Gaia
Hours &
Expenses

1
Industry

Restaurant & Organic Grocery

2
Year

2026

3
Services

Web app

Hours & pay

Two languages

A friend works part-time at a restaurant and organic grocery. Every day she logged clock-in and clock-out times in her phone's Notes app, and jotted down whatever she bought in-store, so at month's end she could work out hours worked minus store spending to reach her final paycheck. It was confusing, tedious and easy to get wrong, so in a single afternoon I built her an app in the store's colours to replace all of it.

Live site
Gaia: the month’s spending in the store’s colours, above the form for a new purchase.

Strategy

1
From messy notes to one clear flow

She opens the app and the day is filled in automatically. She picks the time she clocked in and out, hits save shift, and that's it. Every day of the month is stored, so her total hours are always up to date, with no manual math.

2
Hours minus spending = the real paycheck

She logs each grocery purchase the same easy way. A final summary does the calculation for her: hours worked × hourly rate, minus in-store spending = the final paycheck. Now imagine 10+ people each doing this by hand in a notes app. This removes all of it.

3
A real product in one afternoon

It saves to a proper database so the whole team can use it, it speaks Portuguese and English, and it looks like the store's own website. By hand, this would have been weeks of work.

A shift, a juice from the shop, and the month's pay with the purchases already taken off. Every hour and every purchase here is made up.

Design

1
In the store's colours

Deep green, a warm terracotta and an elegant serif for the numbers, taken from the store's website, so it feels like part of her job.

2
One tab for each job

Hours, Purchases and Summary sit at the foot of the screen. Each tab does one thing, with a big coloured card for the number that matters.

3
The maths in plain sight

Earned, purchases, you keep. The summary shows the sum line by line, so she can check it against her payslip in seconds.

Gaia on a phone: the month's hours, and the form to mark a shift.

1. HoursStart and end, and the month adds itself up.

Gaia on a phone: what was spent in the shop this month, and the form for a new purchase.

2. PurchasesEverything bought in the shop, in one list.

Gaia on a phone: what is left this month, hours times the rate minus the purchases.

3. SummaryThe month's pay, with the purchases taken off.

Results

Gaia app home: the brand, a PT/EN language toggle, Spent this month, and a New purchase form.
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