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?
Do you have to upload banking statements or have you given it access to go online and get banking documents? I’m a little worried about that.
Also, you have a place where you can download the last five years of health information? I have a health portal with my doctor, but I don’t know if I could download everything.
I uploaded the banking statements manually after I downloaded them manually. I don’t trust “FinTech” and their 512-bit encryption with my financial data. Eventually I will have my AI agents logon with read only mode and download the statements but for now I’m doing that piece manually. You could use Fintech APIs to do it automatically if you’re comfortable with that route.
I keep meticulous records of my healthcare ever since I started having medical procedures like colonoscopies. I went to Thailand a couple of years ago and got a full medical workup so I have those records and those from my regular care physician in the US. If you dont have that much history you simply start at some point and build from there.
Thanks, that makes sense.
Can you dig into the cost of making this system? I’m sure it’s priceless in its utility, but you had said before that costs were starting to add up significantly. This seems like a big project, so I would expect the cost to be a fair amount too. However, anything less than $100 (and I’m sure it is) is a wonderful deal.
From what I’ve been looking at using DeepSeek directly (instead of OpenRouter) could lower costs by a huge amount. DeepSeek (directly) does caching so it doesn’t have to shuttle the tons of tokens back and forth. We at least that’s what Gemini tells me – and it wouldn’t lie.
The cost is virtually zero except for the electricity to run it.
I used my monthly Claude monthly subscription to “code” the whole thing. That’s $20/month. It took about 4 to 5 days on/off to code the whole thing as I presented it. Some modules were fast (e.g. Insurance) while others too longer. Claude would build something, I would test it, find that I wanted more features (e.g. reporting tool or more fields) and it would update the code. Claude created a docker instance on my homelab where I run my trading platform. It all runs on a MiniPC that I bought a while ago.
The mini PC was $300, the claude code is $20/month and whatever electricity it uses. That’s the total cost but I run a bunch of other things on my homelab so the cost is negligible. I did it this way because I don’t want to pay subscription fees for things like Quicken or to manage Real Estate or other modules.
I don’t know how to code, Claude did the design, build/coding, test and deployment. I’m not a docker expert either, Claude did all the work. Yes, it made mistakes but it fixed them when I pointed them out. For example, I have recurring HOA fees on my rental and personal properties, it wasn’t sure whether to put that under real estate or banking recurring expenses, we sorted it out.
You are right about DeepSeek direct being cheaper but I would caution you that if you build your life around that and DeepSeek starts charging $$$$ then you will likely want to move to a new cheaper model. I use OpenRouter for the ease of switching models and to switch to the better/cheaper model whenever that happens. The technology is changing so fast that I wanted flexibility to switch fast and not worry about creating API keys and editing .env files every few weeks or months. But if you want to save money, use DeepSeek direct.