How to Build a Money Management App – Requirements & Features

Personal finance applications do not help you save money, but the insights they provide and the habits they reinforce will. The main value that your financial application should provide to users is the knowledge they need, plus tips for developing the right money management habits.

Spending trackers help you keep tabs on your spending, categorize it, and identify spending trends. Let’s take a look at the ways this goal is achieved with competing applications, and consider how you can offer users a better experience in case you decided to build an app.

What is a Personal Finance App?

A personal budget app is a technology solution that is connected to your banking account and transfers data about your income and spending, reveals your money management habits and patterns, and suggests better ways to spend your disposable income based on your financial goals. Of course, financial applications can have a wider or narrower set of functions depending on the user’s problems they are solving and the value they are providing.

Types of Personal Finance Apps

Let’s take a look at the types of money management apps to help you determine what type of solution is best to.provide a visual report that shows you how much you spent on food, gas, utilities, entertainment, and other expenditures.

• Habit trackers. These types of apps also track your money management habits, but they also do deeper analysis. Such applications are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), which helps to analyze user behavior and understand that every Friday for example you might spend a significant amount at a bar. You might want to replace this habit with one that is more beneficial to your financial and overall health.
• Budget planners. Applications of this type allow you to plan future expenses and set specific spending limits. Planners also allow you to set financial goals like spending a maximum of $2,000 per month or saving a set amount at the end of the month.
• Investment apps. These apps let you put your money to work. You do not need to delve into the science of investing. You can save a few dollars or even cents from each of your purchases and credit them to your account to receive interest on the savings. More professional solutions for investors and peer-to-peer (p2p) lenders are also available in the market.

Hint: Even though we’ve defined the main personal finance app types above, you shouldn’t be limited by this. The functionality of your money management app can cover several goals like helping users keep track of their spending, revealing their spending habits, and suggesting investments or debt reduction strategies.

Examples of Personal Budgeting Apps

Below are the best personal finance apps that have different functionality, but one ultimate goal, which is to teach users how to manage their money wisely, develop the right financial habits, and stop overspending and acquiring debt.

• You Need a Budget (YNAB). This is one of the top personal finance apps with comprehensive functionality. With its help, you can set financial goals, track every dollar you’ve spent, pay off your debt, and build a budgeting strategy for your personal or family needs.
• Mint. Mint is the best personal finance app for Android and iOS, and it comes with extensive functionality. Mint is capable of tracking your spending, categorizing it, setting financial goals, sending alerts, providing you with reports, and much more.
• GoodBudget. If you don’t want your financial data and card credentials shared with a third-party app, Good Budget will not require it. Instead, you enter your spending manually. While this approach is quite old, it may be suitable for those who have data privacy concerns.
• Acorns. This is a simple investing app that allows you to make micro-investments each time you make purchases. Also, there are a lot of cashback opportunities within this app, and the money earned can be directly deposited.
• Joy. This app is a financial habit tracker. Each time you make a purchase, you can mark your spending with a happy or sad emoticon, and at the end of the month you will find out what emotions your spending provokes. According to the creators of the app, the connection between your money and the emotions you experience each time you spend it may help you develop the right financial habits and stop wasting money on the things that don’t bring you joy.

Features of Money Management Apps

Below is a list of features that should be created for the best personal budget app.

• Registration
• Log in
• Authentification: it makes sense to use two-factor authentication, where biometrical data can be one of the factors.
• Personal profile: it should provide easy access to all the necessary sections.
• Credit/debit card integration: with this functionality, the user should be able to connect his banking account to the app and transfer data on spending.
• Spending and receipts: With the help of this section, the users can track the amount they spend and receive during a particular period.
• Regular payments: your personal budget app may also suggest making regular payments, for example paying utility bills on the 15th of each month.
• Debts: the user may also specify the amount of debt they have and plan their spending with this in mind.
• Cashback and bonuses: you may also partner with other companies and let your users receive cashback and bonuses after purchases in specific stores.
• Saving and investment features: if you plan to power your app with artificial intelligence (AI), it may suggest that users create a retirement account or help them find the best ways to invest their money.
• Reporting: users should be able to get clear reports to find out their spending patterns and get a true picture of how much money is spent on budget items.
• Data analysis: this is a must-have feature for a personal finance app, and with AI and machine learning (ML) you can provide your users with the best suggestions.

Requirements for a Personal Budgeting App Development Project

We’ve listed the essential features of personal budgeting and finance apps. Here are the main requirements and regulations you need to follow while developing them.

• Two-factor authentication. Financial information is quite sensitive so it is better to protect it with two-factor authentication that uses biometric data.
• Follow open-banking best practices. The ability to connect the user’s bank account to a financial application is at the core of the open banking approach. However, some users do not want to allow the bank to share information about their spending and earnings with other applications. The essence of open banking is to give users access to the best, most personalized services, but the highest priority is the security and safety of user data.
• Intuitive design. The design of your financial app should be simple and intuitive. Your users are already dealing with the complex issue of money management so there is no point in confusing them anymore. Also, you should use trust-provoking colors like white, blue, or light green.
• Clear reporting. Pay attention to the reporting forms you are going to embed in your app. They should be as clear and visual as possible. It makes sense to use diagrams, different colors, and graphs for better perception.
• PCI compliance. According to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS), there is a 12-points checklist describing the security measures you should embed in your app since you are going to work with financial data and your users will share their credit card credentials with you. This requirement is equally important for a personal finance app for Mac and a personal finance app for android development.

Conclusion

Inspired about your financial application development or you have difficulties following the requirements above? We are here to help no matter what the complexity of your financial project is. Our wide experience in fintech project development will be useful for your app development.

Maxwell Travers, Content Contributor