I built Expensio. Here's what's next.
Some tools exist because someone got frustrated enough to build them.
Some tools exist because someone got frustrated enough to build them.
Expensio is one of those tools.
The problem
Expense reports shouldn't require a finance degree. Yet every expense tool I've used feels like it was designed by accountants, for accountants. Endless fields. Confusing tax options. Workflows that assume you're running a multinational.
I just wanted to snap a receipt, add a description, and export a clean PDF at the end of the month.
The solution
Expensio does exactly that. Nothing more.
The flow is dead simple:
- Add expenses (description, amount, date, receipt photo)
- Bundle them into a report
- Export as PDF
That's it. No dashboards. No analytics. No integrations with 47 accounting platforms. Just expenses in, PDF out.
Two modes, zero complexity
Not everyone needs VAT calculations. So Expensio has two modes:
Private mode: For personal expense tracking. No tax stuff. Just amounts and receipts.
Business mode: Adds VAT support (0%, 9%, 21% for Dutch users). The PDF shows net amounts, VAT, and totals — exactly what your bookkeeper needs.
You pick your mode once. The app adapts.
The tech
I built Expensio using Laravel and React, with a healthy dose of AI assistance. What would've taken me weeks a year ago came together much faster — though not overnight. Real projects never are.
The stack: Laravel 12, Inertia.js, React 19 with Radix UI components. Tailwind for styling. Clean, modern, and fast.
It's multilingual (Dutch, English, German) because expense reports cross borders.
A few early testers gave invaluable feedback that shaped the final product. Small things I'd overlooked, edge cases I hadn't considered. Building in isolation only gets you so far.
What's next
Expensio works. It does what I built it to do.
But there's one obvious gap: mobile.
Expense tracking happens in the moment — at the restaurant, at the gas station, in the cab. A proper mobile app with camera integration would make Expensio significantly more useful.
That's on the roadmap. I'm exploring NativePHP to build a companion app that syncs with your Expensio account. Same simplicity, optimized for your phone.
Try it
If you're tired of overcomplicated expense tools, give Expensio a shot.
It's free to use. No account required for basic features. Just start adding expenses and see if the simplicity works for you.
And if you have feedback — things that are confusing, features you'd actually use — I'd love to hear it. This is a tool I built for myself first, but I'm curious what others need.
Building something simple is harder than it sounds. Expensio taught me that removing features takes more discipline than adding them.
I offer hands-on consulting to help you resolve technical challenges and improve your CMS implementations.
Get in touch if you'd like support diagnosing or upgrading your setup with confidence.
