I built an expense tracker app in an hour with Replit

TLDR — here's the free template if you want to deploy it yourself: Track Money on Replit

Version Alpha

Back in college, a smart and enterprising new friend recommended I use this expense tracking app. I used it for a solid 3 years. I was never inclined to pay for the premium version — it could always do better, and recording every transaction by opening an app after every UPI payment was a hassle. Did I mention I was a broke college student?

What broke the camel's back?

Their holiday offer in late 2022 to buy the premium version never went away — causing significant lag on top of all the existing limitations.

Building my own

I built something on Google Sheets and used it for an excruciating 3 months. It had everything I wanted but the UI/UX was the obvious problem. How hard can I zoom into a G-Sheet on my phone and record each transaction? Bengaluru clearly ensured I had too many expenses to track.

What these screenshots tell me

1. Categories I need are far more in number — sub-categories add complexity to an already complex G-Sheet.
2. A G-Sheet is not supposed to act as a mobile application. It is a non-use case.
3. Visualizations are scarce — a bar chart is all you get, unless you open your laptop every time.
4. The pain of your employer restricting access to half the internet while you are trying to build side projects.
5. For all its inadequacies, it shows I spend a lot of January and December partying — a nice note to future me.

Version Beta

I wanted to spend an idle morning writing on Substack, writing an eulogy (yes, heavy stuff — more on that later), or plain doom-scrolling on Twitter. Of course some of us GenZs need an early morning Twitter fix. I saw that the Replit mobile app had launched. I said — sure, here is my morning project.

538MB later. You have reached your free limit. But it works.

Prod Version — Track Money™

I ended up writing this piece while making the app — of course I had to fine-tune bits and pieces. Once again, I think I would make a very good Product Manager. Please hire me.

1. Change dollar to rupee — record in INR only.
2. Reset to default once a transaction is recorded successfully.
3. Added a custom list of expense categories and a drop-down for payment sources: Amex, Cash, Mom Paid, UPI etc.
4. Edit transactions — of course we make errors. And no, I am not paying Elon $5 for an edit button.
5. More visualizations — needed, but later.
6. Deploying this will cost money. Worth it — because this is an app I genuinely need.

Deploy, Deploy, Deploy

This is the first time I truly understood why interns want to test in production and why Uber/Zomato sends empty deploy notifications at times.

Turns out it costs INR 2,499 to deploy. Passion project sure — but I am very broke right now. Is there a student plan? Regardless, the template is free: Track Money on Replit

We have an app for this

Cred Money and Fold do not work on SBI accounts or joint accounts — which is all my two bank accounts. My Amex cannot be linked to Cred. So I built this instead.

Prod Version 2: GenAI Wrapper on Top

Hi Expense App, can you record a cash transaction for Fuel Expenses of 500 rupees for the day before yesterday?

How cool would it be to just type or use voice on my phone to log a transaction? Not a big deal technically — but I do not come from a developer background. The last line of code I wrote was probably in Grade 12 for my CBSE CS exam, where I had topped my school but clearly had other plans.

In my day job running Sales Ops, Pre-Sales, and Practice Development for the Payer Practice — a purely business and management role — I did develop one other product before this, maybe my first ever. Read about it here.