MyFinanceFairy | Devpost

Inspiration

Bank statements and invoices can feel like reading a different language, especially if you’re not used to them. It's very easy to become overwhelmed by everything in a bank statement. Thats why we decided to create MyFinanceFairy, a simple way to make understand your transactions, spot problems quickly, and actually understand your money without all the stress.

What it does

MyFinanceFairy is made to read CSV files, which can be downloaded from banks. It takes the file and breaks it down into simple charts that are interactive, to show where spending is done the most. Users can interact with the charts to understand how certain categories are impacting their finances. Users can also convert the filtered information into their preferred currencies. With the ability to filter select dates, and sort the data based off amount, category and description, MyFinanceFairy provides flexibility and ease fo use. Finally, users are able to export their final filtered CSV file for recordkeeping.

How we built it

We built this app using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We created a categories.json file to store keywords and their respective categories. With the Papa Parse library we were able to efficiently read CSV files. Using Chart.js, we were able to make very interactive charts and make the user feel visually connected to their CSV. We used the toLowerCase() function to normalize transaction descriptions and make sure everything ran smoothly. Using exchangerate-api.com, we were able to implement an API to grab current currency exchange rates immediately when the site is loaded.

Challenges we ran into

Working with new libraries and APIs was a significant challenge we had to overcome. Figuring out how to implement currency exchange rates into the website with such a small amount of time was a very difficult task.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we were able to integrate many libraries and an API together to create a fully functioning and extremely interactive app applicable to the real world and beneficial to an immense audience. We are also proud of connecting keywords to categories, and creating a simple yet aesthetically pleasing user interface.

What we learned

As first time hackathon competitors, we learnt how important time management was, especially in hackathons. Working with completely unfamiliar libraries and APIs was a learning curve that we had to overcome quickly, which we did.

What's next for MyFinanceFairy

In the future, we plan to implement comparison capability, to see how different CSVs stack up against each other. In addition, the capability to receive more personalized financial tips is something else we plan to do, along with many more quality of life features!