• Ivan Kot , Customer Acquisition Director IT Solution Manager at Itransition


• 16.07.2021 03:45 pm
management

The personal finance industry is booming right now, bolstered by a smashing $44.1 billion funding the year before. Everyone wants their share of the pie — there are over 5,700 fintech startups in the Americas alone! 

With competition this fierce, your financial management software will need something extra to stand out. Read on as we take you through seven essentials of personal finance software that rises above the competition.

Seamless onboarding

Use interactive onboarding to help them get familiar with the interface. The first run can include a tour of the essential functionalities or pop-up tooltips for basic buttons and menus. It's also a perfect occasion to personalize user experience with your software. At this step, allow users to define how much they want to save, choose spending categories to cut down on, and set up their financial goals. 

A clutter-free layout

There are plenty of ways to avoid a messy and overwhelming interface. Generous use of white space will keep the dashboards clean and free from distractions, a palette of customizable colors will help differentiate between spending categories, and complex financial data will look much friendlier as a chart. Another good idea is to draw inspiration from social media apps — their scroll and swipe layouts are intuitive and familiar to many users.

Gamification

Depending on your target audience, you can add just one game element or go wild. Here are some suggestions:

• Points — they can be awarded for achieving financial goals and turned in for in-app visual improvements.

• Leaderboards — allow users to compete and compare their savings with friends.

• Badges — a token of achievement that will make every dollar saved feel even better.

Customizable experience

Personalization options can range from adding custom features to configuring standard settings. For instance, you can add the option to disable unused features, create and track custom spending categories, or set notifications about upcoming payments, low balance, and exceeded limits. When it comes to looks, it is a good idea to offer your users a selection of styles and themes, a variety of virtual card designs, and custom logos for wallets. 

Automation

From the user's perspective, several crucial areas of personal finance management can be enhanced through automation. These include credit monitoring, budget management, bill payments, and contributions, among others. Automation also does a great job at performing small but crucial tasks humans tend to forget about. Things like backing up data, syncing with external drives, and generating periodic financial reports can all be streamlined via automation. 

AI solutions

Leveraging the power of AI in fintech lets you push automation even further. For example, an AI-powered chatbot can act as a personal financial coach, offering data-driven budgeting tips. By accessing personal spending preferences and processing large quantities of information, AI makes for a perfect advisor in making user-specific decisions, such as choosing the right insurance plan or investment product.

AI can also serve as an additional safety measure. The ability to learn patterns and recognize abnormal behavior allows it to detect fraud attempts and notify the user as those occur.

Cross-platform support

While creating fintech software, you need to look beyond the usual desktop-mobile duo and account for other devices.

Smartwatches, wristbands, and even smart eyewear open up exciting new ways for fintech software to be used, especially when it comes to quick, contextual actions. They can, for instance, notify users when a promotion or loyalty discount is available and allow them to check account balance on the fly.