SmartSplit

Picture for the dashboard of our website.
A place to add goals for budgeting.
Picture that shows budgeting progress for friends and gives personalized AI advice.

Inspiration

We created SmartSplit because we noticed that college students often struggle with budgeting, tracking expenses, and saving money in an easy, motivating way. We wanted to build a tool that could help make managing finances simple, social, and even a little fun.

What it does

This was our first hackathon and the first time any of us worked with React and Git in a team setting. Throughout the project, we also learned how to set up a real-time database using Firebase, and how to connect user input to live data. Seeing the app update instantly as users entered their goals or expenses was a huge milestone for us.

How we built it

We built the project using React for the frontend and Firebase for the backend database. We used Together AI to generate smart financial advice based on user spending patterns. The app features goal tracking, budget tracking, an accountability circle with friends, and an interactive dashboard to make managing money approachable.

Challenges we ran into

A lot of the tools and technologies were new to us. Setting up Firebase and getting it to talk properly with our React components took time. We also had to figure out how to collaborate efficiently with Git, manage merges, and combine everyone’s work into one project. Debugging React state changes and making sure the data flowed correctly between components was another big challenge, but we learned a lot by troubleshooting together.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

This is our first hackathon as a team and we are proud to complete and submit a project for judging. We are proud of successfully integrated react.js framework which is one we have little experience with. We are proud of effectively collaborating on github learning many of the key functions on the fly. Also, learning version-control with Git was challenging but will be extremely useful for our future careers.

What we learned

We learned how to effectively integrate AI into our application using API keys and were able to setup a database using firebase. Although we knew a bit of react, we expanded our knowledge of the framework over the past 36 hours. We also were able to expand our knowledge on GitHub features, such as pushing, pulling and merging while working in a team. Finally, we learned the importance of helping each other debug problems and work together when things weren't working as planned.

What's next for SmartSplit

In the future, we can create a mobile app that allows users to input their daily expenses and spending goals on the go. We would also like to host the website on a server so that everyone can view and access our product online. Finally, we could also train our AI integration to give more personalized budgeting advice based on user habits.