Money matters, matter. And there can be no one who disagrees with us here. In case you have second thoughts, the month end soon will unleash the same.
On a serious note, it’s never a good idea to see your expenses missing pace with earnings. Nonetheless, each one of us is its victim. Exactly why an innovator thought of the smart online budget trackers. For shopaholics whose shopping spirits never seem to take a back seat, to the foodies whose entire money goes consumed by the delicacies, to the travelers whose nomadic outlook takes away all the income, expense tracking tool is nothing less than magic.
With the launch of world’s first expense tracking app, Quicken, in the year 1983, finance apps have come a long way from desktops to smartphones. They offer the users with a wide array of web and smartphone-based expense tracking solution that keeps their financial knowledge and preparedness ahead of the time.
Today, we are going to explore this realm a bit more and check out how finance businesses can take a step ahead with budget planner app development, something just like the most popular, Mint.
And, here we go!!!
An Introduction to Mint
Mint offers an ideal solution to everyone seeking one-stop money management.
Popular amongst the users for its intuitive features, it is a web-based platform that lets users manage finances on the move. Whether you are looking for excellent management and tracking with banking accounts, or credit cards, or loans, mortgages, or brokerage accounts, Mint has got you covered.
It offers extraordinary budgeting and tracking features wherein consumers can monitor their bills and payments, and make well-informed budget decisions. Mint also takes into account personalized suggestions wherein users can quickly check where they are spending and what steps they can take in order to save more.
Mint, thus, offers you a robust, free of cost budgeting tool that lets the users to set and achieve the financial goals while staying updated on current finance picture.
How does it work?
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Well known as finance aggregation mobile app, Mint is an efficient budget tracking tool that collects information from an array of sources including bank accounts, bills, credit or debit cards, PayPal, etc. It then offers a comprehensive finance landscape that allows you to view detailed outlook on incoming money as well as the money being spent.
Registered users can fill in their profiles with all the relevant information like bank accounts, card details, wallet information, along with the bills they would like to be reminded about. Users can also fill in their loans and investment details. The efficient budget tracking is backed up by the well-structured information database downloaded by the applications.
With Mint, you can also eye on ATM and cash transaction in order to ensure that no aspect of the finance track is missed. It also comes up with a well-integrated reporting module that avails the users a comprehensive report on facets like debt, spending, income, net worth, and a lot more.
What are the Strengths of Mint?
Now that Mint is so popular used, here is what makes it win the accolades:
- Ease of use
- Flexible budgeting tool facilitating experiments with various scenarios
- Email and text-based alerts to keep the user updated on financial summaries
- Easy to use and customize financial reports
- Well integrated tax solutions backed by TurboTax
- Email and text-based notifications for unusual account activity, bill reminders, and low balance
- Bank-level data security to bank account aggregation
- Creation of spending and income categories on the go
- Automatic transaction details download from any US finance institution
- System updates to intimate users about the stalled account updates.
- Automated value calculation for the assets like homes, cars, and others to help you know the accurate net worth
- Easy to locate help and support dashboard
- Personalized saving suggestions based on your spendings
What are the Integral Features of Expense Manager Apps?
#1. Built-in Categories
Expense management on the tip can be made more efficient when combined with the benefits of categories. Thus, mobile app developers can work upon integrating built-in customizable categories to manage the finances.
Additionally, you can also think about helping the users to keep track of expenses according to merchants or suppliers.
The combination of both features will help the users to understand the expense scenario better. Moreover, it would help the app administrators to offer better suggestions on how can the finances be managed well.
#2. Suggest Distribution Plan
Having distributed plans handy at disposal helps the users amazingly to plan their budgets. And who else can help better with this aspect than a financial management software? Thus, getting your users the kick of comprehensive distributed plan will enable them to manage the assets actively to set the cumulative goals. The categories in the distributive plan will include:
- Credit card payment
- Bills payment
- Mutual funds
- IRA investment
- Real estate investments, etc.
You can also let the feature extend beyond the conventional suggestions to include a comparative review on asset distribution.
#3. Send Alerts
Of course, this is one of the critical features of a finance mobile app. What if the users forget to make payments? You can work with them to save them from penalties. Thus, you can integrate some of the alert features in your app that notifies the user in case of:
- Future bill payments
- Change of cost standards
- Low balance
- Doubtful translations
#4. Expense Tracking Features
Here are the expense tracking features that make up the core of any budgeting tool:
- Track expenses and incomes
- Recurring expense and income
- Track multiple bank accounts
- Tax tools
- Track mileage
- Track liabilities
- Parsing message received from banks and credit/ debit cards
- Write, print, and email cheques
#5. Budgeting and Organizing Options
Planning the budgeting and organization options that can give an edge to finance app development? Here they are listed in place for you:
- Category-wise bill organization
- Weekly, monthly, and annually bill structuring
- Payment alerts
- Daily, weekly, monthly yearly expense with the graphical representation
- Expense and income in calendar view
#6. Searching and Reporting Features
With search enabled dashboards and comprehensive reporting options, users can receive significant benefits.
- Perform a manual search by category, payment methods, status, description. Etc.
- Import budget reports in HTML, CSV, Excel, and PDF
- Comparative charts and graphs segregated according to category, payment method, status, description. Tag, date, etc.
- Share report via email.
#7. Backup and Synchronization Features
- Automated backup on cloud storage
- Automated data synch between devices and cloud storage
#8. Connection between Web-based Platform and Smartphone
- Seamless data interaction between both the platforms
- Backup and restore options on both the app versions
#9. Additional Finance Tools
Last but not least, here are some of the features that make to none of those mentioned above categories but are vital from the user’s point of view. Thus, something you cannot choose to miss.
- Currency converter
- In-app calculator
- Regular calculator
- Top calculator
- Liabilities calculator
- Credit card payoff calculator
- Interest calculator
- Create note
- Create shopping list
Besides Features
While the features make up most of the application, there are some other facets of the finance mobile apps that structure the robust backend of the app. Here they are listed for you to take care of while going for budgeting tool development.
#1. Data Protection
Security is the prime concern for every tool involved in helping users with finance management. After all, no one would really love the idea of registering on the new application only to notice the accounts going to nil. Not only does it bring you under legal threats but also causes heave toll on your reputation.
The easiest way to ensure this is to take care of the security measures during the mobile app development itself. Taking inspiration from Mint that uses separate databases of store information and data strongly backed by multi-level protection, you can make effective use of reliable and secure data protection methods.
Additionally, this level should be checked continuously for its efficiency to avoid chances of data threats.
#2. Data Recovery
Imagine storing all of your data on a device, and then it gets stolen. We need not to explain what happens next. Yes, while this really worries the users to the core, as an app owner, this should be one your significant concerns. Thus, the best plan of action here would be to get connected with your finance management app developers and plan ahead of the time.
Just like the known brand Mint, you can either think of letting the users navigate to the website to erase data from a particular device and then deactivate it. Additionally, they should also have an option to recover the accounts on the new device.
#3. Data Aggregation from All the Accounts
Having multiple accounts is pretty much a standard now, specifically in terms of business. These accounts can vary from investment accounts, credit and business accounts, consolidated consumer and investment accounts, banking accounts, and credit/ debit cards, and others.
With the money expense tracker app development, you also need to ensure a scalable database that can fit all the account information and a backend that can aggregate the information to display details under one screen. There are two ways you can achieve the same:
- Integrating your own solution during mobile app development
- Provide advanced security with technology from a trusted source.
Also Read- B2B Mobile App Development: A Complete Guide
How Much Does an App Like Mint Cost?
The cost to develop an expense tracker mobile app depends upon a myriad of aspects. Here are the factors that can significantly affect the finance management mobile app development cost:
- Basic features
- Advanced features
- Mobile app development team size
- Developer partner location
- Third-party integration
- Maintenance and support
- Certifications and compliance
Shape your Finance App Development Idea into a Full-Fledged Mobile App with Matellio
Now that you are clear with the things that you need to take care of, how about partnering with an expert mobile app developer. In other words, Team Matellio. With decade-long industry experience and finance tracking apps highlighted on our portfolio, we can be a perfect development partner for you. Let’s get started with it then. Send in your requirements now.
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