"How much money do I have left to spend freely this month?"—Most household account books can't answer this question right away. While they can record transactions, they don't reflect what's coming up (rent, card payments, subscriptions, payday).
And there's another question they don't answer: "How much will today's shopping cost roughly?" We only realize "I spent more than I thought" when we see the total at the register—we wanted to change that cycle.
What Mitoshi Techo (Outlook Handbook) wanted to solve was: "knowing how much money will go out before you spend it."
- If you write down your plans in advance, the amount remaining at month's end (= mitoshi/outlook) appears automatically
- If you jot down your menu plans or things you want to buy in your kago (basket), you'll know the rough total before shopping. You can use it as-is as a shopping list at the store
- When you "decide" on your kago, it becomes a kiroku (record) right away and reflects in your household finances. No need to re-enter data while looking at receipts
- By separating the date you use your card from the date it's withdrawn, you prevent the problem of "feeling like I didn't spend anything, but it hits later"
Rather than "reflecting on a graph after overspending," you can see the amount you'll spend and the amount you'll have left before buying, and act in a way that keeps you from going negative. That's the core purpose of this app.
Existing household account apps are high-function and wonderful, but I felt many of them assume accounting terminology as a prerequisite. "Assets," "liabilities," "expense categories," "allocation"—for part-time working housewives, college students living alone, couples just starting to live together, friends in a share house. The more casually people want to talk about money, the more they drop out because of that language barrier.
Another thing: I myself repeatedly found myself in a state of "I record things, but what am I supposed to do with that information?" There were tools for looking back, but no tool that told me how to move forward. Especially with daily shopping—deciding on a menu, writing a memo, buying at the supermarket, then entering it into the account book later. That "memo" and "account book" were always separate, and it was always a hassle.
So instead of a household account book, we decided to make a "life handbook." You create a kago (shopping list) from your menu plans, look at it while shopping at the store, then "decide" when you get home to turn it into a kiroku (record). Records can be classified with fusen (colored sticky notes), which directly affects your mitoshi (month-end balance). Writing things down becomes household management itself. Open it like a handbook, and anyone can use it from today. No technical jargon whatsoever. We put just one thing in the center: "If you enter your plans, you'll know how much money you'll have left at month's end—that's convenient."
- Combining "shopping memo" and "household account book" into one
When you jot down your menu plans or things you want to buy in your kago, you see the rough total before shopping. At the store, it becomes your shopping list, and when you get home, just "decide" and it transforms into a kiroku that reflects in your finances. No more double work of noting, buying, and re-entering. - Using no technical jargon whatsoever
"Income/expenses" become "kiroku," categories become "fusen," month-end balance becomes "mitoshi," pre-shopping memos become "kago." Even without knowing accounting, the UI language is built entirely so you can understand operations just from the handbook metaphor. We avoid confusing words like "confirm," and deciding on a kago is consistently called "decide." - Erring on the side of caution with estimates
Plan amounts are set slightly higher, incoming money only counts what's certain. It's better to underestimate and have leftovers than overestimate and come up short. Mitoshi is always designed to lean toward the safe side. - Thinking in terms of "when money moves"
The day you buy something and the day money actually leaves your account are different. By arranging card payments and salary by "when money moves" as the standard, your month-end balance won't diverge from reality. It's the best of both accrual and cash accounting. - The feel of a real handbook
The color of sticky notes, the act of jotting things in your kago, the sensation of turning pages. When adding features, we think about the presentation so it looks like "a handbook page" rather than "a financial management tool screen," keeping the world intact. - For one person or many
From personal spending management for someone living alone to a shared handbook for couples or share houses. With a light unit called "members," you can tag "whose expense" it is, and you can divide shopping tasks. It doesn't have the weight of a shared account book, but you can still clearly see who bought what.
