When we began the BeanPay project we wanted to solve the problem of complexity in the personal budget space. We began by asking the question – How can budgeting be simplified such that the barrier of entry increases the likelihood of actively managing ones budget. This is a difficult problem to solve and there are many attempting – Google, Microsoft, Apple, Mint, to name a few.
After some contextual inquiry we realized there is a twofold problem – Firstly, the current payment system is outdated and not integrated well with technology, and secondly there is a significant delay in the feedback loop between making a purchase and seeing the balance sheet. Many existing solutions are setup for long term management of all aspects of personal finance such as loans, incomes retirement etc. But we wanted a solution that focused on the day to day transactions and discretionary spending. So BeanPay set out to solve a twofold problem – On the one hand improve the payment system, and on the other improve the availability of data needed for a user to make sound budget decisions.