The Problem

Financial management tools are everywhere, but they're all built with the same assumptions: that you have a stable income, a clear tax situation, and you want to give a Silicon Valley company access to your banking data.

As an indie developer and solo founder, none of these assumptions apply to me. My income is irregular. My business structure is fluid. And the idea of sending my financial data to a third-party SaaS just to track my spending feels like a security risk I shouldn't have to take.

I've tried them all:

• Quickbooks: Overkill, expensive, and designed for accountants
• YNAB: Great philosophy, but limited for business accounting
• Personal spreadsheets: Flexible, but no consistency or insights
• Banking app dashboards: Fragmented, limited to single currencies

The common thread? They're all designed for a different person than me.

The Indie Developer's Finance Problem

Building a solo product business means wearing many hats: founder, engineer, designer, marketer, and yes—accountant.

Your money flows are complex:

• Income from product sales
• Income from freelance work
• International payments (Stripe, Wise, direct transfers)
• Expenses across multiple categories (tools, hosting, marketing, taxes)
• Currency conversions happening in real time
• Tax obligations that change based on jurisdiction

And you need to understand it all in real time, without waiting for a monthly reconciliation or sending spreadsheets to an accountant.

The deeper problem isn't just complexity—it's that existing tools force a tradeoff: either you get useful automation and hand over your banking credentials, or you keep your privacy and live in spreadsheet hell. That's a false choice. You shouldn't have to compromise your financial data just to get a clear picture of your business.

Who I'm Building This For

After talking to a lot of freelancers and founders, three distinct groups keep coming up:

Freelancers and solo founders juggling 5–10 clients, irregular income streams, and multi-currency payments. They need financial clarity without the overhead of accounting software built for teams.

Privacy-conscious professionals who refuse to link bank accounts to third-party apps. They want complete control over their data, transparent data handling, and the ability to delete everything on demand.

Small business owners who need simplified profit and loss visibility, recurring expense tracking, and clean reports for tax time—without the complexity of enterprise tools.

What all three have in common: they're underserved by every tool currently on the market.

Building in Public

That's why I'm building myClerkBook.

It's not trying to be Quickbooks or YNAB. It's solving a specific problem for specific people: solo builders who need to understand their finances, keep their data private, and make decisions fast.

The philosophy:

1. Privacy first: No bank linking required—ever. Manual entry with AI-powered document parsing means your financial data never gets shared without your explicit consent.
2. For indies: Built for irregular income, multiple projects, multi-currency, and freelance work.
3. AI-powered, not AI-dependent: Upload a receipt or invoice and the AI extracts the amount, vendor, date, and category. You review, confirm, and move on.
4. Multiple dashboards: Run a freelance business alongside a side project? Each gets its own dashboard with independent tracking, its own currency, and its own income/expense history.
5. Real-time visibility: Cash flow alerts, spending summaries, and upcoming expense reminders—so you always know where you stand.

The stack:

• Frontend: Next.js (web), Expo (iOS/Android coming later)
• Backend: Supabase (PostgreSQL, auth, file storage)
• AI: Claude API for smart categorization, document parsing, and insights
• Payments: Polar for subscription management
• Notifications: Resend (email), Twilio (SMS and WhatsApp for premium users)
• Design: Built for speed and clarity, not flashiness

What the MVP Looks Like

The core feature set I'm shipping first:

• Manual income and expense entry with smart suggestions and auto-complete
• AI document parsing: upload a receipt, invoice, or bank statement image and the key fields are extracted automatically
• Custom groups (categories): create your own, not locked into preset buckets
• Recurring transactions: weekly, monthly, or yearly—so subscription costs and retainer income don't get forgotten
• Dashboard with widgets: drag-and-drop customizable widgets with real-time data
• Multi-currency support: 50+ currencies, set per dashboard
• Email notifications: upcoming expense alerts, cash flow warnings, weekly summaries

Premium features (unlocked at $10/month) add multiple dashboards, SMS and WhatsApp notifications, and advanced API connections in the widget section.

There's a 7-day free trial on the premium plan—no credit card games, no bait-and-switch.

The Honest Tradeoffs

Manual entry is a real commitment. The whole premise only works if you stay consistent with it. I'm not going to pretend that's zero friction—it is. But for people who've already decided they don't want to link their bank account, it's a workflow that works.

AI parsing helps close that gap significantly. Snap a photo of a receipt, upload an invoice PDF, and most of the work is done. But it's still a tool that requires you to show up for your finances. For the people myClerkBook is built for, that's a feature, not a bug.

What's Next

I'm shipping updates every week on @miisodev and writing about the journey here.

If you're a freelancer, solo founder, or just someone who wants financial clarity without the privacy compromise—check out myClerkBook and tell me what you think.

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