Daily Income and Expense Book
How do I make an app to track my shop's daily income and expenses?
Say in Bangla what you want to record each day and the builder makes an accounts book where you enter a date, a category and an amount, and the daily and monthly totals work themselves out. The entries normally stay inside that one phone or computer; with cloud data on the Business plan, every device shows the same book. Download a CSV now and then to keep them.
What you are building
A plain book that opens on your phone. At the end of the day you sit down and write what you sold and what you spent, such as buying stock, shop rent, the electricity bill, transport. When you are done it shows by itself what came in today, what went out, and what is left in hand. The month's totals sit right beside it.
One thing has to be said plainly here, because finding out later hurts. Whatever you write stays inside that one phone or computer. That means what you type on your phone will not appear on the shop computer, and if your employee opens it on his phone he sees his own empty book. So this book belongs to one person, on one device. If the phone is lost, or the browser's stored data is cleared, the entries go with it. That is exactly why the CSV habit below matters.
Step by step
Step 1: In the Builder give it a name such as My Shop Accounts, then press Start building.
Step 2: Think about which categories your spending falls into. Five or six is plenty, because too many categories make you lazy about writing anything down.
Step 3: Say in Bangla what you want.
Build a daily income and expense book for my shop. At the top a row where I enter a date, a category, an amount and a short note, then add it. The categories are sales, buying stock, shop rent, electricity bill, transport, other. Below that a list of everything written today, and in large text today's total income, total expense and cash in hand. Show this month's totals beside it too. Give me a button that downloads all the entries as a CSV. All the text in Bangla, currency sign ৳.
Step 4: Press Send. When the page appears, put in two or three pretend lines and check the totals come out right.
Step 5: Ask for the page to be built so it can sit on your phone's home screen, so it opens like an app in one tap and works with no internet. Remember this only works after you Publish, not while you are just previewing.
Step 6: For small changes, one line is enough.
Make the categories into big buttons so I can tap instead of typing, and add a button to delete a wrong line.
Step 7: At least once a week press the CSV button. When the file downloads, mail it to yourself or copy it onto a computer. That is your real safety net, and the file opens in Excel or Google Sheets for any calculation you like.
Ways to make it better
- If you sell on credit, ask for a separate list of who owes you how much, with names and amounts.
- Ask for a box to pick a month, so seeing last month does not mean scrolling through every line.
- Ask for a small coloured chart showing which category eats the most money. Once you can see it, you notice it.
- Ask for a button that downloads the day's totals as an image, which you can send to a partner or someone at home.
- Write at a fixed time each night, for example right after you close. The habit is what matters, not the app.
Mistakes many people make
- Never downloading the CSV. The day a phone is lost is the day people learn how big that mistake was.
- Two people writing on two phones and expecting the books to merge. They do not, each device has its own book. Let one person write.
- Clearing all the browser's stored data, or opening it in a private window. The entries cannot be brought back after that.
- Leaving a big expense to be written later. A week on you no longer remember it, and the month refuses to add up.
What to do next
After a month of writing regularly, open the CSV file and you will see for yourself where the money leaks out. Then you can change the categories to suit you, just tell the builder. Build the receipt page as well, and you will have both the sales paper and the accounts book in your own hands.
Beginner questions
Can I delete a wrong entry?
Yes, ask for a delete control beside each entry; removing one fixes the totals instantly.
Could someone else see my accounts?
No. The numbers live on your phone, and without your link nobody even reaches the app.
If I lose the phone, do I lose the accounts?
Data stored on a phone goes with the phone. Download a CSV now and then, that file is your backup.