Key Considerations While Developing A Personal Finance App

Managing your finances well has many merits, like better saving for the future, lower debt, and a great credit score. With the rapid advancement in technology and app development services, mobile and web apps have transformed almost every aspect of our lives. The best personal finance application is an essential tool to help you reach your short and long-term financial goals. As per the survey by Bankrate, among smartphone users in the US nearly two-third use at least one mobile finance app. This trend is increasing majorly due to the rising need to track income, increasing dependence on the internet, the surge in mobile application usage, adoption of money management apps by developing economies. Personal finance tracker undoubtedly helps to keep track of income, creates a budget, manages expenses, sync cards and bank accounts manages taxes, and much more.

How big is the personal finance app market

The global personal financial planning app market size was valued at $795 million in 2016, which is estimated to reach $1,213 million by 2023, reflecting a CAGR of 6.40%. Money Management Software Market Key Segments

• By product type - Mobile-based and Web-based software
• By End-User - Individual consumers and small business units
• By Region - Europe, Asia-Pacific, LAMEA, North America

Importance Of Financial Planning App 

Financial advisor apps manage all bank accounts, cards, investments, mortgages, expenses of an individual at one place be it mobile or desktop reducing the stress of finance management. Let’s understand in detail -

1. Financial Health Of Users - Best android finance app highlights where you are spending more, updates you about upcoming bills and even allows bill payment via the app overall adding to your credit score and investment portfolio. No doubt with mobile app development services a well-defined finance management solution boost up your financial confidence with healthy spending habits and keeps you aware about  finances all the time
2. Micromanage - Mobile app development company understand the need for home finance management apps keep a track of minute transactions like, how much is being spent on eating out, groceries, shopping, movies, etc. by letting the app create a spending category for you which could be an eye-opening analysis and make you selective about your spending
   
3. Alerts and Notifications - No more late fees with the best finance app for iPhone, as you can easily set alerts, reminders for bill due dates. Finance apps like Mint even send alerts if you are overspending.
4. Setting Financial Goals - Financial goals could be different like, investing in stocks or real estate, cutting down interest rate debt, creating emergency funds, planning health insurance, retirement plans, etc. Setting the goal in your personal expense management app will let you plan better and take steps accordingly. The finance app will even mail you progress reports and how close you are to achieving your financial goal. 

Features Of Finance App

Simple personal finance apps no doubt make you more planned and disciplined by managing money well and sticking to a budget which makes you more disciplined and a wise spender. Best money management software calculate and monitor your finances, create a budget and categorize into transactions, and monitor to help you be planned with your funds. Best app development firms ensure the mentioned features are available when developing a finance management app.

1. Aggregation Of Accounts - Best app for personal finance management assembles all types of accounts in one place, like loans, debit cards, credit cards, bank accounts, insurance policies, etc. They act as one-stop solutions for users to access every financial item in one place keeping it safe and sound. Most financial data is being pulled out of bank accounts by using data-stream format OFX “Open Financial Exchange”. With the help of account aggregation APIs like Plaid, Quovo, or Yodlee, consumers can access account information along with financial insights remotely. Updated information is available online removes the stress of manual data input.  
   
2. Categorization - The simple and sound process of categorizing and analyzing transactions by personal finance tracking app helps in getting insights for the users to plan their funds. This feature provides a more detailed and targeted analysis of your transactions aiding better service. Mint categorization engine downloads transactions and makes it uniform to understand by the user. You can even add tags to customize transactions. 
3. Real-Time Spending-When creating money management software like Mint, seamless tracking and analysis of user spending is of key importance. Apps like Mint automatically pull out data from your bank and credit card accounts, and all your monthly bills so as to keep track of spendings and based on your habit. It gives you advice on how to control your expenses. Users can track spendings, savings, investments all in one place.
   
4. Credit Utilization-Once the user signs up and connects its financial accounts to the app account, the best personal finance app connects with almost every financial institution to track your bank and credit card accounts, investments, loans. Apps like Mint immediately let you know about your credit utilization ratio which is how much you owe currently to credit cards as compared to the limits, it furthers inform you which card can be utilized and in how much can be spent. This feature removes the unnecessary burden of overdue payments and extra spendings.  
5. Reports and Trends-With the “Trends” feature customized reports can be pulled out. Reports could be like spendings, incomes, debts, assets, investments, net income, etc. It can be filtered by data category, merchant, or payee tag. You can even compare reports of past months for a clear understanding. 
6. Investments-Business expense tracker apps like Mint present graphical investment reports for users to stay in touch with their portfolios. Reports like performance, asset allocation, comparison to the market index can be well managed. 
7. Tracking Bills-This feature allows you to track all the bills in the app and avoid logging to multiple sites. Reminders can be set for timely payments of the same.
   
8. Budgeting-Mint app automatically allocates budget to each category created based on your spending history, however, you can edit this as well. Budgets can be weekly, monthly, bi-monthly. The finance app  even shows you unspent or overspent money as per the categories for better monthly plans. Its feature “MintSights” provides personalized suggestions, from creating a first budget to grow your investments. An app like Albert after getting your financial info uses proprietary algorithms to decide how much can be saved monthly and automatically transfers the money into the Albert saving section in the app. 
   

Flow Diagram Of Each Feature Of The App

How Finance App Tracker Companies Monetize

1. Subscription Model - The investing finance apps like Stash and saving apps like Digit offer free trials to get consumers on board and later on, charge a monthly fee for continuous usage. Sharing apps like Spendee, offer very limited features in its free version. Users who look for managing multiple accounts or budgets, detailed reports have to pay for premium services.
2. Advertising Revenues - A lot of free apps gain via advertising revenues. Budgeting apps like Fudget display a banner ad in its free version, in case you want an ad-free experience you have to sign up for Fudget pro paid version.
3. Product Referrals - Some finance apps are free but supported by product referrals. Credit score app like Credit Karma displays very targeted products as per your financial history. However, the app does not share your data but uses it to show relevant products like credit cards which may appeal to you. The app earns a commission if you opt for the product.

Best finance apps like Mint, use a combination of revenue streams. It displays targeted ads receiving referral payment from the merchant it has a partnership with. For revenue or fee from users, Mint offers a credit-monitoring service.

Conclusion

Finance app tracker development undoubtedly helps users with a lot of financial tools and analysis for your money. It becomes much easier to micromanage and create a budget on the go, get every information about your bank accounts and calculations at your fingertips, being represented in the form of amazing graphs. CodeToArt love to hear about your idea of building a personal finance tracker app. Our full-stack mobile (android & iOS) and web app development services are ever willing to work with you and shape your ideas into reality.