SmartClaim

Inspiration

We kept seeing how frustrated employees get when their claims take forever to process. You buy something for work, submit a receipt, and then nothing. Weeks go by, you follow up multiple times, and it creates unnecessary tension between employees and management. We thought there has to be a better way that doesn't make everyone miserable. So we built something to fix this and maybe save a few workplace relationships along the way.

What it does

SmartClaim makes submitting expense claims as easy as sending a WhatsApp message. Employees snap a photo of their receipt and send it to our AI bot. The bot processes everything and sends it straight to a web dashboard where admins can see it immediately. Admins can approve it (money gets transferred through Ryt Bank) or reject it with an explanation. No more claims disappearing into the void. Everyone knows what's happening, and things get done quickly.

How we built it

We went all in on Convex for the backend because we needed real time sync. The WhatsApp bot and web dashboard both connect directly to Convex, so when someone sends a claim through WhatsApp, it pops up on the admin's screen instantly. We hooked up Ryt Bank's API to handle money transfers, and Cursor AI was a lifesaver for speeding up our coding. Racing against the clock but these tools meant we could build something that actually works instead of a half baked demo.

Challenges we ran into

Nothing went according to plan. APIs didn't want to play nice with each other, we kept second guessing our UI decisions, and the clock was relentlessly ticking down. There were moments around 3am where we looked at each other like are we actually going to pull this off? But we kept going. Worked straight through until 5am because we didn't want to look back thinking we could've done more. Every hackathon has those moments where you want to give up, but we weren't going to be those people.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We built something that actually works. Not a prototype with smoke and mirrors, but a genuine application that does what we said it would. And we did it in one day, which still feels surreal. What we're most proud of is how we worked together. When someone hit a wall, someone else jumped in. When we were exhausted, we kept each other going. This hackathon showed us what we're capable of when we commit and have each other's backs.

What we learned

We can do way more than we thought we could. When everyone's giving 100%, you surprise yourself. We picked up Convex, got better with Cursor, and leveled up our development skills. But the biggest lesson is about mindset. When things get hard, you keep pushing. Good teammates make all the difference. We're taking all of this into whatever we build next.

What's next for SmartClaim

We want to turn this into a real product companies actually use. The plan is a monthly subscription that's cheaper than what companies lose in wasted time dealing with claims the old way. But it's not just about saving money, it's about making workplaces less frustrating. Happy employees who get their claims processed quickly are productive employees. We want to add more features, connect with other banks, and add analytics so companies can understand where their money's going. The dream is to make SmartClaim the obvious choice for any SME tired of the claims headache.

Built With

• convex
• cusor
• javascript
• react