Financify

Inspiration

We were inspired by our own financial struggles as college students. Between balancing coursework, a social life, extracurriculars, and hobbies, we often found ourselves unable to keep track of just how much money we really were spending every day.

What it does

Users can upload their bank statements and receive a visual summary of their spending split into categories such as food, entertainment, etc. Users can also upload more detailed personal and financial information to receive a list of loans they are eligible to apply to.

How we built it

We built the backend using FastAPI, Uvicorn, and pytesseract + Pillow, and Next.js, React.js, and TypeScript for the frontend.. We also integrated a MongoDB database into the backend and utilized Pydantic models in order to store user information.

Challenges we ran into

The main challenge we faced was integrating the AI model that parsed the bank statements into the backend and frontend. We also ran into some database configuration problems that prevented the server from connecting to our MongoDB database.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud of building an application that is relevant to our lives and actually helps us make better financial decisions. We are also proud of implementing an aesthetically pleasing and interactive front end interface. It’s not only a platform that is functional and efficient, it is also engaging, user-friendly, and educational.

What we learned

We learned how to integrate third-party APIs into a functional application. For instance, we used the Gemini API to categorize and sort purchases, giving users clearer insights into their spending habits. We also learned how to use models like pytesseract to extract text from images.

What's next for Financify

Utilizing what we already have, we would like to implement a scholarship suggester that considers a user’s eligibility for certain scholarships (age requirements, race, education level, etc.). Financify would act as a one-stop-shop for students who are serious about managing their finances.