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tonyennis.com
6 posts
2 months ago
Mini JS
5 posts
7 months ago
Atlas
15 posts
9 months ago
Letterbox
1 posts
9 months ago
html-first.com
2 posts
9 months ago
Clerk
15 posts
about 1 year ago
Clerk

  • Thinking about Clerk - now that I've used it for a while. Some thoughts

  • The three biggest things that prevent me from using it more:

    • Not having regular reminders - email/home screen widget

    • Sync breaking, and there not being an easy, predictable way to fix it.

    • Not having categorization work on auto pilot.

  • Some other observations

    • It's too heavy of a lift to do the monthly reconciliation consistently and move money in/out of vaults etc. But if vaults aren't the right way, then how do I segment out those buckets and have the costs in them not effect my GFS?

    • Having an income target is probably unnecessary in most cases, because:

      • Most people have fixed income anyway

      • Missing this target will show up in the other targets

    • Having a "Fixed Costs" target also feels kind of silly, given they're meant to be fixed, but it's also not super easy to understand if/how they fluctuate over time - see next point.

    • I keep wanting to see how I've done as a trend over time (e.g last 6 months), but right now I can only track progress on a month to month basis.

    • It's not easy to see and keep track of temporary outgoings (loans/deposits). Likewise temporary incomings

    • The new table-like target tracker has too much going on to feel useful on an ongoing basis.

    • The two questions I find myself repeatedly wanting to know are:

      • Am I on track to hit my targets with my current spending

      • Am I in danger of hitting zero before my next pay check

    • Both of these require some form of forecasting - having some idea when new costs will land.

  • Features

    • Add functioning "re-sync" button when a bank account sync is expiring.

    • Remind a user when sync is expiring in a month, have a one click link in the email (which bypasses login) to re-sync. Bump re-sync period up to 6 months.

    • OpenAI powered auto-categorization

    • Daily/weekly email with overview

    • Homescreen widget for iphone

    • Simpler target panels

    • Add ability to tag an incoming outgoing as temporary

Clerk

  • Updates

  • We now have 1. A new targets section on the month view, showing targets and actuals, 2. A new form for inputting targets, and 3. A new left navigation and new icons. I much prefer it this way but we'll see how the beta testers like it.

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  • Create and implement new animated modals

  • Mock up new potential designs for "Target" panel, showing more info per pane

  • Implement beginnings of the instant-load effect for the middle scroller, to give the feeling of snappiness when a link is clicked

  • Play with design for new low-fidelity section

  • Write up "How Clerk Works"

Streams
Clerk
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  • Improve display/behaviour of targets

    • Remove red/green borders on target panels

    • Remove red border on uncategorised

    • Show remaining per day

    • Click target panel to filter transactions, instead of collapsing inside a card

    • Get mobile looking/working reasonably well

      • Borders & padding

      • Add temporary bottom right menu button

Clerk

  • Test out new subtle color background

    • Copied from tailwindcss.com. My first impression is that I quite like this. Will let it sit for a while

  • Add red border to uncategorized transactions to incentivise users to categorize

  • Add sync button to the transactions home

Clerk

  • Clean/Organize categories section

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  • Made really great progress on the main overview screen on the plane home from Geneva.

  • Monthly overview section

  • The monthly overview allows you to get a birds eye view of how you've spent money in the months gone by, and quickly categorize transactions on a per transaction or batch basis.

  • By default, your transactions are broken down by category. Transactions with no category will be shown as "Uncategorized".

  • Clicking on any of the bars reveals a list of the transactions for that category

  • By default, the "Uncategorized" section is ordered by the transaction name, and the other sections are ordered by the day of the month.

Clerk

  • Fix Wise transaction enrichment bug

  • Enrich past wise transactions with no data

  • Start thinking about categorization

    • Best way to categorize for a period is likely:

      • Order by transaction name alphabetically (to group similar transactions)

      • Click and Drag to select a group

      • Once mouse is released, trigger input with autocomplete to apply category

    • Second option

      • Allow user to define buckets or categories up front.

      • Then use AI to auto categorise transactions, then give a UI to review and correct

Clerk