TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

Ask HN: What do you think of my MVP for a simple expense tracking web app?

17 pointsby rheotronover 11 years ago

17 comments

hyungover 11 years ago
Looks nice! Have you thought about adding screenshots on the landing page (maybe one each for &quot;Log Expenses&quot;, &quot;Tag Expenses&quot; and &quot;Analyse Expenses&quot;)?<p>I think a lot of people would like to see what the app might look like before giving away their email address.
评论 #6532458 未加载
devxover 11 years ago
Well I can tell you what I didn&#x27;t like from the moment I saw the web page: I can&#x27;t see or use the app in any way before I even register. As some random visitor coming to your site, why would I bother doing that, when I have no idea what to expect from signing-up (other than a bunch of words on a page, which I just skipped looking for the app screenshots&#x2F;demo).
评论 #6532460 未加载
freejackover 11 years ago
The biggest suggestion I could offer would be to give your potential customers a reason to use it - ask them a question on the conversion page that qualifies them as a customer - i.e. &quot;Want to spend your money more effectively?&quot; or &quot;Want to cut down on the amount of time you spend tracking corporate expenses?&quot; or something similar. As is, the site kinda assumes that <i>everyone</i> has the problem you are trying to solve, which has the affect of making it appeal to &quot;no one&quot;. Be more explicit about the problem you&#x27;d like to solve in your copy and it will boost user confidence immensely and get many more of them to the point where they will want to try your service.
评论 #6532585 未加载
Romokuover 11 years ago
1) Where is the privacy policy, data usage, and terms of service?<p>2) What makes this different from Expensify or Mint?
jwdunneover 11 years ago
I like it! Very simple and easy to use.<p>Since I don&#x27;t have any expenses I have to track for accounting purposes, I&#x27;m looking at this as a tool to track my own expenditure so as to help improve my spending habits. I realise the focus might be different so my suggestion may be useless to you!<p>What would be really useful to me would be reminders and notifications. With developing habits like this, I have a very hard time unless I&#x27;m constantly reminded. Like I take my lunch on weekdays at 12pm, so a reminder at half 12 or 1 would have me enter my lunch expenses. This could be further enhanced if you had a mobile app that used push notifications. This would be essential for me to develop the habit of doing it.
评论 #6532436 未加载
f4stjackover 11 years ago
Congrats for creating such a simple (but useful!) tool for the masses. I have found some bugs however:<p>- If I enter a nonnumeric value in the expense field it doesn&#x27;t complain but enters the detail as 0$ and tag details. It would create some mishap in the mobile devices.<p>- If I enter a numeric value and don&#x27;t fill the tag and explanation fields the system reenters last valid value. For example if I entered $1234 and home as the tag it will repeat if I enter 200 for the amount and erased the autofilled home tag.<p>- There isn&#x27;t a way to delete&#x2F;edit previous entries. I should be able to delete them at least...<p>Apart from these little stuff the system rocks. :) Keep up the good work, mate.
评论 #6532606 未加载
marco-fisetover 11 years ago
First of all, I want to congratulate you for actually shipping, and dare show it here on Hacker News.<p>However, I can&#x27;t consider this an MVP. Sure it is minimal, but it is barely usable as it is right now. I&#x27;d like a datepicker, instead of writing the date by hand, and I&#x27;d like to be able to have a suggestion of tags I used in the past. I&#x27;d like to have the enter key submit the form. Such small details that would add great value.<p>Moreover, I expected the Day, Week, Month filter to show me only the expenses in that time frame, instead of just the total changing.<p>Keep it up! Very good job overall.
评论 #6532595 未加载
jtfairbankover 11 years ago
Is there any way to preview it? At the very least some screenshots that show the user what the web app can do would be very helpful. :)
评论 #6532589 未加载
andandandover 11 years ago
Had this problem recently and solved it by creating a Google Drive form connected to a spreadsheet, saving what expense and how much it was. Then bookmarked the form on my iPhone homescreen. Nice to have a secret url for collecting data without having to authenticate or anything. Something similar could probably be useful here too.
iagooarover 11 years ago
I really like the simplicity of it. Keep it clean and simple and people will use it forever.<p>BUT,<p>there are some basic features missing, such as: currency config (Europeans have Internet too ;), subject &amp; comment notes. A receipt upload would be really great too. Plus, as much as I love Bootstrap, please invest $15 in a custom theme ;)<p>Nice job!
JimmaDaRustlaover 11 years ago
I use mint.com, but I really have a problem with the method of how they receive data. I believe banks should provide API keys for their customers which allows read-only access to their accounts.<p>Unfortunately, their is zero interest within banks to build this.<p>Edit: I do too many transactions to use something like this or Toshl.
评论 #6532654 未加载
zizeeover 11 years ago
It&#x27;s a nice start. Well done!<p>I want to click on the tags that I have used so far, so that I can see a summary for that tag, but it doesn&#x27;t seem to do anything.<p>Entering the amounts on mobile could be improved if you could popup a number keypad on focus. And a calendar select couldn&#x27;t hurt either.<p>Again, well done!
评论 #6532528 未加载
thisishugoover 11 years ago
Is there any way to see what I&#x27;m signing up for without actually signing up for it?
评论 #6532592 未加载
shah_mover 11 years ago
Great starting point. Do you have a hypothesis about who would benefit from such a product? It may help you with next steps to validate the concept.
评论 #6532690 未加载
mike_mcgrailover 11 years ago
Does it sync with online accounting software like Freeagent?
评论 #6532367 未加载
jhhover 11 years ago
I like the simplicity, but there are a LOT of bugs.
Jdfmillerover 11 years ago
Add some features to set budgets, track total expenditure and work out how much you&#x27;ve got left.