How I built a budget management tool in one week

A year ago, CREATES managed its budgets on Excel. Multiple donors, multiple currencies, multiple projects. The classic nightmare.

I had two options: buy a $15,000 ERP that wouldn’t fit our reality, or build my own.

With AI as co-developer, I built a complete platform in one week:

• SYSCOHADA accounting (the standard in West Africa)
• Multi-currency with contractual exchange rates
• Budget breakdown by project and donor
• PDF and Excel export
• Real-time dashboard

All tailored exactly to our processes. No useless checkboxes. No modules we’ll never use.

A year later, the tool runs every day. My team uses it without complex training because it was built around their way of working, not the other way around.

That’s the promise of AI for organizations: tailored tools, accessible, built by those who understand the work.