It’s time for the big reveal! This is what I’ve been working on and it’s my greatest app yet!
If you don’t know what an ERP system is, here’s a blurb from Wikipedia:
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of main business processes, often in real time and mediated by software and technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of business management software—typically a suite of integrated applications—that an organization can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities.
In November of 2023 I wrote this post describing my personal finance operating manual modeled after years in the corporate world working with corporate ERP systems. I have long wanted to build an integrated system like that but for my family.
Obviously it would be cost prohibitive for me to hire a team of people to build and code the platform until AI came along and built the whole thing over a few days and for a few bucks. It only took that long because I had it built module by module and I wanted to test and improve each module as I was going through the build. I’m sure AI could have produced the whole thing in a matter of hours.
So what does this system do? Well let me tell you!
First and foremost, it is CUSTOM tailed to my needs exactly the way I want it and you won’t get that kind of specialized attention anywhere but using AI to build your own apps and tools.
Real Estate
I started with the Real Estate module because I needed to keep better track of all current and future maintenance needs for my residences and rental properties. I recently wrote that I spent $10,000 on re-piping my house and I wanted to log all the agreements and warranty information along with the contact information for the vendor all associated information. I did the same for my real estate portfolio and now I can keep better track of all the activities around it.
The two images below are part of the Real Estate module. I can track assets, expenses, insurance policys, maintenance categories, maintenance tasks, properties, tax records, reccuring expenses, rental incomes, service records, and vendors.
The screen show above shows the detail of all the activities I wanted to track and I can always add more things to the list fairly easily.
Investments
The next module I built was for my investments. I have multiple brokerage accounts and large positions on any given day. This new app now gives me a dashboard for everything going on with my investment portfolio. I won’t be sharing screen shots because it has everything on it and I don’t want to waste time redacting personal information or account numbers.
Insurance
The third module I built was a module for insurance. I have lots of insurance policies for auto, life, home, flood, and even umbrella policies. I now have a centralized repository for all my insurance activities and it has alerts and timeline on when policies are coming due for payment or expiration/renewal.
Banking
The fourth module I built was banking. This is probably the most complex because it tracks all my bank accounts, transactions, credit cards, and other banking activity. Again, no images here because its ALL personal information.
Loyalty
After building the banking app and loading all my credit card information, perks, benefits, and other information, I wanted a method to track all my points across all my cards and most importantly, make sure I use them before they expire!
Below is a screen shot of some of the info, I had to cut off the top of the dashboard since the screen was too large.
Memberships (Subscriptions)
I got the idea to add a memberships module after I realized many of my recurring expenses were subscription related. I track all my recurring subscriptions here including streaming TV, gym memberships, AI related expenses, and similar expenses.
Health
The other most complex module in this system is Health. This tracks EVERYTHING health related. I downloaded all my health activity for the last 5 years and uploaded it here. This includes my alternative medical analysis, all my lab tests, and procedures over the last 5 years. I’m over 50 so things like colonoscopies are a 5 year adventure for me now in addition to other things that happen as you age. The sub-modules here are Conditions, Health Episodes, Immunizations, Lab Results, Medications, Metric logs, Providers. To showcase this module, I can share the image below which shows my Zepbound health journey.
And below are some of my vaccinations and please spare me the conspiracy theories in the comments.
Autos
The next module was for tracking all the activity around our cars. The module checks online for the current value of our cars and updates the information but the main use is to track all the maintenance of the cars. Below is a snapshot with the cars blurred out.
Family Relationship Module (FRM)
If you are familiar with customer relationship management then take it a step forward and think how awesome it would be to have a Family Relationship Management (FRM) system. This module actually started with me uploading all the contacts on my phone then uploading a GEDCOM (genealogy file) that had all my ancestors going by to 1800s. I now have one place that tracks all my genetic family from first, second, third and fourth cousins! I can track birthdays, anniversaries, and other events, activities and interactions. Eventually I will integrate a messaging system to wish people happy birthday/anniversary and keep better track of my distant family around the world. There are 233 people in my family database at the moment.
Next Steps
I’m not done with the Family ERP™. I have a few more modules I want to add including Estate Planning, Business Activity, Taxes, Education, Asset Inventory, AI IT Support and other things down the road.
The system is already multi-user and it has two factor authentication and best of all it sits on my home and it costs nothing which means no SaaS subscriptions.
Why in the world would I need Quicken, TurboTax, Real Estate apps, Auto apps or anything else at this point if could just build it myself?
Sadly, I am going on a very long holiday and I’m not sure when I’ll get a chance to tinker with my new toy but AI will always be there and when I come back I’ll keep updating and upgrading my family ERP platform.
Key Advice (Lessons Learned)
I’ve already had people ask me to give them a copy of this but the issue is that this is literally custom tailored to my situation. What I suggest if you want AI to build something like this for you is start by gathering as many documents as possible and loading them into a folder then asking AI to carefully review ALL the documents and data THEN create a strategy for housing, serving, and managing that information in your very own Family ERP™.
As I mentioned, I have many different accounts and if you bank at Chase, their download files are going to be different than your credit union or local bank. AI has to “learn” all the file formats or data transmission feeds to know how to build around your needs. This was true for each and every module but a lot will depend on how much detail you want or how you want it to function. And if you ever get stuck, just ask AI!
This whole thing was built by Claude over a few days while I watched FIFA World Cup games.
Share The Wealth
What are YOU building with AI for the cost nickels and dimes?