SpendLens

SpendLens, like most of my projects, was borne of a desire I had for a product and a lack of options that I felt met my needs. In this case though the solution was arrived at collaboratively with my close friend (who’s also named Evan), and we began working on the project together. What we found is that there’s very few ways to track purchases easily, cash or credit, and get robust reporting on them. With mobile computing devices being so incredibly ubiquitous these days, it seems like a problem easily solved and we were excited to take on the challenge.

So what is SpendLens?

SpendLens aims to be an ultra simplistic and convenient way to track and analyze your purchases. By emphasizing the purchase entry workflow, making it as close to effortless as possible, and delegating tagging and sorting actions to be conducted later at the user’s leisure, we hope to encourage people to track every purchase, even the $.98 Tim Hortons coffee they paid for in the morning with the change they found in the couch cushions. The core sure experience in mobile, offering an android widget for quick entry and a full app for reviewing and tagging purchases after the fact if they want to keep organized. We also allow users to set a budget, to track how much over or under their financial goals they are, and we keep a rolling total of money saved or debt accrued based off each day that they’re over or under their budget.

At the end of each day, the magic happens. The purchases are uploaded to the user’s SpendLens web account and we analyse that day’s expenditures and provide charts and graphs showing the user how they’re using their money and allowing them to drill into potential problem areas. They can also compare to local or global averages across various categories, helping them set goals and give perspective on their spending habits.

Or at least that’s what it will be. Once I get another free weekend. Or two.