How SimpleTrack came to be.

The story of my first iOS app actually goes back quite a few years, probably back to when I got my first iPhone in 2008. It was around then when I decided it'd be fun to learn to write apps, not so much to make any money, but just because it would be a cool way to make some fun stuff. This initially elicited some confused responses, as my background is in hardware, but whatever, boundaries are made to be broken :) 

I bought a few books and dove in, and I was a bit on again off again with it. Something that helped to get me motivated was to sketch out an app to work toward, which ended up being a simple note taking app that I could use to apply the things I was learning. As always, life happened, and I didn't progress quite as quickly as I'd hoped. After getting a little frustrated, I decided at the beginning of 2012 to make a resolution to have my first app available by the end of the year. 

In August, I finally finished both a book I was going through and a class I was taking online. I was ready to push through and get the note app in the store. I had been working on it off and on for most of the year, so I had some things started and felt pretty good about getting it in the store by the end of the year.

Then, in September, a group at church went through a financial series, and the idea of the envelope system came up for budgeting. Alison and I liked the idea of an envelope system, but agreed we'd rather have a "virtual envelope" of sorts. Basically, something on our phones that we could use to keep track of how much money we have in certain budgets, such as spending money, eating out, etc. 

Immediately our conversation felt familiar, and it was then I remembered that we had tried something similar a few years prior. I had even bought an app to help, but we just didn't stick with it very well. I pulled up the app again to see what it was that kept it from working, and after a couple minutes it became very apparent to me. Simply put, it took to long to do the things I wanted to do. What I wanted was pretty basic, and the app I had did far more than I needed. Because of this, the simple things I wanted to do got buried and made the simple process of entering an expense complicated enough that I'd either put off recording my expense until later, which most of the time I'd forget anyway, or I'd just not bother. 

I looked around the app store for something to better suit my needs, but came up empty and a little frustrated. Finally, I just decided that the best way to find the tool that fit my needs was to build it myself. I pushed my notes app off to the side and began work on SimpleTrack.

SimpleTrack

When thinking about what I wanted, the two things that kept coming up were speed and simplicity. If it took me more than a few seconds to log an expense, it was too long and I knew I wouldn't do it. With that, I set out with two design goals in mind.

1. Be able to open the app, enter the information I need, and close the app, all in 5 seconds or less. 

2. Not be required to enter any information other than how much the expense was and which budget it should be logged against.

These two ideas forced me to keep things both simple and fast. Not having too much going on helped to keep the app lean with minimal load times, and it helped stop me from adding unnecessary features that would end up slowing me down or giving me information I don't need. 

I did have a little fun with one feature though. When creating an expense, there are optional fields to fill in what the expense was and where it happened. But, as phones these days are basically location aware computers with enough power to make a high end laptop from 2000 look like a toy, I figured why should I even need to think about where I was when my phone already knows. So, whenever you create and expense, it's automatically geotagged with your current location, which is later viewable on a map in case you need to be reminded of what the expense was. 

All in all it took me about 2 months of work to create SimpleTrack, and as of now it's officially in the iOS App Store. It's nothing fancy, and I'm sure most of my software friends could code circles around me, but it's my little creation and I'd love to share it with everyone. So check it out in the App Store, and I'd love to hear any feedback (good or bad) that you may have. :)

SimpleTrack

What's Next

If you do download SimpleTrack, you may notice that it's listed as version 0.5. I did that because it's not quite where I want it to be to call it a 1.0. In fact, part of the reason I'm releasing it when I am is that Alison and I are both really eager to use it, and it's far enough along feature-wise that we can start using it for our own personal budgeting. But more things are coming in the future, so I thought I'd share them too.

iCloud Sync

iCloud sync in apps is something that's becoming standard fare these days, and for something like personal finances, I think it's important to have a good online backup in case something happens to your device. iCloud sync actually almost made it into my first release, but there are a few more things that I want to devote some time to, enough that I took it out for the time being. The other advantage of iCloud sync is that you can access your information from multiple devices, which will go great with...

iPad Version

I also plan to make an iPad specific interface, but I want to take my time with it. My thought is that with the iPhone version, its main purpose is to enter data quick and easily, but since the iPad has more room to use and tends to be more of a sit back device, I want to give it a little more functionality in terms of reviewing and manipulating data. I haven't quite decided what exactly that means yet, but I'm excited to play around and see what I can come up with.

Paid Version

As of right now, SimpleTrack is free, and will most likely remain so for at least the initial download. I'd like to implement some way to make money off the app, either via ads or an in app purchase that unlocks some extra functionality. I don't expect to make much money, if any, but it would be a nice next challenge for me as I continue learning. 

Other Suggestions and Enhancements

As I get feedback, I'll definitely make some tweaks and enhancements to help make things better while still keeping the focus on speed and simplicity. So, if you have any ideas, feel free to let me know.

Special Thanks

There's really only one person I want to say a special thanks to, and that's my amazing bride Alison. Through all of this, from the first book I bought to submitting my first app, she's been a constant support and encouragement, and I'm sure I'd have burned out long ago without her standing behind me keeping me going. Thanks Ali, I hope my little app can be as useful to you as your words have been to me. :)