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Tiny Bank — A financial app for people with crazy money
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@dshan I definitely hear you. My wife and I currently use YNAB for our personal budgeting. We need it to do more though so that's what I'm building Tiny Bank into. I agree the value to cost ratio is not equal to YNAB at the moment but in time if I can afford to keep moving with the project, it will be, and then some.
This looks really nice. Has it been challenging keeping all the different bank connections working? My main issue with mint was that it was constantly "account disconnected, please fix", so I eventually gave up on it. Now I have a routine of checking several apps instead.
1 piece of feedback. Not sure "crazy money" is most accurate tagline for the problem you're solving. I interpret "crazy" as "has a crazy lot of money", rather than many accounts/organization issues. Although I can't think of anything better. But my initial impression was "this is an app for really rich people".
@mscccc I have had _some_ issue with it. I have around 7 accounts and one drops every 3-4 months but reconnecting takes all of 5 seconds so it hasn't been an issue.
Totally hear you on the tagline too. I'm currently wracking my brain and have been for the past few months for something better. If you ever come up with anything let me know.
@tyvdh @mscccc Stop wracking your brain and simplify it. "Your money all in one place" or something similar. You have a strong product with a unique niche - most of your growth in this market will be word of mouth between people who are already looking for this product.
In the early stage of adoption your goal with branding is to be polished, simple, and not confusing to the consumers who are already searching for you, because they know they have a problem and want to solve it.
As you evolve, so too will your marketing. Eventually you'll want to 'cross the chasm' from early adopters to a 'mainstream market' and this sector of people are ones who need convincing that they need your product. That's where more refined marketing will be required.
If brand/marketing are not your strong point then just keep it simple early on. Build a solid product that people will talk about and share.
Focus on targeting users like myself (and others here) who do have a specific need due to side projects. Once you ramp up you can hire someone to focus on your brand, but for the time being your job is to just be clear about the problem you solve.
(Oh and great work so far!)
@adamscochran wow thank you so much. I'm going to take this advice. I really appreciate your thoughtful response.
@adamscochran @tyvdh @mscccc Bravo. The line I tattoo onto everybody's forehead who works for us (I speak metaphorically) is: Don't be clever. Be clear.
Much success. :)
Interesting business model with a subscription revenue base instead of the transactional/affiliate that most other PMFs are going after. What was the thinking here? Do you think there is an inherent misalignment of incentives with other apps? Will you categorically not take revenue if/when you recommend credit cards and other financial products to users?
@realsimonburns I just want an app I love and would be happy paying for myself. I'm primarily interested in providing a great product, not getting rich off other people's data. Most existing models are distasteful to the end user and quite clearly use them rather then serving them. I'm definitely not the first platform to go the subscription route though, there are plenty.
@mrageeh Ah lol. Not yet. Plaid is focused on US banks at the moment so we're waiting on them to expand. :( Sorry
Here's the short list of my next main features.
• Create projects which can track a set of parameters. Like your latest side project or your wife’s jewelry business. (😘 Love you babe!)
• Full set of transaction manipulation tools. Things like transaction splitting, date changes and notes
• Budgeting. I know, seems like a basic feature, but I’m guessing you’ve already got a system of sorts in place for this and getting this right for the majority is harder then you might think
• Forecasting. Okay so we know what we spent last month, but what about next month or next year? Looking back is nice. Looking forward might be even nicer
• Goals. If budgeting is saving money for what you’ve spent in the past. Goals is saving money for what you’ll spend in the future
• List of recurring transactions. Nothing fancy here. I just want it, and so do you
Hello Product Hunt friends!
I committed my first line of Tiny Bank code nearly two years ago. After many false starts and do-overs, my ambitious side project went into beta earlier this year as an iOS and Android app. Today I’m thrilled to announce public availability for both of those apps as well as Tiny Bank for the web and a Messenger bot beta.
Tiny Bank is aiming to fill a gap between business management/finance software and personal budgeting/savings apps. This is for those of us with several personal bank and credit accounts (like my wife and I) and maybe a side project or two we need to keep track of. We’re not struggling with saving money as much as we are managing it. Combing the proverbial hair of our crazy and confusing finances.
Some Current Features:
• Connect with over 15,000 financial institutions
• A detailed, sortable, filterable table of your transactions
• Unique calendar panel highlighting when transactions were posted allowing you to zero in on specific days
• Export filtered CSV files of transactions. Great for importing into existing budgeting workflows
• See a great and glorious summary of all your connected bank accounts. This has really helped me stay on top of my credit and loan accounts
• Categorize your transactions
• Accounts synced multiple times a day keeping you abreast of your latest posted transactions
• 14 day free trial
• Don’t forget about the iOS and Android apps! Those are getting better on a weekly basis and are a gorgeous way to keep a tab on your money
• Messenger bot 🤖⚡️! Yeah it’s in beta and yeah it’s pretty basic but while I'm making it great it’s still pretty good.
@tyvdh Looks really compelling. I'm a long-time Mint user, despite years of frustration with the product. It still remains one of the better solutions out there. That said, I'd jump in a heartbeat. A few questions about roadmap:
• I've got 7+ years of Mint data. What's the chances you've found a magical way to export/import the data? (a user can dream)
• Data liberation: It looks like Tiny provides CSV output -- can we assume if we wanted to we could take ALL our data and go home?
• Any plans to either 'remember' transaction categorization and/or automate the categorization task?
• I do find the reporting in Mint to be pretty much inline with my needs... is reporting on your roadmap?
Looks great -- congrats on the launch!
@bmehling Thanks for reaching out!
1. Importing is definitely on the roadmap. I need it for my investment / cash accounts so dream on.. it's likely to come true.
2. The data belongs to you. You're paying me to organize and deliver it, not own it.
3. No. This is a core conviction of mine in how I think finances should be handled. You should be keeping an eye on your own money and where it goes on a regular basis, not a machine. I'll make it easy to put things where they should go, but you'll always be in charge of that.
4. Oh my goodness yes! You think Mint's reporting is good wait till I get some time to roll out mine. My day job is with Baremetrics as their frontend dev. Have you seen their graphs and charts? You're welcome. It's gonna be YUUUGE.
If this all sounds compelling would love to have you sign up for an account for at least the next few months so you can keep an eye on where things go and help me get it right!
@tyvdh
Thanks for all the details here -- I'm excited. I'll likely sign-up and start playing around w/ Tiny this weekend.
#3 -- if I might offer a counter-point. I don't think the idea of 'remembering' categories (or even auto-categorization) runs counter to your conviction.
My workflow is to allow transactions to flow in during the week. Every (well, most) Saturday mornings I review the last week's transactions and make sure the categorization and tags are accurately set.
The auto-categorization is helpful, but does require a watchful eye to catch errors. One annoyance w/ Mint is there's no way to see what's auto-categorized/unconfirmed.
The ability to "remember" transactions, and rename, categorize, tag, etc. is very useful for recurring transactions (why should I have to redo that work on the multitude of subscriptions, bills, mortgage payments, etc.?)
Anyway, just one user's opinion... (-: Thanks!
@bmehling Good point, and totally fair! What your describing is a bit different then what most people ask for when they request this feature. Your last point to recurring transactions is actually very close to a feature I have planned. It's less "automated" and more smart. You set up a set of filters or rules and then transactions move based on that. Kinda like smart folders in most email clients. Match these criteria.. go here.
Congrats on the launch Tyler! Super excited to see this go live into the world, what else do you have planned on the roadmap that you're excited about?
@charleyma Thanks! Couldn't do it without you! :P
For upcoming features take a look a couple comments above. Lots of good things in the pipeline.
As a part-time Mint user, how does this compare? From the screens I can see and the website, it looks like a much nicer skin of Mint.
@staticsteven It is definitely similar. The main difference is actually in where the product is going. Tiny Bank isn't primarily a budgeting app. It's money management for complex scenarios. Where Mint failed me was keeping track of my side projects as individual entities as well as just giving me one place to see all of my transactions both on the web and on mobile. I strongly suggest giving it a try for a few months, it's becoming a perfect balance between what I wanted out of Mint and YNAB.
I'm excited to play with Tiny Bank more. I see huge potential for it/with it and this is exactly what I've been looking for to manage all of the different accounts/cards alongside projects.
@barrettshepherd So great to have you on board. Have a good play with it and feel free to hit me up on the in app chat sometime!
Hey, cool tool. Do you only track in dollars? Do you connect with international banks? I earn an spend money both in USD and EUR (and soon a third currency), so my money is all over the place. Would love a tool to help me with this...
@benkimotwichell we're not there yet but long term you are exactly the type of customer I'd like to help. We're limited at the moment to Plaid's coverage which is US only but they tell me they're working on it. Once we get that multi currency support will be right there with it.
Where I can find the help section? FAQ? maybe a region availability page/map, giving a try 👍
@usrix We don't currently have a FAQ or region availability page but those are both great ideas!
@loaibassam If you've got any questions or feature requests be sure and hit me up on the in app chat
@loaibassam Haha well that's no good. Maybe give it another go? What email are you trying?
Tiny bank is now shutting down.
RIP.
Email from founder: Tyler at Tiny Bank
Tue, Apr 25, 2017 at 1:36 PM
________
I'll keep this short and sweet. After nearly three years, Tiny Bank is shutting down.
The team was small (just me), the profits were minimal and support was getting out of hand. I've long since stopped enjoying working on the project and I'm finally giving into what I should have admitted awhile back, it's time for this project to die.
If you're currently paying for Tiny Bank you can either reach out for a refund for any outstanding invoices or else login to Tiny Bank, reconnect your bank accounts (I've switch to Plaid's free tier) and carry on as before.
Finally if you're interested or know of someone who might be I'll be considering buy out offers for the entire project.
Thanks for the ride. Now on to the next adventure!
—
Tyler
Hey, @tyler anychance this is going to be supported in other countries such as Australia?
Love the concept and would be mega keen but live in Australia.
@aden_james_tranter definitely have hope for that. We're dependent on Plaid though for our ability to support international banks. They say they have plans to open support but we'll see when that is.
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