Should I Build It Should I Build It
20 Aug 2025
Productivity Spreadsheets

A Google Sheets Add-on that offers expense management to startups and ...

...small agencies. It allows the users to tag each row with expense category, employee, approval status etc. User defines their own rules for mapping of these tags. Expense reports get generated as pivot tables for monthly or quarterly data.

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Swamp

The market has seen several mediocre solutions that nobody loves. Unless you can offer something fundamentally different, you’ll likely struggle to stand out or make money.

Should You Build It?

Don't build it.

Your are here

You're entering a market that already has several expense management solutions, putting you in the 'Swamp' category, which means the confidence in the success of this idea is low, and the competition is likely high. With 5 similar products already out there, it's going to be an uphill battle to differentiate. The engagement for similar products is low (avg comments = 1), suggesting that people aren't necessarily raving about existing solutions. There is no buy or use signal for existing products, implying it's a saturated market, and users don't actively demand more products like it. Given this landscape, it's crucial to carefully consider if this is the best path forward.

Recommendations

  1. Begin by thoroughly researching why existing Google Sheets expense management add-ons haven't gained significant traction. Understand their shortcomings, user complaints, and areas where they fall short. This will help you identify potential gaps and differentiate your offering.
  2. If you decide to proceed, identify a very specific niche or user group within startups and small agencies that are underserved by existing expense management solutions. For example, agencies dealing with international clients and needing multi-currency support. Tailoring your add-on to this niche will increase your chances of success.
  3. Consider building tools or integrations for existing expense management providers instead of directly competing with them. Could you provide enhanced reporting features or custom rule engines that these platforms could integrate? This strategy allows you to leverage existing user bases.
  4. Explore adjacent problems related to financial management for startups and small agencies. Is there a greater need for budgeting tools, forecasting solutions, or tools for managing invoices and payments? Addressing a more pressing or underserved problem might offer a better opportunity.
  5. Given the competitive landscape, strongly consider whether your time and resources might be better spent pursuing a different startup idea with higher potential. Don't be afraid to pivot or explore other opportunities that align with your skills and interests.
  6. Based on user criticism of similar products, ensure your add-on provides accurate merchant names and categorization. This requires reliable data sources and potentially machine learning algorithms to improve accuracy over time. See if you can hook into existing APIs (e.g. Plaid) to automatically categorize transactions.
  7. Focus on the user experience within Google Sheets. Make sure the add-on is intuitive, easy to use, and doesn't disrupt the existing workflow. Offer customizable templates and clear instructions to minimize the learning curve.

Questions

  1. What are the three biggest pain points that startups and small agencies face with their current expense management processes that are not being adequately addressed by existing Google Sheets add-ons or other solutions?
  2. If you were to focus on a specific niche within the startup/agency market, what unique expense management needs would you address that would make your add-on indispensable to that particular group?
  3. Considering the low engagement with existing solutions, what innovative features or UX improvements could you implement to make your Google Sheets add-on a truly delightful and indispensable tool for users?

Your are here

You're entering a market that already has several expense management solutions, putting you in the 'Swamp' category, which means the confidence in the success of this idea is low, and the competition is likely high. With 5 similar products already out there, it's going to be an uphill battle to differentiate. The engagement for similar products is low (avg comments = 1), suggesting that people aren't necessarily raving about existing solutions. There is no buy or use signal for existing products, implying it's a saturated market, and users don't actively demand more products like it. Given this landscape, it's crucial to carefully consider if this is the best path forward.

Recommendations

  1. Begin by thoroughly researching why existing Google Sheets expense management add-ons haven't gained significant traction. Understand their shortcomings, user complaints, and areas where they fall short. This will help you identify potential gaps and differentiate your offering.
  2. If you decide to proceed, identify a very specific niche or user group within startups and small agencies that are underserved by existing expense management solutions. For example, agencies dealing with international clients and needing multi-currency support. Tailoring your add-on to this niche will increase your chances of success.
  3. Consider building tools or integrations for existing expense management providers instead of directly competing with them. Could you provide enhanced reporting features or custom rule engines that these platforms could integrate? This strategy allows you to leverage existing user bases.
  4. Explore adjacent problems related to financial management for startups and small agencies. Is there a greater need for budgeting tools, forecasting solutions, or tools for managing invoices and payments? Addressing a more pressing or underserved problem might offer a better opportunity.
  5. Given the competitive landscape, strongly consider whether your time and resources might be better spent pursuing a different startup idea with higher potential. Don't be afraid to pivot or explore other opportunities that align with your skills and interests.
  6. Based on user criticism of similar products, ensure your add-on provides accurate merchant names and categorization. This requires reliable data sources and potentially machine learning algorithms to improve accuracy over time. See if you can hook into existing APIs (e.g. Plaid) to automatically categorize transactions.
  7. Focus on the user experience within Google Sheets. Make sure the add-on is intuitive, easy to use, and doesn't disrupt the existing workflow. Offer customizable templates and clear instructions to minimize the learning curve.

Questions

  1. What are the three biggest pain points that startups and small agencies face with their current expense management processes that are not being adequately addressed by existing Google Sheets add-ons or other solutions?
  2. If you were to focus on a specific niche within the startup/agency market, what unique expense management needs would you address that would make your add-on indispensable to that particular group?
  3. Considering the low engagement with existing solutions, what innovative features or UX improvements could you implement to make your Google Sheets add-on a truly delightful and indispensable tool for users?

  • Confidence: Medium
    • Number of similar products: 5
  • Engagement: Low
    • Average number of comments: 1
  • Net use signal: 11.4%
    • Positive use signal: 11.4%
    • Negative use signal: 0.0%
  • Net buy signal: 11.4%
    • Positive buy signal: 11.4%
    • Negative buy signal: 0.0%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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Hello,I'd like to share the first version of an app I've built for myself to categorise my expenses.Key features:- *Google Sheets Integration:* The tool is based on the spreadsheet I've been using to track my expenses over the years. I've turned it into a template that is available on the website.- *Automated Expense Categorization:* Tired of manually categorising and annoyed by the limits of rules, I've hooked the sheet up with an ML model that works based on past categorisations of your expenses. I've had great results with it.The tool is simple and basic and lets you keep using your spreadsheet instead of moving stuff into proprietary apps.It's a first version, but it's working for me so I thought I'd share it to see if anyone else might find it useful.You can start by exploring the [demo](https://www.expensesorted.com/demo) and get the Google Sheet Template to dive right in.https://www.expensesorted.com/Looking forward to your feedback!

Users expressed interest in a tool for historical transaction import via Plaid, appreciation for the product, and praised the use of machine learning for finance controllers. Additionally, it was noted that Excel now supports add-ons in Typescript.

Users have criticized the product for the lengthy time it takes to import transactions.

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