tracking app to persecute for missed periods that don’t result in a baby. Miscarriages, abortions, late cycles are all reasons to hide your data.

comment

r/TwoXChromosomes - May 4, 2022

Joke’s on them, according to the app, I started 928 days ago and never stopped. 😂😂😂 I just forgot to end it.

post

Shared Expense Tracking - Beta Testers Wanted

r/androidapps - February 16, 2024

This app solves a problem that I've had with remembering which people still owed me money for a shared expense by allowing me to track the expenses and the contributions to it.

comment

r/androidapps - January 23, 2024

Tell me why this is better than splitwise?

post

Is there an expense tracker app that helps track shared expenses and lent money?

r/personalfinanceindia - May 4, 2024

I am searching for an Expense Tracker app that can assist me in adding shared expenses to it. For instance, if I add a common expense from a restaurant bill, I should be able to tag my share of the bill as an expense, and the remaining amount as lent money.

comment

r/personalfinanceindia - May 5, 2024

Splitwise