Budgeting for people without a paycheck

The problem

Tallyfield assumed a monthly paycheck. Its freelance users earn in lumps, so the app told them they were broke one week and rich the next.

My role

Lead product designer, one of two designers

Constraints

• The bank-connection layer could not change during the project.
• Two designers, four mobile engineers, one quarter.
• Existing users had years of category data that had to keep working.

Decision 01

Interviewed the people the app was failing

We talked to fourteen freelancers who had cancelled in the last six months instead of surveying active users.

Why

Active users had already adapted to the monthly model. The people who left could tell us where it broke.

Decision 02

Replaced the monthly budget with a weekly allowance

Income is pooled and released as a steady weekly amount, calculated from the trailing six months.

Why

Every interviewee described money in weeks, not months, because rent was the only monthly bill they thought about.

Decision 03

Made the home screen answer one question

The first screen shows a single number, safe to spend today, with the reserve and upcoming bills underneath.

Why

In testing, people opened the old dashboard, scanned four charts, and still asked us whether they could buy groceries.

Decision 04

Let big invoices fill the reserve on their own

When a payment is more than twice the weekly allowance, the app proposes moving the surplus into the reserve with one tap.

Why

Automatic moves felt like losing control; a proposal kept the person in charge and still made saving the default.