Interview with Didier Valentin, the CEO of Ara Spends [2023]

Hi, there. Thank you for having me today. My name is Didier Valentin. I’m from Canada (Québec). I’m a full-stack programmer who is fluent in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, Java, Regular Expression, Visual Basic for Application (VBA), and Apple Swift. I also have good knowledge of marketing, Agile project management, personal financial management, and accounting. Ara Spends is a mobile application that I created alone, through my sole proprietorship company. This useful and beautiful little Android app helps people master their personal budget, and track their expenses. The app is easy to use, and requires almost no settings. Ara Spends is free to download from the Google Play Store for your smartphone.

At first, I was working on a web application named DoCommerce. This is supposed to be an application for PayPal users. DoCommerce was meant to help tiny ecommerce vendors do their accounting the simplest way possible. At the same time, I saw my wife (Ara) using paper and pencil to control her expenses, so I decided to start creating the Ara Spends application, just for her. After she and a couple of friends told me that the app is really awesome, I decided to add all the best features of DoCommerce to it, and publish the app to the Google Play Store for everyone to use. Today DoCommerce is not available anymore. I decided to put all my resources in the development of Ara Spends, because Ara Spends is more useful and can target a broader market.

Ara Spends doesn’t require any special permission to run (not even an internet connection). 

The user manually adds expenses as they come in, then the app automatically displays the major trends for the month and those of the quarter. To enter a transaction, simply choose a date, a category, a description (optional), the type of transaction (expense or bill), and the amount. If this transaction is of the bill type, you have the choice of transforming it into a task to do. When registering a transaction, the user has the option to specify its payment method (cash or credit). The Payments page displays the proportion of each mode of payment in graphs, so the user can better plan and control his spending on credit. After entering a transaction, the user has the ability to add features to it, such as manual notification; save it as a recurring expense, or even save it as a favorite, in order to speed up the entry of future similar transactions. For people who prefer to budget weekly, or by any other interval, the search by categories feature allows them to track their expenses for the period of their choice. The recurring bills are useful for creating the monthly budget in one tap.

Ara Spends does not require any monthly subscription, does not serve any advertising, and does not sell its users’ data. Ara Spends uses the conventions of to-do lists apps for expense tracking and budgeting, instead of presenting complicated features of financial management apps. Adopting the conventions and interactions of a to-do list, makes Ara Spends friendlier and easier to use for people new to personal budgeting. Also, since all transaction entries are manual, the users can take the time to think about why they made the expense, and will therefore have the opportunity to ask themselves if it was worth it.

This is not easy to do if the app would repatriate transactions automatically from the users’ financial institutions. Features are also available to speed up data entry. The competition addresses the problem of budgeting and tracking expenses with conventions drawn from the world of finance, because it is financial institutions that offer these apps, most often. Ara Spends approaches it as a to-do list. It behaves like a productivity app, not a financial one. Ara Spends is also the least expensive of all the budgeting apps on the Play Store : The app has 5 features to unlock via in-app purchases. But they’re free to use for 7 days. These purchases require a one time payment to unlock the feature forever.

Since the app is coded with web technologies (HTML, CSS, XML, JSON, JavaScript) and compiled with Apache Cordova, an iOS version can be done in a snap. So an iPhone version of the app will come very soon.

When I started my business in 2015, I worked 7 days a week, for almost 10 hours a day. Today I work from 9 to 5, for 5 or 6 days a week. The best way to keep a healthy work/life balance is to rigorously plan the day : divide the day into several tasks. If an unexpected task comes, give it the place of another one. Don’t add tasks to the day. One last thing : keep meetings to a bare minimum.

As a CEO of a small business, I wear several hats on the same day. So I do both the programming and the administrative tasks. My days are never boring, because I switch from one aspect of the business to the next. A successful working environment comes by giving people alone time. A successful alone time means letting go of messaging tools, and meetings. Just shut up and do the work.

I’m a big fan of Waveapps Accounting (https://www.waveapps.com/accounting). I use their accounting solution for my business. I’m planning to use their invoice and payroll services very soon.

This is good programming practice to never begin a project from scratch. Other companies can buy a non-exclusive license to use Ara Spends’ code in their projects. Of course, a company can also choose to buy an exclusive license. In that case, I, DIDIER VALENTIN, will grant to LICENSEE a transferable, exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, paid-up license. Ara Spends is a good fit for a fintech, an online bank, or an accounting startup that wishes to build a similar app without the hassle of beginning from scratch.

Ara Spends has all the fundamental features so a user can manage his budget and track his expenses. Ara Spends codes are well documented. Each JavaScript block and each HTML page are commented, so you can know what’s all about. Plus, the source code comes with 311 pages (slides) of documentation listing the main functions, variables, coding conventions, data structure, and more. The documentation is really easy to read. The interested companies can download the information kit at https://didiervalentin.app/sell.html to learn more about the exclusive license agreement, source code documentation, app screenshots, and the app’s product/market fit.

We answer questions in English and French, email us at info@docommerce.me.

Building a YouTube channel to help our target audience. This YouTube page will talk about personal budgeting, and will give tips and tricks to save money, and how to stick to your budgeting plans. The app will be available from other platforms, too. For example, I’m working on a Google Sheets add-on. This integration will help people transfer their Ara Spends data to a Google sheet file, in order to do more advanced data manipulation, and print the result. Another target platform is the Chrome Web Store, where Ara Spends will have an extension. This integration will enable the users to add bills to Ara Spends with a mouse right-click, by surfing the web. Of course, launching an iPhone version of Ara Spends is also part of our short-term plans.