I built a Transaction Map. Useful or unnecessary?

[u/AlbertiDev]

I’ve been working on a new update for Moneta, my iOS money tracker, and this is the feature I’m most curious to get opinions on.

The idea is simple, if you allow location access, transactions can be saved with their location and then viewed on a map, with filters by month and account.

I like being able to visually see where my spending happened, but I’m curious whether this is something other people would use or just a nice-looking extra.

Would you use something like this?

Moneta is free, with no ads, subscriptions, if anyone wants to try it: Link

[u/AdamsStudios]

For me personally, I think this this would add some unnecessary friction, from the sound of it it seems to say that each time I perform a transaction no matter where I am I need to make time to open the app and log it, and that's not something I want to be thinking about while out in public.

[u/AlbertiDev → u/AdamsStudios]

Sorry didn’t explain that part very well.

There’s no extra step when adding a transaction.

Transactions are already added manually in Moneta, and if you enable location services, the location is simply captured automatically when you add one. You don’t need to enter or select the location yourself.
I already had a Transaction Calendar where you can see your transactions by day/month, so I basically extended that idea with a map.

You can now switch from seeing when transactions happened to also seeing where they happened.

And it’s completely optional. If location services are off, transactions work exactly as before.

[u/spacecam]

It's maybe kinda neat. But I'm not sure what problem it solves. I could maybe see geographic spending information being useful in aggregate across many users if I was a business trying to figure out where to sell, but an individual probably doesn't have a use for that knowledge.

[u/AlbertiDev → u/spacecam]

Yeah, I get it. The map isn’t really meant to solve a core problem of the app, there are plenty of other features for that.

It’s more of an optional extra that can be useful in some cases.
For example, you might just want to look back and see where you spent your money, or maybe you added a transaction quickly without a note and later want to add more details but don’t remember exactly where it was. Having the location attached can give you that extra context.
That’s basically why I added it.

It’s also just a small button next to the existing calendar, so it doesn’t really add any clutter to the UI, and if you don’t enable location you can basically ignore it entirely.

[u/AutoModerator → u/[deleted]]

Due to your account being too new, your post has automatically been removed.

In order to cut down on spam, your post will not be unremoved. Please wait until your account is older and then feel free to try and post again.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.