Splitzy

Inspiration

Tracking and splitting expenses can often be a source of stress, confusion, and awkwardness, especially in group settings like trips, events, or shared living situations. We were inspired by the common challenge of dealing with the complexity of finances and wanted to create a solution that’s simple, transparent, and collaborative. Our goal is to eliminate the financial stress in group activities so that users can focus on enjoying their time together, without the burden of wondering who owes whom or keeping track of complex calculations. Splitzy aims to make the financial side of group interactions seamless and social.

What it does

Splitzy is a dynamic tool designed for groups to input their expenses on a shared page, automatically calculating who owes what and to whom, all in real-time. With an AI chatbot guiding users throughout the process, Splitzy ensures everything is clear, intuitive, and easy to follow. Whether you're planning a weekend getaway, hosting a party, or managing a shared household budget, Splitzy simplifies expense tracking, providing transparent calculations and ensuring everyone stays on the same page.

How we built it

We built Splitzy with collaboration at the heart of the design. On the front-end, we focused on creating a simple, intuitive interface using HTML, ensuring that users could easily input and view their expenses. On the back-end, we chose Flask and Python for their flexibility and scalability. We integrated an AI chatbot to make the process more interactive, helping users track expenses and guiding them through any confusion. One of the biggest technical decisions we made was switching from Google Cloud Console to Gemini last-minute due to technical difficulties, and we found Gemini to be a more efficient solution that better supported our goal of smooth, real-time collaboration. This transition allowed us to quickly deploy the application and provide a better experience for users.

Challenges we ran into

During development, we encountered several technical challenges, especially with ensuring real-time updates and maintaining the accuracy of calculations across multiple users. The integration of dynamic user inputs, including instant updates to the expense list, was a tricky hurdle, but we solved it by optimizing the back-end with Flask and real-time syncing capabilities. The biggest hurdle came when we struggled with Google Cloud Console, which led us to a last-minute switch to Gemini. This change improved our deployment process and streamlined collaborative features. Integrating the AI chatbot seamlessly while maintaining a smooth user experience was another challenge, but we successfully ensured the bot added value without feeling intrusive.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re extremely proud of how quickly we were able to build and deploy a functional prototype, especially given the technical hurdles we faced. The real-time expense tracking feature, combined with dynamic cost-splitting, is something we’re particularly excited about. It’s both practical and fun, transforming a traditionally tedious task into a collaborative activity. Additionally, the integration of the AI chatbot makes the process more interactive and user-friendly, ensuring that even those unfamiliar with the app can use it effortlessly. We are also proud of how we pivoted with the switch to Gemini, which allowed us to focus on creating an app that was both scalable and effective for collaborative use.

What we learned

Through the process, we learned the importance of a seamless, collaborative user experience—especially when it comes to tools that need to work in real-time. We gained experience with working under pressure in a hackathon environment and learned how to work with different back-end technologies, integrating real-time data synchronization and AI. We also deepened our understanding of how crucial it is to keep the user journey as simple and intuitive as possible, even when the back-end processes are complex. Our decision to switch to Gemini and the resulting improvements taught us the value of flexibility and adaptability in the development process.

What's next for Splitzy

Moving forward, Splitzy will evolve to further enhance collaboration and improve user experience. We plan to introduce multi-currency support, customizable categories for expenses, and deeper AI functionality, such as automatic expense suggestions based on spending patterns. We’re also working on adding an in-app messaging or commenting feature, so users can collaborate even more effectively by discussing or negotiating expenses directly within the app. Additionally, we plan to add recurring email reminders to ensure that group members stay on track with payments. These features will make Splitzy even more useful for group projects, social events, or ongoing household expenses. Our ultimate goal is to launch Splitzy for broader user testing and gather feedback to refine scalability and enhance the platform's ability to support digital collaboration in an increasingly connected world.