// SOFTWARE · 2025–2026
LEDGER.
A manual-first personal finance platform: CSV import, custom categories and flexible budgets, built on the premise that reviewing transactions is the point.
// SPEC
ROLE
Sole designer and developer
WITH
Personal project
ORG
Independent
TOOLS
Supabase, Lovable
SKILLS
Database design, Interface design, Product design
// SHOWCASE
DEMO LINK — NOT SET- ▢ MEDIA SLOT 01image or video — add in the owner console
- ▢ MEDIA SLOT 02image or video — add in the owner console
§ 01
CONTEXT
Automated bank aggregation makes budgeting effortless and, in doing so, makes spending invisible. Ledger is built on the opposite premise: the act of reviewing and categorising a transaction is what preserves awareness.
§ 02
OBJECTIVES
- 01Keep transaction review an intentional user action
- 02Support custom categories and flexible budgets rather than fixed templates
- 03Let users compare spending across categories, months and past budgets
- 04Persist everything behind real authentication
§ 03
PROCESS
I built CSV transaction import and a review flow, user-defined categories, flexible budgets and historical dashboards for comparing expenditure across categories, months and previous budgets. Authentication and persistent storage for accounts, uploaded transactions, categories and budgets run on Supabase.
The product was developed through iterative AI-assisted prototyping with Lovable, translating a personal spreadsheet-based budgeting habit into working interfaces, database structures and refined user flows.
§ 04
DECISIONS
◆ DECISION LOG
Manual-first, permanently. Review remains a user action rather than something the system abstracts away.
§ 05
CHALLENGES
▲ FAILURE / RISK
Designing friction on purpose is hard to keep honest. Every convenience feature I considered adding — auto-categorisation, bank sync — would have quietly removed the behaviour the product exists to protect.
§ 06
OUTCOMES
● RESULT
A working, in-use budgeting platform grown out of a personal spreadsheet habit.
§ 07
REFLECTION
✎ NOTE TO SELF
Building it clarified that the product decision and the design decision were the same decision.