Sweldong Pinoy in 2017

Happy New Year! 2017 has been a great year for Sweldong Pinoy. We have released a new Sweldong Pinoy and two new projects: Budget Pinoy and Budget Penny.

New Sweldong Pinoy

We've updated Sweldong Pinoy based on Republic Act 10963 or Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) and PhilHealth Circular No. 2017-0024. Learn more about the changes here.

These updates are already available in https://www.sweldongpinoy.com, in version 4.0 of the Sweldong Pinoy Android app, and in our other apps.

Budget Penny

We also developed Budget Penny last year. Budget Penny is your budget assistant. She can help you with your finances. Simply tell her your monthly budget and update her of your expenses as often as you like. Moreover, you can ask her how much is your remaining balance or whether you still have budget.

Budget Pinoy

Earlier in 2017, we released Budget Pinoy, a tool for Filipinos in computing gross and net pay based on user's budget.

Budget Pinoy allows users to input their projected expenses and budget and determine what their asking rate should be. You can try Budget Pinoy at https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.sweldongpinoy.budget. Let us know too how we can improve the app to help you more in your budgetting needs.

2018 and beyond

Sweldong Pinoy will be turning six this year! We'll still continue to update our apps. If you have suggestions on how we can improve them, please send send us a message.

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Originally published at the Sweldong Pinoy Blog

New Year, New Sweldong Pinoy

It's almost the end of the year. Are you excited for 2018? There are two major changes starting next year: Republic Act 10963 or Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) will be effective and PhilHealth issues Circular No. 2017-0024 increasing the contribution rate.

TRAIN gives higher take-home pay for most employees. Those earning less than 250 thousand pesos annually will be exempted from paying income tax. Tax exemption for the 13th month pay and other bonuses was also increased from 82 thousand pesos to 90 thousand pesos. The tax schedule will reduce income tax for around 7.5 million people. It will also go down by 2023. Other provisions of the law include higher tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, higher taxes on fuels (gasoline, diesel, and gasoline, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas), cars, tobacco, and coal, and taxing cosmetic surgeries.

The monthly PhilHealth contribution will be at 2.75% of the monthly salary (it was previously at 2.5%). Salary brackets will be removed and the floor and ceiling of the computation will be 10 thousand and 40 thousand pesos, respectively. You can learn more about this in Circular No. 2017-0024

These updates are available in https://www.sweldongpinoy.com, in version 4.0 of the Sweldong Pinoy Android app (rolling out now), and in all our apps. We'll still continue to update the apps. Email us at info@sweldongpinoy.com or send us a message if you have questions and suggestions about our apps

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Originally published at the Sweldong Pinoy Blog

You and Me

Last year, I started working on an Android App for Celine. I was only able to finish it this year though. The app is named You and Me and it is the app for you and your special someone. You can use the app to check your photos (and soon more!) with your significant other.

I published it under Closed Alpha Testing on Google Play Store because there's still more to be done for it to be useful to other couples. I'll continue working on it and release it soon.

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Originally published at Jomar Tigcal's Blog

Tigcal Utilities

Earlier this year, my mother switched to a smartphone. The transition to getting used to a smartphone took a while. She was having issues opening the Quick Settings to access the Flashlight and checking Battery status. As an Android developer, I decided to create simple apps to solve these problems. I have also planned to develop an app for the electric bill-splitting which they normally do manually.

The result of this initiative is what I call Tigcal Utilities. Instead of making three apps, I made an app that has three functions. This includes the following utility apps: Battery, Bill Calculator, and Flashlight.

The Battery app opens the Battery Usage Settings while Flashlight app allows the user to turn on and off the flashlight. Flashlight uses Camera2.

Bill Calculator is an app that allows users to split the electric bill based on total kWH used.

I decided to publish it on Google Play Store so any future update will automatically be downloaded to the phone (if it has internet connection). As it is a special app, I published it on closed Alpha Testing. If you want to try Tigcal Utilities (and provide feedback), let me know so I can add you as a tester.

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Originally published at Jomar Tigcal's Blog

Budget Penny, your budget assistant

"Okay Google. Talk to Budget Penny."

Last month, Jomar and I had been working closely in building another financial-related application to help people manage their money. We created Budget Penny.

About Celine's Budgeting

I have an every payday salary. Every payday, I know how much I should expect in my bank account, how much is budgeted for each expense, and how much I should have left. I usually spend 5-10 minutes a day, tracking how much money I have left and whether I saved a few dollars out of my allocated funds for the day. With this idea, Penny was born.

Introducing Penny

Jomar wanted to play around Actions on Google and he asked me to think of a possible assistant. Since I would love an assistant to keep track of how much money I have left, a budget assistant was on top of our list. It took us a while to agree on a name (Loonie, Toonie, Centi, among others) but agreed upon Penny.

Initial Release and Future Goals

Right now, on this release, you can ask Penny to set a budget (it's monthly by default), set expenses, and get balance. We also did our best in coming up with a Persona for her. On future updates, we hope to create a web app to track everything and expenses categories, flexibility on time (monthly, daily, or weekly), and useful savings tip so that Penny could help you save more.

Easter Eggs

Jomar and I love 'The Big Bang Theory' and placed a few Easter Eggs. Try asking Penny, "Where is Leonard?" :)

How to access Budget Penny?

To use / talk to Penny:

1. Talk to your Phone. "Okay Google. Talk to Budget Penny" or if you don't want to talk, you can type in "Talk to Budget Penny"
2. If it's your first time using the app, don't forget to set a budget!
3. Inform Penny of your expenses.
4. Ask her how much money do you have left.

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What do you think of Penny? Do you have any feature suggestions on how we could make her better? Please let us know!

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Originally published at the Sweldong Pinoy Blog

Budget Pinoy (Beta)

Need help in budgetting your salary? Want to find out what your asking rate is depending on your projected expenses and budget? We have developed an app that can help you!

Budget Pinoy is a tool for Filipinos in computing gross and net pay based on user's budget.

Users can input their target savings and projected expenses in the Budget Tab. They can also use the expenses tab to check expenses.

The recommendation tab will show the asking rate that the user needs to be able to earn enough for the target budget. It will also show the net pay and deductions, computed using Sweldong Pinoy, based on the asking rate.

We're also working with different financial institutions to give you relevant tips to help you in your finances, based on your budget. This will be coming soon in a future update.

Try Budget Pinoy at https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.sweldongpinoy.budget and let us know how we can improve the app to help you more in your budgetting needs.

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Originally published at the Sweldong Pinoy Blog