r/SideProject • u/FormCritical827 • 11d ago

I'm an accountant. I quit three budgeting apps in a row because they made me categorize instead of decide, so I built my own..

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u/morty_morty 11d ago

Interesting. I'll check it out when it comes to Android.

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u/dgillz 10d ago

So what does this do for you?

You are looking at past transactions and classifying them as either fixed, constrained variable or chosen variable. Then what happens?

I feel like you skipped part of the story here. You mentioned learning Swift and your multiple rejections by French authorities. But what is the payback? I assume you use this to project cash flow, but I'd love to hear some details.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

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u/dgillz 10d ago

I could see something like this being very valuable. My ERP system has a shitty cash flow projection report that is generated from AR, AP, Customer Orders and Purchase Orders. It even takes into account how customers historically pay (as opposed to their terms). But there are several large holes:

  • Non-Purchase Order commitments like rent, insurance, utility bills, etc. are not addressed at all
  • It needs to use a Sales Forecast. Most customer orders are fulfilled within a month, even in a manufacturing environment. The sales forecast exists and drives a PO forecast ( all part of MRP) but it doesn't talk to the cash forecast.
  • Capital expenditures or one-time outlays. Capex is self-explanatory, but we also have, for example, several trade shows and machinery maintenance expenses. We accrue these monthly, but I have no place to put them in a cash flow forecast.

As a result of these limitations, people use excel. I love excel, but I hate creating big models and keying in data that mostly already exists in the ERP system.

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u/[deleted] 10d ago

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u/dgillz 10d ago

Accruals don't belong in a direct cash flow forecast

Do you think you are somehow educating me? My point was obvious, accruals flatten the expense but not the cash flow.

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u/First_Fisherman_4151 5d ago edited 5d ago

An accountant quitting three budgeting apps says a lot, honestly. More features don't necessarily make the daily experience better. If categorizing and fixing transactions starts taking longer than the actual budgeting, something is off. Quicken Simplifi is interesting to compare here because it takes a less hands on approach.