Building Expensio

Expensio started as a small frustration.

I needed a simple way to create clean expense claims — sometimes as a private person,
sometimes for my company. No invoices, no accounting software, just a clear overview
I could send by email.

I couldn’t find a tool that did exactly that, so I built one.

This page collects a short series of articles about building Expensio:
the product decisions, trade-offs, and lessons learned while keeping
a deliberately small tool focused and production-ready.

1. Why I built Expensio

How a small personal frustration turned into a focused expense tool for freelancers and small businesses.

I built Expensio — A simple expense tool I needed myself

I built Expensio because I needed a simple way to create clean expense claims without heavy bookkeeping tools. A lightweight, multilingual app for quick, no-nonsense declarations.

ArtisanCraftDaniel Plomp

2. Designing a straight-line UX

Why Expensio was designed around a single, predictable flow — and how avoiding side paths reduced friction.

Episode 2: Designing a straight-line UX

Most software becomes complex by accident. Expensio was designed as a straight-line experience: add expenses, bundle them, export a clean PDF. No setup, no onboarding, no clutter — just clarity.

ArtisanCraftDaniel Plomp

3. What I chose not to build

The discipline of saying no, resisting feature bloat, and keeping a product intentionally small.

Episode 3: What I chose not to build

Building Expensio wasn’t about adding features — it was about knowing when to stop. No invoicing, no accounting, no automation. Just a focused tool that fills the gap between spreadsheets and full accounting software.

ArtisanCraftDaniel Plomp

4. What changed after real users started using Expensio

How real-world usage sharpened the product without expanding its scope — and what user feedback actually taught me.

What changed after real users started using Expensio

After shipping Expensio, real user feedback didn’t add more features—it removed friction. Small fixes, better defaults, and one carefully chosen addition sharpened the product without changing its core.

ArtisanCraftDaniel Plomp

Expensio is now almost a finished product in the sense that it’s stable,
predictable, and intentionally scoped.

It will continue to evolve — but always by sharpening the core,
not expanding it.

If you’re interested in how small tools grow without turning into
overengineered systems, this series reflects how I approach that balance.

If you want to know more, let me know!