Wealth Tracker:
one app for a dozen entities
I filed a tax extension in April and was still behind in late June: a dozen K-1s, a stack of entities, all of it in a pile. So I cancelled the app I was about to buy and built my own in an afternoon.
One app that replaced 5 subscriptions. My data, my categories, my rules. Here is what it does and why I think this is where a lot of software is heading.
What I Built In An Afternoon
One app. A dozen entities. My rules.
When my CPA asks where a number came from, I can trace it, instead of shrugging at a dashboard someone else designed. I have zero Python skills. I wrote this the way I write everything now: in English, talking to the model until the screen matched the picture in my head.
CPA-ready statements
A P&L and balance sheet I can hand over without a week of cleanup first.
Net worth
Pulled from the same data as everything else, not a separate tool I have to reconcile.
Spending trends
The part YNAB was doing, now living next to the entities the money actually moves through.
K-1s in one place
The mess I was about to pay Vyzer for, finally consolidated and traceable.
Sliced any way I want
Filter by entity, by category, by whatever question I'm actually asking that day.
The Shift
From renting to owning.
For 20 years the answer to any problem was “there's an app for that,” and you rented it. That made sense. Building software took a team and a year, so you paid a monthly fee to use someone else's compromise.
It's starting to become “I'll build the app for that,” and you own it. Custom software was always possible if you had engineers. What changed is the cost of building the narrow, weird, exactly-shaped-for-you version just collapsed.
The honest catch
The moment you build it, you own it. The maintenance, the accuracy, the audit trail when your CPA asks where a number came from. That cost didn't disappear when I cancelled 5 subscriptions. It moved from a monthly fee to my own time and discipline.
So I'd think hard before telling anyone to do this. It's right for people with the time and temperament to keep their own system honest. If that's not you, keep your subscriptions. There's no shame in renting.
I can build it for you.
If your money lives across entities, syndications, and a stack of K-1s, an off-the-shelf app will never fit. Grab an hour on my calendar. We'll walk your setup and I'll tell you straight whether a custom build is worth it for you, and what it would take.
Go Deeper
Rent or build?
I wrote up the full build and the trade-off I keep chewing on: in a few years, do most people still rent their software, or build it?