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Creating your first FinFam View

FinFam Views are interactive financial calculators that you can publish on FinFam, using only your knowledge of spreadsheets. Views let you build interactive web content in Excel, Google Sheets, or LibreOffice Calc. Think of them as a cross between an informational blog post and a financial calculator. Views offer expert input on a specific financial question, while automatically integrating the user’s own financial data.

What You’ll Learn

This guide will walk you through creating a FinFam View from start to finish. By the end, you’ll have published your first View that users can access at finfam.app/your-username/views/your-view-slug.

Prerequisites

  • Spreadsheet proficiency: You should be comfortable with formulas, cell references, and basic spreadsheet structure.
  • Financial expertise: You’ll be sharing your knowledge, so you should have expertise in the financial topic you’re covering
  • A FinFam account: Sign up at finfam.app/signup

Understanding FinFam Views

Interactive Calculators

Users can input their own numbers and see real-time calculations based on your formulas.

Expert Knowledge

Share your financial expertise through explanatory content, tips, and guidance.

Collaborative Planning

Users can save their own versions of your View and share them with family or advisors.

Version Control

Update your View anytime - users automatically get the latest version with new insights.

Learning from Examples

Before we start building, explore these Views created by FinFam’s team to see what’s possible:

These examples demonstrate most of FinFam’s features and can be referenced as you build your own View.

You can download the source files for these official Views by clicking the “Download Source” button at the top right of each View:

Download Source Button

Note: You must be logged in to download the source files.

Step 1: Creating Your View in FinFam

To get started, first create a new View in the FinFam app by visiting the Create View page. You’ll be prompted to login or signup if you’re not already.

View creation screen

Now you can:

  1. Name your View: Pick a short, clear name that describes the question or topic. The best Views answer a single, specific question (e.g., “Should I refinance my mortgage?”, “Rent vs Buy”, “How Much House?”).
  2. Add a description: Write a concise summary of what your View helps users answer.
  3. Choose an icon: Select an icon that fits your topic. (You can change this later!)

All of these details can be updated at any time from the View’s Admin page.

Tip: Pick a focused question. For example, “Should I refinance my mortgage?” is a strong, actionable topic for a View. Whereas “How do I manage my money?” is too broad.

Now we can start building your View.

Step 2: Download the View Template

FinFam provides a template XLSX file that includes all the necessary sheets and structure. Download it from the top right of the View’s page or from the Admin section.

View admin download

Step 3: Building Your View Structure

The template includes these key sheets:

  • calc: Your main calculation sheet with inputs, content, and outputs
  • choices: Dropdown options for select fields
  • settings: View metadata and configuration
  • builtins: A stand-in sheet for financial context provided by the user.

The Calculation Sheet (calc)

This is where most of your work happens.

FinFam views follow a simple and consistent structure. Each row represents a field that users will see.

Column Overview:

  • type: Field type (input, output, display, content, etc.)
  • name: Unique identifier for the field. Lowercase, alphanumeric and underscores only.
  • label: What users see as the field label, or the Markdown text for a content cell. Feel free to get creative with your emoji!
  • default: The value of the field when the View is first loaded. This can be a formula or a static value. It can reference other field’s default cells, or values in the builtins sheet. Empty for content cells.
  • parameters: Optional parameters for the field, such as a minimum or maximum value for amount fields.
  • hint: Tooltip for this field.

There’s also a # column for comments. These are ignored by the View and won’t be shown to users.

Field Types

FinFam supports a variety of field types to create a rich user experience. Here are the most common:

  • amount: Currency or numeric input (e.g., loan amount)
  • percent: Percentage input (e.g., interest rate)
  • count: Integer input (e.g., number of years)
  • text: Short text input
  • textarea: Longer text input
  • select: Dropdown selection
  • date: Date input
  • year: Year input
  • yesno: Yes/No checkbox

Fields are for user input by default, but can be made hidden with the hide type modifier, or used for display-only with the calculate modifier.

Content fields are used to display explanations, tips, and warnings:

  • content: Rich Markdown content (for explanations, not user input)
  • image: Display an image

For a full list and advanced options, see the View Reference.

Sections and Organization

Use begin_group and end_group to organize fields into logical sections. Each group becomes a collapsible section in the web interface.

Expert Fields

Use the expert type modifier to mark fields that require financial expertise to understand or use properly. These fields are hidden by default, and will be shown if the user enables “expert mode” in their View.

Example: “Should I Refinance My Mortgage?”

A focused View should answer a specific question. Here’s how you might approach the mortgage refinance example:

Question: Should I refinance my current mortgage given today’s rates?

Possible Outputs:

  • Monthly payment savings - Use an amount output field for this.
  • Total savings rate - Use an percent output field for this.
  • Yes/No recommendation - Use a text output field for this.

You can also include content to help users understand and trust your View. For refinancing, some possibilities include:

  • Your thoughts on when refinancing makes sense - Use a content field for this.
  • Tax implications and other hidden costs to consider - Use a content field for this, leveraging Markdown’s list support.
  • A graph of mortgage rates over time - Use an image field for this, or a content field and a Markdown image tag to display an external chart.
  • How to find the best rates - Use a content field for this, with Markdown’s link support.

Step 4: Testing and Uploading Your View

Before uploading, test all calculations and formulas. FinFam does some basic validation of your View at upload time, but it’s a good idea to test it thoroughly. You can upload your View and check the Preview to see how it looks, and adjust as needed before publishing.

Note: If using the XLSX upload method, be sure to increment the version number in the settings sheet.

View admin upload View admin upload

Step 5: Publishing Your View

Once you’re happy with your View, you can publish it by clicking the “Publish” button in the Admin section.

Your View will be accessible to all at finfam.app/your-username/views/your-view-slug. It will also appear in the FinFam Explore Views page.

Congratulations!

You’ve created your first FinFam View!

Step 6: Engage with Users and Maintain your View

Once published, you can share the link to your View with folks all over the web. Users do not need to have a FinFam account to read and interact with your View. Creating an account allows them to save their own values and receive updates when you make changes.

You can make updates to your View at any time. Follow the same steps to keep your View reflective of your latest thinking.

Tip: Removing, renaming, or changing the type of user-visible input fields can “break” upgrades for users who have already saved their own values. Other updates, such as adding new fields, updating labels, defaults, and hints is totally fine.

Getting Help

Remember: The best Views combine your financial expertise with clear, actionable guidance that helps users make better decisions. Start simple and iterate.