Spendify

Inspiration

As freshmen, we uncovered a new form of financial independence when we moved into college. As we hadn’t really thought about where our money was going before, we realized that a budgeting tool would be very useful in our daily lives. Atlassian’s Jira, already equipped with tracking features, seemed perfect to host this project.

What it does

So, we created Spendify. Spendify is a student-focused expense tracking app that uses Forge to build on Atlassian’s Jira. It helps college students track their expenses under various customizable categories (e.g. food, transport, entertainment) as well as helps them visualize their monthly spending. These graphics help students better understand where their money is going. Additionally, Spendify features a personalized AI-powered chatbot that can analyze your spending and suggest money-saving strategies. Spendify empowers students to manage their finances better, setting them up for long-term financial independence. Key features:

Categorical Expense Tracking: Allows students to track their spending across various categories.
Visualized Expense Charts: Interactive charts (pie, bar, etc.) allow students to visualize their spending habits.
Personalized AI Chatbot (College Money Coach): Analyzes spending (Jira issues) and makes recommendations appropriate for budgeting.

How we built it

We built Spendify on Atlassian’s Jira using Forge. We utilized technologies such as HTML, JSX, JavaScript, and JSON to create our code. Our custom dashboard and UI was designed with CSS. The interactive charts were built with Chart.js. We stored the inputted data using Forge’s storage API, as well as implemented the backend with Forge resolver.

For the AI component, we integrated Rovo AI to power a personalized chatbot. This chatbot provides students with analysis of their spending habits and answers any questions they might have on budgeting. We trained the Rovo AI on a finance prompt to ensure it works efficiently.

We built Spendify on Atlassian Jira using Forge, leveraging web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, and JSX. A custom dashboard was created to organize expenses, visualize data, and provide a smooth user experience. Interactive graphs and charts were implemented to give students clear insights into their spending patterns. Along the way, we worked with Forge manifests and JSON configuration files. We also heavily worked with the terminal in VSCode to run commands.

The combination of creating the UI, AI-integration, and Jira extension allowed us to develop a functional student-friendly financial tracking tool.

Challenges we ran into

One large challenge we faced was issues with Forge installation, as it was very hard to connect and deploy code to Jira. It was our first time working heavily in the terminal, so we had to learn the command prompts. Furthermore, we all got stuck on how and where our gadget/app would show up in Jira, as it would often say that it wasn’t configured, so we had to add a new configure.html file to fix this. For example, we ran into version issues as our UI and backend were built on two different versions of Forge. Finally, it was difficult to connect our backend and its resolver to the frontend file and take our basic product to one that is functional. Another challenge we faced was the scope of our project. We initially thought we could include gamification in our final project during the time of the hackathon, but realized it would need to be a future step.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

As this was the first time every member of our team has ever participated in a hackathon, we're very proud of the determination, hard world, and problem-solving mindset we brought into DubHacks! We'd also never utilized any Atlassian products such as Forge Jira before, so we were proud of our utility of those features, especially in learning how to build and deploy a working Jira dashboard and app from scratch! Ultimately, we were able to push our first Atlassian integration, gain experience in product design, and implement Forge and Rovo Agents, so we're very proud of everything we learned in the process!

What we learned

Throughout this project, we gained a deeper understanding of how to develop apps on Atlassian’s Forge platform and integrate them with Jira. We learned to navigate the Forge manifest structure, manage authentication, and connect front-end interfaces to backend resolvers. Furthermore, beyond the technical side, we also learned to collaborate effectively as a team using Git and version control, organize our tasks with Jira itself, and think about UI design. Ultimately, we learned to use our technical skills in coding to address a real-world issue of financial management for college students. Finally, we explored the fundamentals of AI integration using Rovo AI, especially how to design financial prompts and interpret user data responsibly and securely. This gave us insight into balancing technical feasibility with ethical and privacy considerations in fintech development.

What's next for Spendify

Now, we want to scale Spendify into a fully deployable app that can be used by students across UW. For this, we’ve come up with the following action plan:

We will enhance Spendify’s AI capabilities, improving the chatbot’s recommendation engine by incorporating spending prediction models and budgeting tips that tailor to the specific user’s spending habits.
We will add social and gamified features to enable students to set shared saving goals and spending challenges with friends and improve interactiveness with our product.
We will improve the user interface by polishing the dashboard experience with smoother animations and enhanced data visualizations. Spendify has the potential to expand to other college campuses around the world as most college students need help managing their finances. The entrepreneurial expansion opportunities are tremendous. Ultimately, we aim to transform Spendify into a staple go-to financial wellness companion for students, helping them cultivate responsible money habits early in life.