Finly App — Personal Finance Solution
Finly App is a cross-platform personal finance solution that empowers Gen Z and millennial users to track their spending, manage subscriptions, set savings goals, and gain real-time financial insights. It has a secure and intuitive user experience across web and mobile platforms that makes Finly App a go-to solution for our client’s target users.
TEAM
16 Members
STARTED IN
2024
FINISHED IN
10 months
Country
USA
Industry
FinTech
OVERVIEW
About the business
Cortex Finance is a large US-based fintech company developing intelligent digital tools that empower users to better manage, save, and plan their personal finances. Cortex Finance has been building secure, scalable solutions for the American market for years. Their target users are younger audiences who seek solutions with mobile-first, intuitive experiences.
With a growing portfolio of B2C products, the company decided to build and launch a brand new solution called Finly App. It should be a cross-platform personal finance platform designed to become the industry’s top player. The idea behind the solution was to provide users with a multifunctional app that will let them manage their finances effortlessly.
Being an expert in fintech development, we set out to create Finly App and release it in under 10 months.
OVERVIEW
Project tasks and challenges
Our client needed a secure, mobile-first solution that could compete with top-tier personal finance apps already available on the market. The solution should also be ready to scale over time. The project scope covered full-cycle product development - from discovery to MVP release and post-launch evolution.
Key tasks our team completed included the following:
- Delivering an MVP within tight timelines. The goal was to design, build, and launch a functional MVP that offered real user value. It should include budgeting, savings, and subscription management tools.
- Designing a mobile-first experience. To meet the expectations of millennial and Gen Z users, we should design an intuitive and gamified UI/UX with lightweight flows and engaging visuals.
- Building a cross-platform product. To optimize development speed and consistency, we decided to use React for web and React Native for mobile development, sharing business logic and UI components via TypeScript and Redux Toolkit.
- Integrating real-time account aggregation through Plaid. Our team needed to conduct an in-depth technical research to ensure smooth and secure integration with external financial APIs like Plaid, enabling users to sync multiple bank accounts and view balances in real time.
- Implementing smart financial tools. The client asked us to deliver a rich set of features, including savings goals, transaction categorization, budgeting thresholds, cash flow forecasting, and bill management.
- Ensuring security and regulatory compliance. All data flows should be protected with AES-256 encryption, biometric authentication, and OAuth2. We also needed to ensure alignment with US data protection standards and fintech compliance requirements.
- Scaling the product based on user feedback. Post-launch, our team should help the client to evolve Finly by analyzing user behavioral data and implementing improvements accordingly.
OVERVIEW
Project team
• Project Manager
• Business Analyst
• 2 UX/UI Designers
• 2 Front-end Developers
• 3 Mobile Developers
• 3 Back-end Engineers
• 3 QA Engineers
• Solution Architect
6
months for Discovery & Design
9
months for Development &
Testing
React.js
React Native
TypeScript
Node.js
Nest.Js
PostgresQL
Redis
Plaid API
Stripe
Docker
AWS
OAuth 2.0
Redux
PLATFORM FEATURES
Platform Features
Bank Account 
& Card Aggregation
Finly offers a secure integration with multiple banks and credit cards using Plaid and Stripe, automatically categorizes spending with AI, supports manual and split transactions, and handles multiple currencies with real-time exchange rates.
Budgeting 
& Financial Analytics
We added advanced tools helping app users to create budgets with individual caps per category, compare their spending trends, set budget limits and get notifications when they approach or exceed those limits.
Bill & Subscription Management
This feature was designed to let users perform calendar-based planning, benefit from smart detection of subscriptions, get payment alerts, and monthly summary reports to stay on top of their recurring expenses.
Savings & Investment Features
We integrated smart tools and progress visualizations to make savings and investment management more engaging and simple, and help users set daily/weekly savings rules and goals.
Security & Support
To ensure high level of security, we added biometric authentication, AES-256 encryption in transit and at rest, and instant alerts if large or unusual transactions are detected across accounts.
PLATFORM FEATURES
Bank Account & Card Aggregation
To give users full control and visibility over their finances, we designed a robust bank account and card aggregation feature that unites financial data from multiple sources in one intuitive interface.
We enabled users to:
- Securely connect bank accounts and credit cards using trusted third-party APIs like Plaid and Yodlee.
- Automatically categorize transactions using AI-driven labelling, while leaving the option to perform manual edits and the creation of custom transaction labels.
- Add manual transactions or split payments across categories - for example, assigning half of a purchase to personal expenses and the other half to business.
- Track spending across multiple currencies with live exchange rate updates, simplifying global finance management for frequent travelers and users leaving abroad.
Finly App. Bank Account & Card Aggregation
PLATFORM FEATURES
Budgeting & Financial Analytics
Finly helps users take full control of their financial habits with powerful, easy-to-use budgeting and analytics tools. Whether they're managing a personal budget or shared household expenses, Finly offers insights and alerts to keep users updated on their expenses.
Here is what functionality we added:
- Option to create monthly, weekly, or custom-period budgets with individual caps per category.
- Visual dashboards to compare spending trends across days, weeks, months, and years.
- Balance forecasting and cash flow projection to predict future account balances based on recurring income and expenses.
- Real-time push notifications when approaching or exceeding a set budget limit
Finly App. Budgeting & Financial Analytics
PLATFORM FEATURES
Bill & Subscription Management
Finly simplifies recurring payments and bills with proactive reminders and smart tracking. Users can view all upcoming due dates in a convenient monthly calendar format, making it easier to plan and stay organized.
The app automatically detects recurring payments for subscriptions like Netflix, Spotify, or insurance, and even offers one-click cancel suggestions. Users can set personalized reminders for any bill or subscription, including details like amount, due date, and type. Finly also generates bundled monthly summary reports of all paid bills and active subscriptions to give users a full and clear picture of their regular cost commitments.
Finly App. Bill & Subscription Management
PLATFORM FEATURES
Savings & Investment Features
Finly empowers users to take control of their financial habits and reach their goals. All smart savings and investment tools designed by our team foster long-term financial health and motivation.
Here is how they work:
- Rules-based savings automate this process by rounding up purchases, setting daily or weekly saving rules, or scheduling transfers after each paycheck.
- Visual goal tracking helps to keep users motivated with dynamic progress trackers that estimate timelines and celebrate milestones along the way.
- Emergency fund prioritization allows for setting intelligent rules to automatically build an emergency fund before allocating money to other goals.
Finly App. Savings & Investment Features
PLATFORM FEATURES
Security & Support
Finly ensures a secure and supportive experience for users managing sensitive financial data by integrating robust protection measures at every level of the app. We added biometric authentication via fingerprint or FaceID that provides an extra layer of identity verification, preventing unauthorized account access.
Finly also applies bank-level security standards, including AES-256 encryption for data both in transit and at rest. On top of that, there is regular penetration testing and continuous monitoring to proactively detect and address any vulnerabilities, ensuring the app remains resilient against different cyber threats.
To give users peace of mind, we integrated real-time suspicious activity alerts for large or unusual transactions across connected accounts. In case users have any questions, they can always turn to Finly’s built-in live chat with certified financial advisors or an AI-powered chatbot trained in personal finance best practices.
Finly App. Security & Support
PROJECT JOURNEY
Development approach
We started this project with conducting an in-depth user research to understand the financial habits and needs of Gen Z and millennial users. All gathered insights shaped our priorities and laid the foundation for key product features and design choices.

Here is what our product and development team completed:
- Prioritization of key features such as transaction tracking, budgeting, and goal setting, based on early research.
- Design of an intuitive, gamified UI/UX that resonates with younger audiences and encourages repeat engagement.
- Implementation of a mobile-first approach with seamless navigation and modern visual language.
To enable seamless integrations and ensure technical stability, we also conducted deep technical discovery and validation. We reviewed and tested the Plaid API for real-time bank connections and account aggregation. Then we evaluated Stripe for secure and scalable payment processing. And last but not least, we verified the technical feasibility of all planned integrations and confirmed the use of PostgreSQL and Redis for data management and caching.
For the front-end, our software engineers selected:
- React web app and React Native mobile app, sharing UI components and logic.
- TypeScript-based shared code, ensuring development speed and consistency across platforms.
- State management with Redux Toolkit, empowering responsive dashboards and user flows.
The backend was developed using:

- Node.js and NestJS deliver robust and scalable RESTful APIs.
- OAuth2 authentication and secure authorization flows.
- Full integration with Plaid and Stripe for financial data and transactions.
To support a reliable infrastructure and ensure product scalability in the future, we:
- Containerized the app with Docker for environment consistency.
- Deployed on AWS, using RDS (PostgreSQL) and ElastiCache (Redis).
- Set up a CI/CD pipeline to automate builds, testing, and deployments.
During the final phase of development, we ensured product quality and readiness for the release and launch through:
- Rigorous testing, including unit, integration, and end-to-end scenarios.
- A successful user acceptance testing round prior to launch.
- Post-launch monitoring and analytics, enabling continuous improvement based on real usage.
UI decisions that make sense
5 images
RESULTS
OUTCOME
In just 10 months, Artkai helped Cortex Finance bring Finly App from concept to a fully functioning cross-platform personal finance product. Our team successfully defined and scoped product vision and turned it into a real product.
We designed and developed a feature-rich MVP that was launched on schedule and continued post-launch development, scaling the product based on real user feedback. As a result, we released the full product version with enhanced functionality, advanced analytics, and enterprise-grade infrastructure.
As to the tangible outcomes our client got after a successful launch of the product on the US market, there are several numbers we’d like to highlight:
- 40K+ registered users in the 25–40 age range
- 12K MAU engaging regularly with budgeting and goal features
- 7.9 average user satisfaction score according to internal surveys and reviews
- 43% 3-month retention rate that’s above average for early-stage fintech apps
- 8% conversion to paid or premium tier after the launch of savings automation features
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