Why I built Trackly when expense trackers already existed

Adapted into English from an interview with Trackly’s founder, originally given in Italian. The first-person account below reflects her experience.

I built Trackly because I needed to keep track of my own expenses. That sounds like an ordinary reason to make an app. It is. The interesting part came before building it, when I assumed there would be no need.

Surely I could find an expense tracker that did what I wanted. There were already plenty to try. I wanted to record what I spent and see what remained, without giving the process a large place in my day.

Some of the apps I tried felt old-fashioned. But the larger problem was how much they asked me to remember. I still had to open the app and enter each expense manually. If I did not do it when I paid, I needed to remember later. Sometimes that meant setting aside time just to catch up.

That was the problem I wanted to solve. Recording an expense should be something I can do when the expense is still in front of me.

The moment that matters

Think about finishing the grocery shopping. You have the bags in your hands. You put them down for a moment, record what you spent, and carry on.

That scene is the reason Apple Watch capture matters so much to Trackly. It puts a way to capture the expense on your wrist, close to the moment you paid. A watch-face complication can open the recording flow without making you search through your phone.

In the Watch flow, the phone handles transcription. The free flow lets you review the recognized amount, merchant, and category on the watch before confirming. Pro classifies and saves the expense automatically. Those are different levels of assistance, but the purpose is the same: make recording fit the purchase.

There are practical limits. The watch works with the phone, and an unavailable connection can delay processing. Speaking into your watch will not suit every place or every person. Those details matter because a useful shortcut needs to work in the circumstances where you would actually use it.

I do not see Apple Watch as a decorative extra in a list of features. It is one of the clearest expressions of why I wanted to build this app.

Seeing is part of tracking

Capture is only half the job. After recording purchases, I want the information to be easy to see.

A spending total buried inside an app asks for another deliberate visit. Widgets and complications can bring that information into places you already look. Trackly includes views for what remains, today's spending, and recent expenses, alongside a quick way back into capture.

That visibility should serve a straightforward question: what have I spent, and what remains? A person should be able to find an answer without reading a financial report.

You do not need an Apple Watch for that idea to make sense. Phone widgets are part of the same approach. The device may change; the relationship between recording and seeing stays central.

An everyday job deserves an everyday price

Affordability was another reason I wanted to make Trackly.

When someone is trying to pay closer attention to spending, the price of the tool belongs in the conversation. A subscription has to justify its place among the other expenses that person already has. I wanted the useful parts of this experience to be economically accessible.

That does not mean software costs nothing to build or maintain. Automatic categorization provides a real service. It means I want the paid offer to remain proportionate to the ordinary job people are hiring the app to do.

The same principle applies to complexity. A student, a worker, or someone keeping an eye on a month's flexible spending may want a clear limit and a quick record of purchases. That is a complete need in its own right. It does not have to become an interest in managing every part of personal finance.

Some people need a much broader financial tool. Their requirements are real, too. Trackly starts with the everyday spending task because that is the task I wanted help with myself.

I cannot promise that an app will create a lasting habit for everyone. What I can do is take the difficulty of recording seriously: ask whether entry takes too much effort, whether the information is close enough, and whether the price makes sense. The shopping bags can stay the main event.