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Comment by shireboy | Hacker News Reader

I love Sankey diagrams and don't understand why major personal finance apps like Mint, Quicken, etc., (and corporate ERPs for that matter) don't provide them out of the box. I plan to try this out for a budget, but want to see my actual expenses this way as well.

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Sounds like you would benefit from Monarch. I use their Sankey features for visualizing expenses (https://www.monarchmoney.com/features/spending)

I've been using Monarch for the last 6 months when I heard Mint was shutting down. It's been a dream to use and I feel good paying directly for software that I believe they will continue investing in. It even supported more bank/credit connections than Mint was able to.

I referred my sister last week and I got a discount. So I am going to throw this out there in case anyone wants to try it:

https://www.monarchmoney.com/referral/qrg5tt40me

Monarch co-founder here. Thanks for the mention. Our Sankey visualization is one of our most popular, and we are hoping to make a bunch of further improvements (hopefully, making it more interactive).

What do you like about Monarch versus other solutions like Mint and YNAB etc, besides what you mentioned already?

I'm also a fan of monarch. Thanks for this; I didn't realize they had it. I wish I could have more control over the feature, but it's nice to see it there.

I'd guess because the PMs on those products are pretty sure (and I agree with them) that adding a Sankey diagram will generate ZERO additional sales, so even one day of work to implement it isn't worth it, especially given the ensuing lifetime of maintenance on the feature.

Speaking just for myself, I've looked at personal finance Sankey diagrams on Reddit many times and never understood what use they were to anyone, what actionable insights were provided that you didn't already get some other way.

> [...] and never understood what use they were to anyone.

Different people consume data in different ways. For some, data is easier to understand when arranged in tables, black on white, as they can skim through a lot of datasets quite easily.

Others benefit by a colorful, graphical representation, which Sankey provides.

From my experience in consumer facing applications, I'd assume that a colorful, flashy, nice-looking Sankey could boost sales. People prefer things that look nice.

Well, I'm considering purchasing Monarch because of this feature, so not sure that's true. I am a visual learner, but the reason I like them is they help me at a glance see the flow of money through multiple categories. Some systems represent this as pie charts you drill down on, but a Sankey shows it all at once glance. As far as actionable insight, they help decide areas that would be most beneficial to reduce expenses or increase revenue.

I've been a YNAB (You Need A Budget) user for years now, and they have a community run extension which includes Sankey Diagrams and different visualizations and reports. Highly recommend!

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