Saving looks like an old school thing to most of the people today as more millennials believe in ‘spend like there is no tomorrow. But when people want to buy a dream car or home after a few years, they realize the importance of saving money.
In today’s world, managing regular expenses is very crucial. There are hundreds of things available with a subscription plan, plus there are rents and utilities to pay. While people should be enjoying their lives and spending money, budgeting should be done properly to avoid unnecessary expenses.
More people are now using expense management apps like Cleo and Fyle to manage their regular expenses and save for important things and the future. According to MRFR Analysis, the financial app market around the world will reach $114 billion by 2023, witnessing a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period of 2017-2023.
Startups and businesses are increasingly investing in finance management apps to take a big bite from this fast-growing market. The growth is especially driven by the impact of modern technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, the internet of things (IoT), etc. Furthermore, almost everyone owns a smartphone today, and digital transactions have become the new norm.
Cleo and Fyle are the leading examples of AI-based expense management apps. Cleo is being used by more than 3 million people today to track their spending, save money, and manage all finances. If you want to develop an app like Cleo or Fyle, this is the best time for you to do so.
Before diving into why and how to develop an AI expense manager application like Cleo, let’s first understand what exactly Cleo is and why it’s trending.
What is Cleo?
Cleo is an AI-based expense management app that helps users to create budgets, track all expenses, and save money automatically. It offers intelligent advice and recommendations on how to save more.
The app has several handy features like salary advances, savings account, cashback rewards, expense management tips, etc. The business model of Cleo is freemium, which means that some features are available for free, and some advanced features come at a cost.
It is available for download on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) of the app are quite intuitive and straightforward. Cleo has gained popularity over the last few years because of Artificial Intelligence integration and the use of technology to guide people with expense management.
To enable smart suggestions and recommendations as an AI assistant for your finances, Cleo synchronizes with the user accounts and analyzes the pattern of spending. After having sufficient information and details about the accounts and spending, it automatically suggests the most appropriate ways to cut down expenses and manage the money efficiently.
Another helpful feature to save money using Cleo is a digital wallet that allows users to keep some savings securely within the app.
Why Develop Expense Management App?
As discussed in the introduction, expense management is an essential thing to do for everyone. People around the world are looking for efficient and smart ways to save money and manage budgets. With an AI-powered mobile app, you can meet this demand and make the most from the market.
Here are some crucial stats that prove that people are indeed interested in money management apps:
- A majority (67%) of people choose a mobile expense app to save financial data and get help in savings and investments.
- When it comes to choosing between mobile expense management apps and websites, 60% of the users opt for apps.
- In 2019, money management apps were used more than one trillion times.
- According to AppsFlyer, the number of finance app installations around the world increased by 90% in 2019. Among all the apps, the finance apps hold a 5% share of app downloads.
- Over 13% of mobile users access an expense management app multiple times a day to keep track of their expenses and budget.
These statistics by reliable sources show that the usage of money management apps like Cleo is on the rise today. By offering a seamless user experience and Artificial Intelligence app development features, you can cater to these demands and make an impact.
Key Features of AI Expense Tracker App
If you want your new creation to stand apart from the competition, you must include all the essential features, along with some unique and advanced features.
- Sign-up/Sign-in – The basic feature to allow new users to register on the app using the name, email address, phone number, and password. You should also accept app registration directly using Google Account for a seamless experience.
- Expense tracker- The key feature that will track all the daily, weekly, and monthly expenses of the user. Integrate some categories into the tracker so that users can segment their expenses and understand exactly how much they are spending on certain things.
- Budget creation- This feature will allow users to create their budgets for the specified time period, like week or month. They can add the maximum they want to spend during the following month or week.
- Push notifications- Send alerts to the users about their expenses and the bandwidth they have consumed of the total budget. The push notifications will help them alerted when they are overspending.
- Two-factor authentication- For strong security, you must integrate the feature to enable two-factor authentication. The app includes the financial details of the users. Hence, this feature must be there to protect personal and financial information.
- Voice search- Voice search is an AI-based feature that will identify the voice of the user and perform the required actions. For example, the user can ask how much he has spent in the last five days. Using speech recognition and machine learning solution, the app will answer accordingly.
- Wallet- Digital wallet is an advanced feature in the expense tracker app that helps users to save money in a wallet, completely separate from their bank accounts and cash flow. This will work as a saving wallet.
- Bank transfer- To add money to the wallet, you have to integrate the bank transfer feature. It will also be used when the users want to withdraw money from the digital wallet to their bank accounts.
- Promos- If you are offering the app on a subscription model or there are some premium features, then add a tab to show the promotions, discounts, and other offers. This is a great way to onboard more users and increase revenue.
- Goals- Allow users to set some goals when they add the budget and regular expenses. Setting goals is necessary to manage the expenses and cut out unnecessary spending.
- Reports and insights- The AI expense tracking app will segment all the expenses and transactions, and create the reports. Users can see smart insights about everything and act accordingly.
- Admin dashboard- This will be the feature for your teams and administrators where they can manage users, check transactions, measure revenue, and perform all the required things from a single dashboard.
- Support- If the users face any issues with the app, they would like to get in touch with your team for support via chat or email. This feature helps in building trust and credibility.
- Smart recommendations- Based on the reports and insights, expense tracking, and budget, the app must offer intelligent recommendations to the users. These recommendations can be offered using an AI chatbot app on how they can manage their finances more efficiently, tips to cut out expenses, and save more.
- Chat with expert- This can be added as a premium feature using which the users can connect with your financial advisor or expert for the right recommendations, advice, etc.
- Rating and review- Allow users to submit their feedback and rating about the smart recommendations and expert advice, to learn what users think and feel about your advanced features.
- Financial knowledge- You should also add a feature that shows some articles, news, videos, statistics, etc. about financial management and controlling expenses. This will not only improve engagement on the app, but also help the users significantly.
How to Develop AI Expense Manager App like Cleo?
Using the process below, you can kickstart your expense app tracker app design and development:
Market Research
The first step is to perform some market research for deciding the target audience for your app. There are various kinds of audiences and markets around the world. You have to choose the relevant ones for the success of your idea.
For example, you can choose to target working professionals or graduates. Along with audience, you have to finalize the primary locations where you can find the maximum audience with low or decent competition. This will help you to expand faster in the market.
Competitor analysis
Once you have decided your target audience and locations, the next step is to find out your potential competitors. Analyze their strategy, what they are offering, business models, features, etc.
Based on competitor analysis, you can create the right strategy for your app and decide what to do and what to avoid for success.
Consult with app development company or experts
You might be having an excellent idea but consulting with experts in this field can help you to learn the factors that you might be otherwise missing. You can connect with a professional mobile app development company that have been developing such apps for years now, or consult the experts to understand the current scenario and latest trends.
This will also help you to finalize the app features, functionalities, and find an estimated cost of developing an expense management app like Cleo.
Android/iOS or both?
For which operating systems and platforms will you be getting your app developed? Will be available on App Store or Play Store, or both?
To decide on the Android and iOS App development platforms, a market analysis will play a crucial role here. While doing the market analysis, you must find the ratio of people using Android and iOS.
If a majority of them are using Android, then you can develop the app only for Android devices. If the ratio is nearly similar, then consider developing it for both platforms. You can also conduct some surveys online in your targeted locations.
The aim is to serve the maximum users in your targeted locations.
Finalize features and design
In today’s competitive market, the best design and features will help you to grab a significant share and grow faster. From the features mentioned above, finalize the ones that you would like to integrate into your app. It will be great if you keep all of them for an improved user experience.
The UI of the app should be simple yet appealing. Only features are not enough if your app is not user-friendly. That’s where the role of UX and UI comes to the picture. Analyze the apps of your competitors and market leaders for some ideas about expense tracker app design and create a better UI/UX than them.
Hire AIapp development company
For your AI expense tracker app development, you have to opt for the most reliable and professional company that holds expertise in building such apps and Python development. This is a big step in the process because experienced Android or iOS app developers at the hired AI app development company can create an impactful app that meets all your expectations.
Moreover, these AI development companies also have in-house professional designers as well so that you get a feasible solution without interacting with multiple companies.
Testing and deployment
This is the final step before releasing the app. Once developed, the app must undergo a testing phase to find the flaws and bugs that remained unnoticed during production.
Ensure that the app is tested properly so that users don’t face issues when using it. Bugs can impact the user experience and the reputation of your app. So, ensure that everything works well before launching the app.
Cost of developing AI-based Expense Management App
A number of factors will decide the total cost of expense management app development. These factors include the complexity of the app, security practices implemented, platforms chosen, project management, UI/UX design, features, development, customizations, as well as testing. Overall, the final cost will range somewhere between $10,000 to $40,000.
Wrapping up
Hope you found all the essential information related to the development of an AI-based expense and finance management app like Cleo. If you are thinking of getting such an app developed this year, then this is the right to do so. These apps are in high demand today. Your investment will be worth it.
Have any questions related to app development? Get in touch with our experts using the comments below.
