How to vibe codeHurdlr
Automated Business Expense & Mileage Tracker for Freelancers
hurdlr.com ↗Fintech / Accounting
The verdict: can you vibe code Hurdlr?
Build a web dashboard clone for personal expense logging, but skip the background mobile GPS tracking and bank aggregators.
At $100 a year, Hurdlr is vastly cheaper to subscribe to than the dozens of hours required to build and debug a cross-platform finance tracker. The real engineering walls here are native background GPS location persistence that does not get killed by mobile OS power management, and managing costly bank data aggregators. If you want a personal weekend hobby project, build a web frontend where you manually upload CSV bank statements and input trips.
Estimated effort: 4-6 weeks of dedicated engineering
What you can't replicate
- Enterprise bank aggregator agreements and data provider relationships
- Millions of hours of historical transaction categorization training data
- Wholesale real estate brokerage distribution deals
Founded
2012
Raised
$3.2M
Team
11-50
Cheapest paid tier
$0
What Hurdlr does
Hurdlr automatically tracks business expenses, income streams, billable mileage, and real-time self-employed tax liabilities in the background.
Core features
- Background GPS mileage tracking with route detection
- Bank account and credit card aggregation syncing
- Rule-based and AI-suggested transaction categorization
- Real-time federal, state, and local tax estimation engine
- Receipt capture with OCR processing
- Invoicing and payment collection workflow
- P&L and Balance Sheet financial reports
The business
Pricing
- Free$0
- Hurdlr Premium$9.99/mo
- Hurdlr Pro$16.67/mo
Funding
$3.2M from TTV Capital
Pay vs build, cumulative
Break-even at month 3 — after that, every month is money kept.
The hard parts of vibe coding Hurdlr
- Building native background GPS tracking that survives aggressive OS battery killers without draining phone batteries
- Securing direct bank feed aggregator contracts and managing webhook token rotations
- Writing a tax engine that dynamically handles complex multi-state and local self-employment bracket logic
- Training custom categorization classification pipelines over messy ledger string descriptions
How to vibecode Hurdlr
Prerequisites
Node.jsfree
Runtime environment for building the Next.js full-stack web application.
Expofree
Framework for writing the cross-platform mobile app frontend in TypeScript.
GitHubfree
Source control and deployment pipeline integration.
AI coding tools
Recommended stack
| Frontend | React Native with Expo & Next.js web dashboard |
|---|---|
| Backend | Next.js API routes / TypeScript server actions |
| Database | Turso (SQLite at the edge for low-latency personal data storage) |
| Auth | better-auth |
| Payments | Stripe |
| Other | OpenAI API for receipt text extraction, Tailwind CSS for web styling |
Build guide
01Database Schema and Authentication Setup
Initialize a Next.js project with Tailwind CSS and configure Turso with better-auth to support personal secure login and single-user tenancy tables.
Create a new Next.js project with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS. Configure better-auth with email/password authentication using Turso as the underlying SQLite database driver. Create database migration files for users, categories, expenses, income, and trips tables with appropriate foreign keys, index fields for user_id and timestamps, and strict typing using TypeScript interfaces.02Expense and Income Tracking Module
Build the core ledger views, CRUD server actions, and categorization tagging interface for manual transactions.
Build the core financial ledger features in Next.js. Create React server actions to handle CRUD operations for expenses and income streams. Implement a categorized list view with sorting, filtering by tax category (e.g., meals, software, travel), and a summary card dashboard displaying total revenue, expenses, and net profit for the current month and year-to-date.03Receipt Upload and AI OCR Pipeline
Implement file upload functionality for receipts, backed by an OpenAI vision parsing script that extracts merchant names, amounts, and dates.
Implement a receipt upload component using cloud object storage or local storage. Write an API endpoint that takes an uploaded receipt image or PDF, passes it to the OpenAI API with structured JSON output requirements to extract merchant name, transaction date, total amount, and suggested tax category, and automatically populates a new expense record in the Turso database.04Self-Employed Tax Estimation Engine
Develop a calculation engine that processes net business income to estimate federal, state, and self-employment (FICA) tax liabilities dynamically.
Build a tax calculation engine module in TypeScript that computes estimated self-employment tax (15.3% on net earnings up to thresholds) and federal income tax brackets based on annualized net profit. Expose a real-time calculation hook used in the dashboard to show users their live quarterly tax estimates and upcoming payment deadlines.05Financial Reports and Export Generator
Construct reporting endpoints and UI screens for Profit & Loss statements and CSV export tools.
Create financial reporting views for Profit & Loss (Income Statement) and summary tax deduction reports grouped by IRS schedule C categories. Add a server endpoint that generates and downloads a formatted CSV or PDF export of the filtered transaction ledger for tax season prep.06Cross-Platform Mobile Mileage Shell
Scaffold an Expo React Native companion app for manual trip entry and location route logging.
Scaffold an Expo React Native mobile app using file-based routing. Build screens for logging business mileage trips manually with start location, destination, odometer readings, and automatic IRS standard mileage deduction calculations based on current mileage rates. Connect the mobile app authentication flow to the backend Turso database via REST API endpoints.
Cost vs paying for Hurdlr
What will you build it with?
Starting total with Claude Code$0 one-time
Starting costs (one-time)
- AI Coding Assistant (Claude Pro / Cursor)$20
Total$20 one-time
Ongoing costs (monthly)
- Vercel Hobby & Turso Free Tier$0/mo
Total$0/mo
Paying for Hurdlr
$10/mo
Your time to build
45-60 hours
AI tool credits
$20
Break-even
2 months of subscription value (if ignoring build time)
Vibe code Hurdlr: FAQ
- Can you vibe code Hurdlr yourself?
- Serious undertaking — 38/100 vibecodeable. Build a web dashboard clone for personal expense logging, but skip the background mobile GPS tracking and bank aggregators.
- How long does it take to vibe code Hurdlr?
- 4-6 weeks of dedicated engineering — roughly 45-60 hours of hands-on time with an AI coding agent.
- How do you build your own Hurdlr?
- Scoped to personal use: React Native with Expo & Next.js web dashboard on the front, Next.js API routes / TypeScript server actions behind it, Turso (SQLite at the edge for low-latency personal data storage) for data. Follow the 6-step build guide on this page — each step has a paste-ready prompt for an AI coding agent.
- How do you code your own Hurdlr without being an expert?
- Use an AI coding tool (Claude Code or Cursor) and work in small steps: scaffold, data model, core screens, then deploy. Realistic effort: 4-6 weeks of dedicated engineering. The prompts on this page are written so the AI does the heavy lifting.
- How much does it cost to vibe code Hurdlr instead of paying?
- About $20 one-time to start and $0/mo to run, versus $10/mo for Hurdlr. Break-even: 2 months of subscription value (if ignoring build time).
- What stack should you use to vibe code Hurdlr?
- React Native with Expo & Next.js web dashboard; Next.js API routes / TypeScript server actions; Turso (SQLite at the edge for low-latency personal data storage); plus OpenAI API for receipt text extraction, Tailwind CSS for web styling.