FinBaby (Jama) — Personal Finance Tracker

Problem

Indian middle-class families track expenses across UPI apps, bank statements, and paper notebooks. No single tool auto-imports bank SMS, categorizes spending, and provides actionable savings advice — without cloud dependency.

Business Impact

Indians transact heavily via UPI but track expenses manually if at all. FinBaby auto-imports bank SMS, removing the biggest friction — data entry. 50/30/20 budgeting makes financial planning accessible to first-time earners.

System Approach

• Kotlin + Jetpack Compose with Material 3 for modern Android UI
• Room database for local SQLite storage of all transactions
• Hilt for dependency injection across the entire app
• SMS reader with bank sender mapping for 50+ Indian banks (SBI, HDFC, ICICI, etc.)
• WorkManager for background tasks — daily reminders, recurring transactions, budget alerts
• Vico charts library for donut charts, daily bar charts, and monthly trend visualizations
• DataStore Preferences for settings and user preferences

Key Decisions & Trade-offs

• Fully offline — no cloud, no sign-up, no bank linking. Privacy is non-negotiable
• SMS auto-import over manual entry — solves the biggest adoption killer (data entry fatigue)
• 50/30/20 budgeting over complex categories — simplicity drives adoption for first-time budgeters
• JSON backup/restore over cloud sync — users own their data completely
• Biometric lock — finance data is sensitive, security without friction

Current Status

Core app functional — SMS auto-import, manual entry, budgeting, reports, smart tips, search, CSV export, backup/restore, biometric lock, and daily reminders all implemented.

Roadmap

• Add recurring transaction templates for rent, EMIs, subscriptions
• Implement investment tracking (mutual funds, FDs, PPF)
• Add family mode with shared budgets between partners

What I'd Improve Next

• Could add ML-based category prediction as SMS patterns grow
• Consider adding UPI transaction parsing from notification access

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