Very creative. Love the idea of using gsheets as the back-end so you can leverage the power of spreadsheets (which were basically designed for use cases like aggregating transactions!)
I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
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Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#12I admire how you've managed to do this easily (and avoid writing code for everything). But the fact that you have to do it shows how broken and lethargic banks have become.
In the UK, they are starting to wake up. The new "challenger" banks which exist here all do this as a hygiene feature - see Monzo, Starling, Revolut. With Open Banking mandating open APIs for all banks, this will become the norm soon. The fact that American banks and regulation hasn't jumped on this is a symptom of something very wrong with the system.
I sincerely hope the launch of Apple Card or similar services disrupt consumer finance in the US as well and set a new bar. And when the above mentioned banks come to the US (which they are currently working on), you should absolutely switch and delete the 100 lines of python as well.
Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#13Very cool. Using email notifications to get transaction data is a nice hack. If you do find yourself wanting a more formal API, check out Plaid (https://plaid.com/). I've never used it myself, but I believe the free plan is enough to get your personal transactions.
Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#14Very cool. Using email notifications to get transaction data is a nice hack. If you do find yourself wanting a more formal API, check out Plaid ( https://plaid.com/ ). I've never used it myself, but I believe the free plan is enough to get your personal transactions.
My bank doesn't provide an API. So I just automated a headless browser to log into my account and download the statements.
Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#15An easy way to take this to the next level (and be truly no-code) is: https://www.tillerhq.com/
I love being able to continue using Google Sheets shortcuts + automation features. It allows me to generate well-formed reports that I can analyze with pivot tables or any of my normal processes that I use for analyzing datasets.
Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#16I admire how you've managed to do this easily (and avoid writing code for everything). But the fact that you have to do it shows how broken and lethargic banks have become. In the UK, they are starting to wake up. The new "challenger" banks which exist here all do this as a hygiene feature - see Monzo, Starling, Revolut. With Open Banking mandating open APIs for all banks, this will become the norm soon. The fact tha…
Banking in the US is utterly ridiculous. In Europe, if you need to move up to 100,000E in a day, you can do it with a few clicks or taps, and maybe a card reader that they already gave you.
In the US, you have to use a wire transfer is you're moving more than about $4,000. And wires cost a lot of money. And they aren't even instant even though they are billed that way.
I had to move some money from one account I own to another, and I needed it there the same day. The only way to make it happen was to drive 15 minutes to the origin bank, spend 15 minutes filling out a paper form in the branch, which was then faxed to the central processing center. Then I had to call the center center every hour to see if they'd gotten to it yet. When they finally did do it, I had to call the receiving bank with the tracking number and tell them, and then they had to find it on their side, which took a couple minutes, before it was finally processed.
From the time I finished filling out the "instant" wire form (and paying $45!) to the time it hit my other account was over three hours! And that was after the initial 30 minute delay of driving to the bank and filling out a paper form.
Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#17What about Mint?
Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#18I admire how you've managed to do this easily (and avoid writing code for everything). But the fact that you have to do it shows how broken and lethargic banks have become. In the UK, they are starting to wake up. The new "challenger" banks which exist here all do this as a hygiene feature - see Monzo, Starling, Revolut. With Open Banking mandating open APIs for all banks, this will become the norm soon. The fact tha…
Banking in the US is utterly ridiculous. In Europe, if you need to move up to 100,000E in a day, you can do it with a few clicks or taps, and maybe a card reader that they already gave you. In the US, you have to use a wire transfer is you're moving more than about $4,000. And wires cost a lot of money. And they aren't even instant even though they are billed that way. I had to move some money from one account I own…
I have been in a similar situation and to me it's one of the main reasons why we need cryptocurrencies.
Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#19For anyone who wants to do things like double-entry accounting with transaction splits (e.g., properly encode an Amazon order for 5 different items from different expense categories, that're paid for by a mix of rewards points, Gift Card balance, and CC), there's GnuCash.
You can also do things like record transactions yourself, update with downloaded data, and reconcile against monthly statements (as another way of catching discrepancies).
You can make custom reports with charts. I used these, for example, for comparing how much I spent buying coffee every day, vs. how much I spent on every cost that goes into making coffee at home, when I tried that for a while.
There's also features for tracking investments, including automatic updates of market prices.
And, if you're a small business, you can build and generate invoices (including building the invoice over multiple days), and track accounts receivable.
Warning: GnuCash can be a significant investment of time. I eventually decided it was no longer worth it for me, though I might someday resume it.
Other Warning: If you have retirement accounts or other investments in GnuCash, consider hiding them from view, which GnuCash lets you do with any account. Bogleheads-style, US people probably want to keep contributing to a predetermined balance of total-market stocks and bonds, automatically, and not think about it, especially when there's market fluctuations.
Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python
#20I admire how you've managed to do this easily (and avoid writing code for everything). But the fact that you have to do it shows how broken and lethargic banks have become. In the UK, they are starting to wake up. The new "challenger" banks which exist here all do this as a hygiene feature - see Monzo, Starling, Revolut. With Open Banking mandating open APIs for all banks, this will become the norm soon. The fact tha…
Banking in the US is utterly ridiculous. In Europe, if you need to move up to 100,000E in a day, you can do it with a few clicks or taps, and maybe a card reader that they already gave you. In the US, you have to use a wire transfer is you're moving more than about $4,000. And wires cost a lot of money. And they aren't even instant even though they are billed that way. I had to move some money from one account I own…
You can now do an instant ACH transfer of 5000 or less with Chase. Takes about 5 minutes. I do it between Chase and BofA.