From a screenshot to every phone in an afternoon
On 5 October 2026 Jamvi went from one suggestion on a screenshot to a release on every phone and the web, in a single afternoon. Setup now plans amounts against subcategories only, a category shows just their total, and Everyday budgeting is preselected. Here is why we made the change, and how we made sure it could not go wrong.
4 min read8 October 2026
Why we changed it
The last step of setup used to ask for one figure per category: Food, Housing, Utilities, each with a single box. A figure for all of Food is a guess, and a budget built from guesses goes over in the first week. New budgets also started without subcategories, so there was nowhere finer to record spending.
The suggestion was short: open the subcategories and put the amount boxes against them, not the parents. A follow-up made it a rule for the whole app. Amounts live only on subcategories, and a category only shows the total of what is inside it. The Budget screen already worked that way, so setup was the part out of step.
One afternoon, step by step
Each step was tested before it went out: more than 3,900 automated tests across the phone app, the web app and the server.
5 Oct
Phone setup and the server
Categories open into subcategories with their own amounts, the server creates them under their category, and Everyday budgeting is preselected on phone and web.
5 Oct
Update sent to every phone
Delivered to the installed app, so nobody had to download anything new.
5 Oct
Web setup follows
jamvi.co.ke plans on subcategories the same way, from the same list.
5 Oct
The rule holds everywhere
The server now refuses an amount on a category that has subcategories, from any app version.
How it holds together
Getting the screen right was the easy part. The work was making sure the new rule could not quietly break.
Every category has a list. 44 categories, from Food to a wedding's Catering, each open into one to four subcategories. A check fails if any category setup offers is missing one, so a category never needs a box of its own.
No name can clash. A budget allows each category name once, so no subcategory repeats another, or a category, a debt such as Bank loan, or the built-in M-Pesa charges. That is why Loans gets "Loan repayments", not "Bank loan".
Categories stay honest. The server creates subcategories under their category and keeps the category at zero. If a subcategory already exists, it only fills in an amount that was blank, and it never moves a category that lives somewhere else.
Phone and web cannot drift apart. The web keeps its own copy of the list, and a check requires the two to be identical.
Your existing budgets were not touched. Nothing was rewritten. Only new setups get subcategories.
Tell us what is missing
We picked the subcategory names to match how Kenyan households spend: Matatu & bus, Boda boda, SHA contributions, Harambees. If a name does not sound like you, or something you spend on every month is missing, tell us on WhatsApp or at info@jamvi.co.ke. Lists like these are quick to change.