Finance management is now approached from a fundamentally different angle today. People have become more aware of the need to manage personal finance sustainably, as the COVID-19 pandemic and massive job losses have curtailed their earning capabilities. Thus, finance apps have gained popularity among users. Some of them track user expenses and offer individualized money management advice; others simplify transactions and unify all payment tools in one place.
The overall trend for user-friendliness, consciousness, and responsible spending. So, you can win a fair share of the market if you design an app responding to these needs. But the market is already overcrowded, with new apps emerging every day.
How to beat the competition?
A workable solution in this regard is the wise use of APIs. These integrations enable businesses to create only the core infrastructure of their apps from scratch, enriching the features and functionality with additional services from third-party providers. This way, you achieve the balance between web app development cost and service versatility. Here is a list of APIs recommended for a winning custom money management app.
Necessary Integrations for Your App
APIs are the supplements that give your service continuity and efficiency. So, when thinking about API selection, you need to act as your target user, considering all their potential needs and steps.
Payment Gateway
The most important API for any money management app is a payment gateway or bank API. How can an app track your expenses and issue reports if they don’t have your banking data? Thus, an API connection with your bank and other wallets you regularly use is vital for comprehensive money management and tracking.
Besides, the app may feature a uniform payment gateway that would allow instant and secure transactions from your bank accounts to various recipients.
CRM Integration
A customer relationship management (CRM) system is vital for any business. It helps track the subscribers and active users, reach out to them via different channels, and ensure customer engagement with the product. CRM APIs help to automate business operations, simplify business management, and ensure that all essential functions are performed on time. So, your money management app will benefit from a CRM API in any case, giving you an essential contact point with your users.
Calendar
The calendar API is significant in money management apps as it helps users schedule payments and plan their expenditures more systematically. For instance, a user may need to cover loan payments on the 15th of every month and has a mortgage payment on the 20th of every month. If those activities are scheduled in the app, the users are likelier to avoid costly purchases one week before their loan payments, reserving the free cash for these obligations.
Social Media
Social networks are the drivers of publicity today, and your app can benefit from that trend. Let your users share their experiences and engage new customers by organizing viral challenges and contests on social media. This can be easily arranged if your app has a secure and efficient social media API.
Accounting
A money management app would be incomplete without a concise accounting feature. Users want to get a firmer grasp of their finance, so they will appreciate detailed accounting reports fitted to their financial obligations. Having such a report at your fingertips is very sobering in terms of light-minded expenditures; besides, it allows you to develop more precise money management strategies. As a result, the users manage their finance more responsibly and get spare cash with less effort, recommending your app to others.
Chatbots
Customer support is an instrumental feature of every digital app. The users have no point of contact other than a corporate email or a live chat, so you need to make this feature really helpful. With the rise of AI and ML in the digital banking industry, businesses have received numerous valuable API options with human-like chatbots and voice assistants. So, you can also scan the market for chatbot APIs and choose the options meeting your business needs and budget.
Things to Keep in Mind when Choosing APIs
Now that we’ve covered the mandatory API minimum for your money management app, it’s time to cover the essentials of choosing any extra integration (no matter your app’s specialization). You’ll need to make choices every time, and this checklist can help you weed out the irrelevant API offerings.
- Geographic coverage. You need to clarify which users you plan to serve at the stage of app development. If you target a specific country or region, choose APIs suited to that location. Your APIs should also be internationally accessible if you plan for global coverage.
- Target audience. A thorough understanding of your target users is essential for the right choice of APIs. You need to know your customers’ profile to the dot, understanding what services they prefer and how they use apps like yours. Stuffing your app with irrelevant, unknown APIs won’t do it any good favor.
- Regulatory compliance and protection from fraud. Cybersecurity always matters when it comes to digital apps, while dealing with money poses even more rigorous data and transaction integrity constraints. So, you need to develop custom security solutions or engage reputable security APIs to ensure the app works as it should and protects customer data in all ways.
- Extra perks for the same price. The API market is abundant in offers, so you should never agree to less if you can get more for the same price. Research the available products and pick the ones coming with perks and benefits other options don’t have. Your users will thank you for that.
APIs Can Make a Real Difference
As you can see, the API choice is a responsible and meticulous stage of your app’s design. Don’t leave it to chance, as the set of APIs available to users makes a real difference to your product’s UX, affecting its reputation and adoption. Hand-pick valuable, reliable APIs to make the service complete, and your target users will never abandon you.