I am building a startup, Tap, a place to write and build awesome tools.

There is a very reasonable concern of Tap members that once they build up a collection of content, and for whatever reason want to leave the service, have no way of continuing to use that content.

I've tried to address the concern in a few ways:

• Export your content anytime to a standard format that can be utilized elsewhere
• Parts of the software are open source. Build your own app!
• Combine the two features above and you can (in theory) reconstruct your Tap experience elsewhere

However, these options haven't fully satisfied the concern. For one thing, the options are limited to people with experience manipulating data or building software. The completeness of your independent-Tap-experience is correlated directly with the skill you have to develop it.

The feeling that Tap's current solution is inadequate led me to a different way of thinking. I'm referring to it as "SaaS To-go". You heard it here first.

The idea is pretty simple: while you use Tap you're building stuff that can be taken with you when you leave.

To start, every Tap account can export their collection (or part of their collection) into a static website. The static website is packaged as a zip file containing a folder with all the site files. That zip can easily be uploaded to any number of static website hosting providers. See our guide on how to upload to some of the more common services available (some for free).

Going forward I would like to continue to expand the range of outputs available.

Some ideas:

• Content to PDF, Doc etc.
• Content to e-reader
• Beans to Excel, Sheets, etc.
• Etc.

Many services out there produce artifacts: design software, image manipulation, invoice generators etc. What I'm aiming to do with Tap is a little different. Members build collections of content and data, then put those collections to use, inside and outside Tap itself (both, while you're a Tap member and after you leave).

The difference is subtle: SaaS To-go is about leveraging as much of the original experience as possible independent of Tap the company.

Other Notes:

Another popular option to ensure there's no lock-in and also provides a life-after-death solution for the service is an "open-core" model.

I've considered it. There are two things preventing this at the moment: availability of my time and service integrations. The first is pretty clear. I'm bootstrapping Tap, one person (apart from Santa) writing all the software, marketing content, documentation, running support, keeping the servers running. I also have a toddler, farm and another job.

For the time-being I've decided against it for a few reasons:

• Most of the work on Tap is a one-person show, an open source repo is work in addition to the already intense workload of running the business
• And I'm not interested in building an open source project as much as I am about building a company (for now)
• A lot of the functions of Tap are not easy to replicate without integrations to other services (paid and unpaid): SMS, email, Telegram are a few examples.

Some recent additions to the Tap system got me thinking about an exciting project I came across years ago.

Seven years ago, to be exact, I ran into a post on Hacker News about a budget tool based on the Sid Meier's Civilization cashflow system built by a programmer by the name Alex Reckler.

I'm a huge fan of Civ games and also happen to build bookkeeping systems. Needless to say I was hooked.

At the time, I was heavily invested in a totally different system, and wasn’t ready for a new one. -- But the turn-based system Alex developed was inspiring.

Keeping a budget, doing the books and analyzing finances is usually considered dull work. But, in Civ it's fun -- why can't it be fun IRL? I think it can.

Alex found an experience (the in-game Civ resource system) where managing finances is engaging and enjoyable, then translated that experience into something usable for himself and others.

So why am I bringing this up years later? Recently, a Tap user shared with me their  budgeting system implementing Beans and the Tap API. It is like a classic envelope budgeting system with a few unique characteristics.

The creator asked if Tap Formulas could support some new functions to make their system even easier. Hell yeah it can!

In the process of developing those functions I realized: Tap has every component necessary to create something pretty close to the feature-set of Alex's system! I had to try building it.

Here's how it works:

Step one: You need to set up some Spells.

• Recurring notes to log fixed-cost transactions that occur on a schedule (monthly, weekly, daily)
• Reminder that sends a summary of your finances
• And another reminder that requests input of daily transaction you'd like to track

Note: you can also input transactions from your bank account via a CSV. Right now, Tap only supports a generic CSV, but we can make a custom importer for your bank. Get in touch at hello@tatatap.com

Another note: I'm about to start using some Tap-specific terminology, mainly related to beans. If you're unfamiliar with beans  you can check out the explanation page. Or just keep reading, , they may become clear throughout this post.

Beans look like this

+"Salary":4232.88

In short, they are a sign + or - followed by a symbol "Salary", followed by a number :4232.88

This adds or subtracts that number from the specified symbol. Tap keeps track of the value of all the beans and can recall them using formulas.

Step Two: Set up the environment.

We're going to put all these notes in a folder called "/books", that way it's isolated from the rest of our content. In addition we’ll tag all recurring transactions “recurring” this will become clear in the bonus section below.

Create a note with your current balance using a bean. I chose to call it "Checking Account". You can call them whatever you want.

/books

Beginning Balance

+"Checking Account":4520.77

Step three: create a monthly recurring note with all transactions that happen once a month.

It might look something like this:

/books

#recurring

-"Rent":2250
-"Internet":99.50
-"Netflix":12.99
-"Dropbox":10.99

...

Step two (b): create a monthly recurring note with all transactions that happen once a week

/books

#recurring

+"Salary":1876.22
-"Child care":533

Step two(c): Daily expenses.

/books

#recurring

-"Train ticket":14.83

At this point we have an automatic tally of all fixed cost and repeating transactions. These transactions will get recorded on their respective schedules.

Step three: When you have one-off expenses or income these can be input by saving a note:

/books

-"Dentist":381.29

Next, we are going to set up a Spell that lets us know our current cash on hand. Create a reminder spell in the communication method you prefer: email, SMS, Telegram.

In the message body we'll include a formula to calculate our current financial standing. Something like this:

$$("What I've got")(bean - "/books")

$$("Spent so far this month")
  (bean-
    -
    "/books"
    -
    (change-time (time now) start-of month)
    (time now))
    
$$("Net this month")
  (bean
    -
    "/books"
    -
    (change-time (time now) start-of month)
    (time now))

This will send us a daily message in our preferred communication channel that looks like this:

There's a lot going on in the above reminder. Let's break it down. I chose to include three formulas, "What I've got", "Spent so far this month" and "Net this month".

The first is the simplest. It says: get the net value of all beans in the "/books" folder. Because we set up the initial "Checking Account" bean, assuming we log all our transactions, this formula should continue to report our current balance.

$$("What I've got")(bean - "/books")

The bean function takes up to five arguments: bean name, folder, tag list, start date and end date

The second function says: get the total outgoing amount for all beans in the "/books" folder starting at the beginning of the current month and ending today.

$$("Spent so far this month")
  (bean-
    -
    "/books"
    -
    (change-time (time now) start-of month)
    (time now))

Notice on the second function it's using the bean- function, which means it will only total outgoing beans (or the ones that start with a "-"). Other than that the only difference is we're specifying a start and end time.

The start time is a little complicated because we need to get the start of the current month. To do this there is a function called change-time. change-time takes both a time input and serveral keywords, namely: “start-of” and “month”. This way we can specify exactly how we want the time to change. What we end up with is (change-time (time now) start-of month). This translates to: change the time of now to the start of that month, whatever month (time now) happens to be.

The next formula is just a variation on the second. It says: get the net value of all the beans in the "/books" folder for the current month. As you can see the only difference is we're using the bean function instead of the bean- function.

Now that everything is set up it will just keep on running. If you need to change any of the monthly, weekly or daily transactions you can modify the spell and all recurring notes going forward will include the new transactions.

Bonus Formula

One of the cool things about Alex’s post was the “Magic Number” concept. The magic number represents, in his words: “how much I would be making if I could cryogenically freeze myself and somehow continue to get a paycheck and pay bills.“

There are a few ways we could get this number. One simple option is to run a calculation on the recurring transactions that happened last month. The downside to this approach is that it will take a month before there’s useful information, but the plus side is it will stay up to date without any intervention.

Here’s the formula:

$$("Magic Number")
  (/ (bean
       -
       "/books"
       "recurring"
       (change-time
         (subtract-time (time note) months 1)
         start-of month)
       (change-time
         (subtract-time (time note) months 1)
         end-of month)) 30)

In plain english this formula says: retrieve the total value of beans in the “/books” folder with the “recurring” tag starting on the first of last month and ending on the last day of last month – divide all that by 30.

What now?

The system outlined above is just a sketch of what's possible using Tap.

Here are a few things that could make that system even more useful:

• Implement double-entry for all recurring transactions.
• Set up a reminder to prompt yourself to input the days expenses
• Regularly import your bank transactions from CSV to beans
• Set up a tagging system for transaction categories

Let me know if you're interested in any of the above topics or others and maybe it could be the topic of a future post.

This is part 3 of a series on minimal tools for freelancers. This post assumes you've read part 1 and maybe part 2.

Once you're capturing your work log in a reliable and systematic way you can take advantage of other Tap elements to help you plan for the future.

One of the biggest challenges with freelancing is managing cash flow. Knowing what money is coming in is not only peace of mind, it allows you to plan for the future.

First, we will need to track how much time we've spent working. To keep track of time use a Tap element called a bean.

Beans

Using the examples from part 1 we are going to add some time tracking information.

2022-07-01 18:00 /queen I made some pasta +hours:2 
they liked it very much.

The +hours:2 is a Bean. There are three parts to a Bean: the sign (+ or -), the name (in this case hours), and the value 2. This bean says we want to increase the value of hours by 2.

The next day:

2022-07-02 06:00 /queen requires pizza +hours:3
it did not include anchovies, they were displeased.

In the previous entry we increased the value of hours by 3. The total value of the hours bean is now 5.

We can confirm this is the case by reviewing the Beans page.

Formulas Calculate Things

My services to the queen cost $95 per hour, they pay once a month. To know what I'll make next month I need a Formula.

We will multiply the value of the `hours` *Bean* by 95.

First we retrieve the value of the hours bean using the following entry:

 The hours worked for the queen: 
 $$()(bean hours)

The $$()(bean hours) text at the end of the previous entry is a *Formula*. This formula is made up of an opener and an instruction. The $$() is the opener. And (bean hours) is the instruction to retrieve the value of the hours bean.

The opener  indicates to Tap that what follows is a formula. The opener can also, optionally, assign a name to the formula. Our formula does not yet have a name.

We will soon see that there are problems with this formula. For one thing, I need to differentiate my hours by month. Furthermore, I have more than one client. I need to keep the king and queen’s hours separate.

We can fix this:

The hours worked for the queen: 
$$()(bean hours "/queen" - "202207")

The bean function here is customized to report only the value for `hours` in the `/queen` folder and in the 202207 (July 2022) date range (it can also get the value of beans that have specific tags ie. $$()(bean hours "/queen" “#fancy” "202207"), but those are skipped in our example with the -).

Next we are going to take a big leap and multiply the selection of hours worked for the queen in July 2022 by our rate.

Next month I will receive 

$$()(* 95 
      (bean hours "/queen" - "202207"))

Standby for explanation...

Following the opener $$()  is the formula body. Unlike the first *formula* this one includes multiple instructions, * and bean.

And now we are going to give the formula a useful name.

Next month I will receive 

$$("$ from the Queen")
  (* 95 
    (bean hours "/queen" - "202207"))

The $$("$ from the Queen") portion of the formula is the opener with a name. That name, in quotes, is optional. The formula can be called anything you like.

What is cool about formulas:

• They always stay up to date with the beans they reference
• Their values can be sent to you on a schedule in a reminder text or email

Finishing up

The above entry is great. Every month we will create a note that calculates our monthly gross earnings. Two more ideas to  make these entries even more useful:

First, Pin the note. By including an * at the beginning of the entry it will force this entry to the top of your list of notes.

* Next month I will receive 

$$("$ from the Queen")
  (* 95 
    (bean hours "/queen" - "202207"))

Second, convert this note to a Todo Task.  We need to remember to submit an invoice to get paid.

* Todo Submit my invoice to the queen  Next month I will receive 

$$("$ from the Queen")
  (* 95 
    (bean hours "/queen" - "202207"))

Further reading

• The formula guide includes a reference to all the functions available in Tap along with their options

To help you capture even more useful stuff Tap now supports saving attachments with your records.

A few notes on attachments:

• They are available on both free and paid accounts
• They are totally private to your account, you must be logged in to view them
• If you attach an image a preview will be included with your record. Other file types use the original file name (which can be changed by editing the link element added to your record).

The official documentation page has all the details.

Tap was always intended to be mobile-first. Starting with our SMS interface we wanted to get Tap as close to where your fingers already are. Now that more and more capabilities exist within the Tap editor we needed something more substantial.

Our new editor is improved in many ways. First of all, it works great on mobile phones. Copy, paste and text navigation all work perfectly.

Other features include:

• Tap elements with name labels have autocomplete. No more need to memorize every folder, tag, bean and event. Simply start an element and you will get a list of recently used tokens, as you type the list is filtered to results that match what you typed so far.
• Undo and redo. We are still committed to making the keyboard editing experience as good as it can be.
• Parenthesis and quote matching. when you're writing formulas inputting a left-parenthesis will automatically insert a matching right parenthesis in the correct spot, making it faster and much less frustrating to create formulas on a mobile device.

With these new additions using beans has become, in our totally unbiased opinion, fun!

Through the use of Apple Shortcuts, Tap is brought closer to the way you use your iOS device. The three posts linked below are the first in a series on various Apple Shortcuts that Tap members can take advantage of.

Links to the completed shortcuts are included, but feel free to adjust the Shortcut Actions to best meet your note-taking needs.

Share with Tap

Quickly open a new text message window to save a note to Tap via SMS. Utilized most efficiently in the form of a home screen Shortcuts Widget.

Extract Photo Text to Tap

Extract text from an image and save the text as a note in Tap. Text from images will be formatted with a default folder and sent to your Tap account via SMS.

Export Notes

Export notes from Apple Notes, affix the note creation date, add a default folder, and send the note contents to your Tap account via email.

Why should I pin websites to my home screen?

Pinning websites to your home screen can be a great way to streamline the way you browse the web on your phone or tablet. Instead of opening your browser, navigating to the website you want, then logging in, pinning sites to the home screen allows you to open a website directly from a shortcut.

iOS

As an example, we’ll pin https://app.tatatap.com. Pinning Tap to my home screen allows me to create notes quickly and offers an app-like mobile experience.

Open Safari on your iOS device

Navigate to the website you wish to pin to the home screen. Then, log in if necessary.

Press the Share icon located bottom-middle of the Safari toolbar (looks like a square with an upward arrow)

Scroll down and click “Add to Home Screen”

Add a name for the bookmark

Tap Add

The bookmark will appear in the next available space on your home screen. To move it, hold down the bookmark and drag it to the desired location, just as you would any other app.

Below is how the Tap web appears when opened from the home screen on iOS. As you can see, the browser toolbar disappears, creating an experience very similar to a native app.

Can I do this on my iPad?

Yes, follow these same instructions to pin websites to the home screen of your iPad.

How do I delete website bookmarks?

Home screen bookmarks are deleted the same way as apps. Simply hold down on the bookmark until the “Delete Bookmark” button appears.

Can I pin websites using a browser other than Safari?

At this time, Apple only allows users to pin websites to the home screen using Safari.

Android

Once again, we’ll add https://app.tatatap.com to the home screen as an example. The instructions are very similar to iOS.

Chrome

Open the Chrome app on your Android device

Navigate to the website you wish to pin to the home screen

Tap the menu icon in the upper right-hand corner, then tap “Add to home screen”

Enter a new name for the bookmark or leave the default. Press “Add”

Now, you can select where the bookmark goes. Select “Add Automatically” if you want the bookmark to go in the next available app space. If not, hold down on the bookmark to drag it to the desired location.

Now, the pinned website should appear on your Android home screen. You can move and delete the pin just as you would any other app. Here is how it will appear:

Can I pin websites using a browser other than Chrome?

Yes, Android also allows users to pin websites through Firefox. The instructions are very similar:

• Navigate to the website you want to pin and log in, if necessary
• On the bottom of the screen, to the right of the URL, click the menu icon (three vertical dots)
• Select “Install” (the icon is a phone with an arrow pointing to the screen)
• Then, manually drag and drop the website onto your home screen or select “Add Automatically” to place it in the next available app space

Tools for Indie Professionals Series Part 1

First of all, you might be interested to know that we call journals organized by time a "log" because a while ago on seafaring vessels, it was important to record information about an actual wooden log. This log was tethered to and floating alongside the boat for navigation purposes.

Anyway, you don't need much to get started whether you’re a freelancer, contractor, consultant or any other independent professional, you need someone willing to pay you and a way to collect payment.

Exchanging a deliverable for a fee is simple: get an invoice generator and you're done. A few variables that complicate things: daily vs hourly billing, multiple clients, and intangible deliverables.

To do independent work effectively, we need to show what was done, when, and for who. It's a work log – it's easy to make. But it takes time and it’s annoying and boring. It's especially annoying when the work log is made long after your work is complete. An accurate work log must be constructed at the same time work is happening (or shortly after).

Tap allows us to organize entries with everything needed for a good work log. This post will focus on how Tap helps solve the work-log organization problem.

Tap also helps solve the second part of the problem, capturing notes while you work (this will be covered in part 2).

To make the log, three things are needed: who's the work for? What is the work? When was the work done? Every entry in our log will have these three elements.

A First Try

Perfect. We have a log that says what we did, who it was for and when. Only, it's not excellent.

What happens when we do some work for the king?

Only two entries so far and it's already tedious to decipher what was done, when and for who. The solution is conventions. A convention is simply a consistent, repeatable way to structure information.

Standardization by Convention

Tap recognizes special elements, each with a special meaning. One such element is a Folder. We will put log entries for the queen in the "queen" folder and another for the king.

Folders must be written before the rest of the entry, and there can be only one per entry. Now it is easy to see which note belongs to which client.

At this point it is worth noting that each member of the royal household has separate accounts payable. By separating the work performed for the king and queen into different folders, we will not be punished most severely for incorrectly assigning work from one to the other. Unlike a tagging system, folders do not allow this blunder.

Tap has another element, Date, to systematically categorize when an entry takes place. By default the date is the creation time of the entry, to forward or backdate an entry use the *date* element. The date element must be written before the folder, and it must conform to this format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM (the 24h time portion is optional).

The entries above are excellent. Most importantly they describe the work performed, but in addition to that they systematically assign the client and date.

In Tap, it's trivial to set up a system for recording this information and equally easy to pull the information out when you need to drop it in an invoice.

Tap makes all this work easy, and you can get the same features from sowhat, the open-source parsing engine for Tap.